# What job are you most likely to die doing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591 "2021-12-06T22:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/21 "2021-12-07T02:07:50Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I was thinking deep sea fishermen (e.g. “Deadliest Catch”) had a lot of risk. You aren’t incorrect; people who work in fishing are #2 on the list to which I linked. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/22 "2021-12-07T02:10:30Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > You aren’t incorrect; people who work in fishing are #2 on the list to which I linked. Oops, should have quoted @Ulfreida ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/23 "2021-12-07T02:23:00Z")
Yeah, it’s hard to separate that job from Kamikaze pilot. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/24 "2021-12-07T02:39:47Z")
For a job that’s a little less select than “U.S. President,” with a bigger sample size, the job of astronaut has a pretty significant death rate. Wikipedia indicates that there have been [more than 600 astronauts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronauts_by_name) (including cosmonauts, etc.). A total of [30 astronauts have died during spaceflight activities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents#Astronaut_fatalities) (in-flight incidents as well as training and testing incidents), which puts the fatality rate at about 5% (though that isn’t on an annual basis, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison with the numbers for loggers, fishers, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/25 "2021-12-07T02:44:03Z")
USAF bomb disposal-134 dead, but it doesn’t say out of how many. > **[EOD 134 Memorial Workout](https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1707644/eod-134-memorial-workout/)** > > Airmen assigned to the 380th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Explosive Ordnance Disposal flight hosted the EOD 134 Memorial Workout, Nov. 30. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/26 "2021-12-07T06:29:22Z")
Mining covers a lot of different work situations, some much more dangerous than others. Historically coal miners - underground, shitty geology, low margin, large workforce - drew the short straw. Death rates were routinely in the 300-400 per 100,000 per annum range in the first half of the 20th century. Now it is about a tenth of that in the developed world but conditions in places like China and Russia have not progressed nearly so much. Also, that is deaths with your boots on. We don’t routinely count miners who died prematurely with soot-filled lungs. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/27 "2021-12-07T07:44:49Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > for the jobs “Small Engine Mechanics” and “Supervisors of Mechanics”, the most common fatal accident is described as: “violence and other injuries by persons or animals”. The only other occupation where this is listed is “Police Officers.” > > Are small engine mechanics and supervisors of mechanics truly more at risk of deliberate violence than these other occupations? The “other injuries” there is a bit ambiguous. If someone else _accidentally_ drops a car and crushes you, that is “other injury by person”, isn’t it? Or would it be the “contact with machinery and other equipment” listed for some other occupations? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/28 "2021-12-07T14:09:44Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Statisticians would probably say the sample is too small to be meaningful, also you would have to compare death rates in professions over the last 250 years. The nature of any given profession, as well as general attitudes toward occupational safety, have changed dramatically over the course of 250 years. If we’re asking what is _currently_ the most dangerous job, I think data from long ago should probably be excluded. Presidenting these days is probably quite a bit safer than it was long ago, with a larger, better-trained, better-equipped Secret Service and practices/policies that go a long way toward minimizing exposure and being ready for contingencies. As has been noted, the job of US President has too small a group size to be statistically meaningful, and it gets even smaller if you just go off of data for the past few decades. I’ll wager logging work has gotten considerably less dangerous over the past few decades, with more automation (= less exposure of loggers to the hazards of using handheld equipment), and more safety gear (e.g. chainsaws with safety brakes, and clothing with chainsaw-clogging fibers) and better training and enforcement of policies/procedures. In spite of all that, the stats currently show that logging is apparently still very dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/29 "2021-12-07T17:08:59Z")
I know a number of farmers who lost digits/limbs/lives on the farm. An older retired friend died a few months ago while brush-hogging a field. This eighty year old guy was riding his tractor, enjoying himself, cutting on a too-steep hill when he fell off the tractor and brush-hogged himself. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/30 "2021-12-08T00:11:37Z")
Among safest jobs, statistically - statistician is very safe though numbers can be manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/31 "2021-12-16T11:23:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I know a number of farmers who lost digits/limbs/lives on the farm. An older retired friend died a few months ago while brush-hogging a field. This eighty year old guy was riding his tractor, enjoying himself, cutting on a too-steep hill when he fell off the tractor and brush-hogged himself. I didn’t know what “brush hogging” was, so I looked it up. In case anyone else is also wondering: > **[Brush hog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brush_hog)** > > A bush hog or "brush hog" is a type of rotary mower. Typically these mowers attach to the back of a farm tractor using the three-point hitch and are driven via the power take-off (PTO). It has blades that are not rigidly attached to the drive like a lawnmower blade, but are on hinges so if the blade hits a rock or stump, it bounces backward and inward, and then centrifugal force makes it go outwards again. > The rotary blades are not sharpened in the same way as a conventional mower blade. They ar... ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/32 "2021-12-16T12:27:10Z")
As far as pilots go I suspect that crop dusters are at or near the top of the list. Last I checked the average life expectancy is seven years. One of the crop dusters I worked with had been at it for 50 years. I shudder to think what that says for the newer crop dusters odds wise. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/33 "2021-12-16T12:40:53Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I didn’t know what “brush hogging” was, so I looked it up. You’re almost better not knowing. I’ve since talked to one of the first responders. Wish I hadn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/34 "2021-12-16T12:54:55Z")
Yeah, I was trying not to imagine what being “brush hogged” would look like afterwards. Not nice. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/35 "2021-12-16T16:05:56Z")
[RAF Bomber Command](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command) pilot - or crewman in general -during WWII. > Bomber Command crews suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 percent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. This covered all Bomber Command operations. > A Bomber Command crew member had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I; more people were killed serving in Bomber Command than in the Blitz, or the bombings of Hamburg or Dresden.[[23]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command#cite_note-Roberts-23) By comparison, the US [Eighth Air Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Air_Force), which flew daylight raids over Europe, had 350,000 aircrew during the war and suffered 26,000 killed and 23,000 POWs. > [Statistically](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics) there was little prospect of surviving a tour of 30 operations and by 1943, one in six expected to survive their first tour and one in forty would survive their second tour. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591/36 "2021-12-16T19:33:03Z")
Job-specific fatality rates can only tell you so much about the dangers and likelihood of getting killed on that job; it ignores all the background and conditions necessary to find one’s self in that job. I know the question is what is the fatality rate once you’ve got the job?, but surely your actual odds of getting killed as a farmer or the POTUS depend on your likelihood of actually getting that job in the first place. Even if the fatality rate of a soldier is much lower than that of an astronaut, there’s a whole lot more people becoming soldiers and getting killed at it than there are astronauts. I would think you are most likely to die at a job that has a high fatality rate, AND plenty of vacancies and low entry requirements. The POTUS is a highly unlikely job for anyone to ever get, regardless of it’s specific mortality rate; nobody on this board will die from it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-job-are-you-most-likely-to-die-doing/955591.md?page=1)