All I want to know is the facts

In addition to distortions caused by under-reporting and factors introduced by the way the data are collected, whatever data are provided to management may be subject to misinterpretation by anyone who does not fully understand the nature of what is being presented to them. For example, it has been reliably estimated that about 375 000 people were killed by accidents in the United States during World War II. About 408 000 were killed by war action. It has been claimed as a result that it was nearly as dangerous to stay at home as it was to be in the armed services. 

A moment s thought should lead to questions about rates rather than numbers. It turns out that the death rate in the US armed forces during World War II was about 12 per thousand men per year, which compares with the overall civilian accidental death rate of about 0.7 per thousand per year. 

Other influencing factors include the ages of those exposed to the hazards, and the duration and type of exposure to the hazard under analysis. The raw numbers do not, in fact, tell us much at all about the chances of survival at the time. 

The simple formulae for calculating frequency and severity rates which follow produce the rates used most often in the industry. In most countries, there are no standard or formal requirements for these formulae. 

In the USA, figures of 1000 000 or 200 000 often replace the 100000 in the numerator, depending upon the collecting agency. 

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