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    LTIFRLost Time Injury Frequency Rate

    Also known as: LTIF, Lost time injury frequency

    Definition

    Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate — lost-time injuries per defined number of hours worked, often per million hours, under a stated day-counting rule.

    Editorial definition: The QHSE Standard, updated 3 October 2026 · https://qhsetech.com/glossary/ltifr

    Scope: State the hours base (for example 200,000 or 1,000,000), the day-counting rule and the population before comparing sites or suppliers.

    Example for your evaluation: Recalculate one site's cases under two stated conventions and note which figures change.

    How one published scheme defines lost-time rates

    The IOGP guide that defines the terms used in its safety data series is one published definition. It defines a lost time injury as a fatality or a lost work day case, and lost time injury frequency (LTIF) as the number of lost time injuries per 1,000,000 work hours. A lost work day case is a work-related injury, other than a fatal injury, that leaves a person unfit for work on any day after the day of the injury, and the guide says that 'any day' includes rest days, weekend days, leave days, public holidays and days after ceasing employment.

    The same guide contrasts its basis with OSHA's. IOGP presents LTIF and total recordable injury rates per million work hours, while OSHA incidence rates represent cases per 100 full-time workers, which is 200,000 hours. For the same cases and hours, a rate on the million-hour base is five times the rate on the 200,000-hour base. OSHA's recording rules make a case with one or more days away from work recordable, and BLS's incidence-rate formula uses the 200,000 base, so a lost-time rate computed in the US style is a different number from one computed in the IOGP style even when the cases agree.

    Definitions differ between schemes. IOGP counts any day after the day of the injury, including rest days, and other schemes or contracts may set their own rules for the day count or for whose hours are included. Treat any LTIFR you receive as incomplete until the definition is attached to it: the hours base, the day-counting rule and the population of workers. This page is general information; the scheme that applies to a report is set by the customer, the contract or the organisation's own policy.

    Sources opened :

    What an LTIFR record set holds in software

    • Case-level lost-time records: date of injury, first day lost, return-to-work date and whether the case was fatal, so that the day-counting rule can be applied or changed.
    • The definition in force: day-counting rule, minimum threshold if any, hours base and population.
    • Hours worked by period and group, with the source and a flag for estimated values.
    • Contractor and agency cases, with the contract or scheme under which they are included or excluded.
    • Reported rates stored with their multiplier and period, plus restatements when the days away of a case change.
    • Links from each lost-time case to its investigation and corrective actions.

    LTIFR, LTIR and TRIR

    LTIFR and LTIR are close relatives, and the glossary entry for LTIR notes that the multiplier and definition vary between reporting systems. Neither counts restricted work or medical treatment cases, which TRIR does. A lost-time measure that ignores restricted duty can fall simply because injured workers are moved to light duty instead of being sent home, so it should be read beside a total recordable measure. When a customer asks for an LTIFR, ask which of the variants it expects before supplying a number.

    A hypothetical example: two contractors and one benchmark

    This case is invented and describes no real contractor. A buyer receives a report of 3 lost-time injuries over 1,200,000 hours. On the million-hour base the frequency is 3 x 1,000,000 / 1,200,000, which is 2.5. A US-style calculation of the same cases on a 200,000-hour base gives 0.5. Both are correct arithmetic from the same data, but a buyer who compared the first against a benchmark quoted in the second would conclude that the contractor is five times worse than it is.

    A second contractor reports 2 cases over 700,000 hours, which is 2.86 per million hours. Its definition counts a case only when the injured person misses a scheduled shift, so a case that kept someone off only on a rest day would not appear. The buyer asks both contractors for the case lists and the day-counting rule before comparing, and records the definitions beside the figures. The comparison that results is smaller than the headline numbers suggested and rests on two stated definitions instead of two unexplained values.

    Common misunderstandings about LTIFR

    • A low LTIFR is not a low-risk site. It counts a narrow set of outcomes and says little about severity beyond days lost, so an organisation can have few lost-time cases and still have a serious hazard uncontrolled.
    • Moving people to restricted duty can lower the rate without changing the injury. Where only cases that keep someone away are counted, return-to-work practice affects the numerator, so read the measure with a rate that includes restricted cases.
    • Rates on different bases cannot be set side by side. A frequency per million hours and a rate per 200,000 hours need converting first, and even then the case definitions may differ.
    • Contractors' hours can change the picture. Whether a site includes contractors in both the numerator and the denominator is a choice that should be stated, and a customer's scheme may require one or the other.
    • A zero is not a clean bill. No lost-time injuries over a period with few hours is weak evidence, and it says nothing about near misses or potential serious harm.
    • A target is not a safeguard. A rate target can discourage reporting if people feel measured by it, so pair any target with checks on the quality of reporting.

    How LTIFR relates to other glossary terms

    LTIFR is read beside the broader rate and the severity measures that cover what it omits.

    • TRIR: the rate on all recordable cases, which includes restricted work and medical treatment.
    • Serious injury or fatality: a severity-based classification that a frequency of lost-time cases does not capture.
    • Near miss: events that no injury rate counts, but that show where a control did not hold.
    • Management review: where injury rates are examined with audit, action and leading-indicator evidence.

    Records and evidence that usually exist for LTIFR

    • The written definition of a lost-time case, with the day-counting rule, the hours base and the population.
    • Case files showing dates of injury, dates away and return to work.
    • Hours records by period and group, with the source.
    • Contract or customer reporting instructions that fix the definition for a given report.
    • Calculation records for each reported figure, with reviewer and date.
    • Restatement notes where the days away of an open case changed.
    • Companion measures, such as total recordable cases and severity, reported beside the rate.

    What a software tool needs to capture for LTIFR

    • Date fields that let the tool apply the day-counting rule, rather than storing only a yes or no flag.
    • A selectable and stored hours base (200,000 or 1,000,000) on every output, with no hidden default.
    • Population settings for employees, agency workers and contractors, shown in the report.
    • Handling of open cases whose days away are still accumulating, with restatement when the case closes.
    • Side-by-side output under more than one convention, for customers that ask for a particular one.
    • A case-level export, so that a customer or auditor can recalculate.
    • Links from each case to investigation and action records.

    Catalog profiles documenting incident recording and reporting

    A documented incident-recording capability does not establish a lost-time rate calculation. In a demonstration, ask which hours base and day-counting rule the tool applies and whether you can change them.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Incident Management” or “Incident Reporting”, with a sourced incident reporting or management capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 56 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.

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    Frequently asked questions

    What multiplier should LTIFR use?

    Use the one required by the customer, scheme or internal policy, and state it. A million-hour base and a 200,000-hour base are both in use, and the same cases give a rate five times higher on the former.

    Is LTIFR the same as LTIR?

    The names are used loosely. Check the multiplier, the day-counting rule and the population in each source before treating two figures as equivalent.

    Does LTIFR include fatalities?

    In IOGP's definition a lost time injury includes fatalities as well as lost work day cases. Other schemes may differ, so check the definition.

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