Statistics · FY26

Lone worker safety, in numbers.

Every statistic on this page is first-party: measured across 20,433 monitored duress activations from 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026, with the methodology published. No estimates, no surveys, no recycled decade-old figures. Free to cite with attribution.

Scale

20,433

duress activations were monitored in FY26 - every one answered by a trained operator.

815

confirmed emergencies in a single year - one every 10.7 hours.

Response

7s

median time from alarm to a monitoring operator on the case, around the clock.

71.6%

of activations were answered inside 10 seconds; 94.2% inside 30.

When risk peaks

2x

an after-hours alarm (6pm to 6am) is roughly twice as likely to be a confirmed emergency as a business-hours alarm.

34%

of confirmed emergencies happen after hours, from only 22% of activations.

7.1%

of Sunday activations are confirmed emergencies - roughly double the weekday band of 3.3% to 4%.

7.7%

confirmation rate on national public holidays, against a 4.1% everyday baseline.

How alarms happen

17.7%

of all activations were raised automatically - fall detection, missed check-ins and expired safety timers firing when the worker couldn't press anything.

9%

of activations came from fall detection alone.

Industry rhythms

1 in 6

community-sector activations between 9pm and midnight are confirmed emergencies (16.7%).

41.8%

of all activations come from retail - and retail's evening trade confirms at more than double its morning rate.

37%

of government-sector activations are automatic (timers and check-ins) - against just 3.8% in retail. Different industries face different shapes of risk.

The honest numbers

93%

of alarms didn't end up needing emergency services - resolved as false alarms or de-escalated with an operator on the line. Every one was still answered.

90s

median operator time to resolve a false alarm. A confirmed emergency runs 9.1 minutes of live response.

Year on year

+39%

growth in confirmed emergencies from FY25 to FY26, while median pickup improved from 9s to 7s.

Sector figures are rates, classified by organisation type, so no individual customer or region is identifiable. Full distributions, charts and methodology: State of Lone Worker Safety FY26.

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