Occupational Safety & Health · Data

Occupational diseases in Georgia

The larger, invisible half of work-related harm: disease causes nine in ten work-related deaths worldwide, and Georgia records none.

Last updated: 3 October 2026

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Overview

Of the 2.93 million work-related deaths the ILO estimates each year, 2.6 million result from work-related disease and only 330,000 from accidents; circulatory diseases, cancers and respiratory diseases account for more than three-quarters of the total (ILO, 2023). Georgia's published occupational safety record counts accidents only. GILS found no national statistics on occupational diseases, no public registry and no published data on recognition or compensation claims.

Key figures

2.6 million

Work-related deaths from disease each year, worldwide (89% of all work-related deaths)

ILO (2023)

330,000

Work-related deaths from accidents each year, worldwide

ILO (2023)

No. 194

ILO List of Occupational Diseases Recommendation, 2002 (list revised 2010)

ILO

None published

Georgian statistics on occupational diseases

GILS

How occupational diseases are recognised

Reference lists
Instrument	Content
ILO Recommendation No. 194 and the ILO List of Occupational Diseases (revised 2010)	Diseases caused by chemical, physical and biological agents; diseases by target organ system; occupational cancers; mental and behavioural disorders
Commission Recommendation 2003/670/EC: European schedule of occupational diseases	The EU reference list; member states recognise and compensate listed diseases
Georgian law	Occupational disease is referred to in the Labour Code and occupational safety law; the applicable list and recognition procedure will be documented here as GILS completes its review

Recognition matters because it determines compensation, the employer's duty to prevent, and the statistics on which prevention is planned. The most common recognised groups in Europe are musculoskeletal disorders, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, respiratory diseases and occupational cancers.

Public health perspective (WHO)

The WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury attribute 1.9 million deaths in 2016 to 19 occupational risk factors: 81% from non-communicable disease — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (450,000), stroke (400,000), ischaemic heart disease (350,000) — and 19% from injuries (360,000); long working hours alone account for about 745,000 (WHO and ILO, 2021).

WHO's Global Plan of Action asks for surveillance of occupational diseases in national health information systems and for occupational health services that can diagnose them. The ILO list (Recommendation No. 194) and WHO's burden estimates are complementary: one defines what to recognise, the other measures what is missed. Workers' health: the public health perspective.

Two global estimates. The ILO estimates 2.93 million work-related deaths a year (2019 data, published 2023); the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates give 1.9 million for 2016 from 19 quantified risk factors and state that the true burden is substantially larger. The figures differ in method and scope, not in direction; GILS cites each with its source.

Why Georgia has no numbers

No registry or reporting obligation that produces public statistics; the Labour Inspection Service reports accidents, not diseases.
Occupational health services (ILO Convention No. 161) are not required for all workers.
Diagnosis requires occupational medicine capacity, which is limited; cases are treated as general illness.
Long latency — silicosis, hearing loss, cancers — separates cause from effect in a system that records only acute events.

What would close the gap

A national list and reporting procedure aligned with ILO Recommendation No. 194 and the European schedule, as in EU member states.
Annual publication of recognised cases by disease group and sector.
Inclusion of occupational disease questions in the GILS 2027 health-worker survey and in a later general working-conditions survey.

Sources

ILO (2023). Nearly 3 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases. www.ilo.org
ILO. Safety and health at work (topic portal), including Recommendation No. 194. www.ilo.org
ETF–Eurofound (2024). Working life in Georgia. www.etf.europa.eu
Social Justice Center et al. (2023). Submission to the UN CESCR (archived copy). web.archive.org

Figures are from the GILS Evidence Register and the official sources shown. GILS is independent of government, trade unions, employers' organisations and the ILO.