The Total Recordable Incident Rate explained — the exact formula, a worked example, the latest BLS industry averages, and the honest answer to "what counts as good." With a free TRIR calculator.
The Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) is the single most-quoted number in occupational safety. It appears in board reports, prequalification questionnaires, insurance submissions and bid documents. Yet "what is a good TRIR?" is harder to answer than most people think — and the lazy answer ("under 3") is only half right. This guide gives you the formula, a worked example, the current U.S. averages, and the honest benchmark to judge yourself against.
TRIR is a normalized measure of how often your workforce suffers an OSHA-recordable injury or illness, expressed per 100 full-time workers per year. Because it is normalized to hours worked, it lets a 30-person shop compare itself fairly to a 3,000-person enterprise. You will sometimes see the identical metric called TCIR (Total Case Incident Rate) — same formula, same number, different acronym. OSHA itself uses "total recordable cases" in its data tables.
A recordable case is defined by OSHA's recordkeeping rule, 29 CFR 1904. A work-related injury or illness must be logged on the OSHA 300 if it results in any of the following: death; days away from work; restricted work or transfer to another job; medical treatment beyond first aid; loss of consciousness; or a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional. First-aid-only cases are not recordable — which is exactly why the line between "first aid" and "medical treatment" matters so much to your rate.
Here is the formula, taken straight from OSHA's recordkeeping guidance:
| TRIR = | (Recordable cases × 200,000) ÷ Total hours worked |
|---|---|
| Recordable cases | Total OSHA-recordable injuries + illnesses in the period (the entries on your OSHA 300 log). |
| 200,000 | The base: 100 full-time-equivalent employees × 40 hours/week × 50 weeks = 100 FTE × 2,000 hours per year. It is the constant that turns the rate into "per 100 workers." |
| Total hours worked | Actual hours worked by all employees in the period — not hours paid. Exclude vacation, sick leave and holidays. |
Two details trip people up. First, use hours actually worked, not hours paid — overtime counts, but paid time off does not. Second, when a single incident produces two recordable conditions (say a laceration and a concussion from the same fall), it is generally counted as one case on the 300 log, so it adds 1 to your numerator, not 2.
Imagine a mid-sized manufacturer. Over the calendar year it recorded 5 recordable cases, and its 220 employees worked a combined 418,000 hours (after stripping out PTO).
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Multiply recordables by the base | 5 × 200,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Divide by hours worked | 1,000,000 ÷ 418,000 | TRIR = 2.39 |
So this plant's TRIR is 2.39. Read literally, it means roughly 2.4 recordable cases per 100 full-time workers per year. Whether that is "good" depends entirely on the industry it operates in — which brings us to the question everyone actually wants answered.
The popular rule of thumb is that a TRIR below 3.0 is good and a rate approaching 0 is excellent. That is a useful first gut-check, but it is not the professional answer. A TRIR of 2.5 is impressive for a logging crew and mediocre for an accounting firm. The honest benchmark is simple:
A good TRIR is one that is meaningfully below the published average for your specific industry — and trending down year over year.
That published average comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which releases injury and illness incidence rates each year, broken out by NAICS industry code. The most recent data, covering 2024 and released in January 2026, put the private-industry average at 2.3 recordable cases per 100 full-time workers — the lowest figure since the series began in 2003, down from 2.4 in 2023. Use the rate for your NAICS code, not the national figure, as your real target.
The table below shows recent BLS total-recordable-case incidence rates for several major sectors. Industry rates vary by more than a factor of three, which is exactly why a single "good number" is misleading. Always confirm the current figure for your own NAICS code on the BLS Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) site.
| Sector | Approx. TRIR (per 100 FTE) | Read it as |
|---|---|---|
| All private industry (national) | 2.3 | The baseline everyone quotes |
| Construction | ~2.3 | Near the national average |
| Manufacturing | ~2.8 | Above average |
| Transportation & warehousing | ~4.5 | Well above average |
| Health care & social assistance | ~3.4 | Above average; nursing & residential care subsectors run far higher |
| Professional / office services | <1.0 | Low-hazard; a 2.0 here would be poor |
Figures are rounded and drawn from the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (2024 data, released January 2026). Sector rates are revised annually — treat these as orientation, not as your exact target.
TRIR is one of a family of lagging metrics, and people frequently confuse them. They all describe injuries, but they count different things:
The practical lesson: never compare two organizations' rates without confirming which metric and which hour-base each one used.
TRIR is a lagging indicator — it counts harm that has already happened. That gives it three well-known weaknesses:
This is why mature programs pair TRIR with leading indicators — near-miss reporting rates, inspection and audit closure, training completion, and corrective-action timeliness — which predict future performance rather than just scoring the past.
Lowering the rate honestly (not cosmetically) comes down to preventing the recordables in the first place:
Skip the spreadsheet math and the risk of an arithmetic slip. These free, no-signup tools run entirely in your browser:
What is a good TRIR?
Broadly, below 3.0 is good and 0 is ideal — but the honest benchmark is a rate meaningfully below your NAICS industry average (the BLS private-industry average is 2.3), trending down year over year.
What is the TRIR formula?
TRIR = (recordable cases × 200,000) ÷ total hours worked. The 200,000 is 100 full-time workers × 2,000 hours/year, per OSHA 29 CFR 1904.
What is the difference between TRIR and DART?
TRIR counts all recordables; DART counts only the serious ones involving days away, restricted duty, or transfer. DART is always ≤ TRIR.
Is TRIR the same as TCIR?
Yes — Total Recordable Incident Rate and Total Case Incident Rate are two names for the same metric and use the identical formula.
What counts as a recordable injury?
Under 29 CFR 1904, a work-related case is recordable if it involves death, days away, restricted work or transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosed injury or illness.
This guide is a professional starting point. Industry averages are revised annually by the BLS — verify the current figure for your NAICS code, and consult your OSHA recordkeeping resources or a competent person for classification decisions. Sources: OSHA 29 CFR 1904; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (2024 data released January 2026).