China’s workplace safety landscape demonstrated marked improvement in 2025, with official data revealing substantial reductions in both accidents and fatalities. According to the Ministry of Emergency Management, the nation recorded approximately 19,800 workplace safety incidents throughout the year, resulting in over 18,000 deaths—representing year-on-year decreases of 8.7% and 7% respectively.
Ministry spokeswoman Shen Zhanli presented these findings during a Thursday press briefing in Beijing, highlighting the continued positive trajectory in workplace safety conditions. Notably, authorities documented nine major accidents claiming 129 lives, while reporting zero particularly catastrophic incidents throughout the year.
The ministry simultaneously released comprehensive natural disaster statistics for 2025, identifying floods, geological disasters, earthquakes, typhoons, and wind and hail events as the most prevalent calamities. Additional occurrences included drought conditions, low-temperature and snow disasters, sandstorms, forest and grassland fires, and marine disasters.
These natural events significantly impacted national welfare, affecting approximately 67.03 million people across China and resulting in 763 confirmed deaths or missing persons. The disasters necessitated emergency evacuation or relocation for 3.63 million individuals and generated direct economic losses totaling 241.6 billion yuan (approximately $34.4 billion).
Chen Sheng, director of disaster relief and material support at the ministry, reported that China activated national disaster relief emergency responses 24 times throughout 2025—the highest annual frequency in nearly a decade. The central government allocated 11.3 billion yuan in disaster relief funding and distributed 560,000 essential relief items to support affected populations.