Social sustainability in high-risk labor sectors requires more than regulatory compliance. It depends on governance that can identify where severe and fatal occupational risks concentrate. This study examines Türkiye’s construction sector between 2014 and 2024 using national social security data, assessing how accident burden, permanent disability, and fatal outcomes are distributed across construction subsectors. Drawing on Social Security Institution (SGK) records, the analysis evaluates occupational accident frequency, permanent disability, and fatal accident indicators from a policy-oriented, Prevention through Design-informed perspective. The contrast is notable. Although construction accounts for an average of 11.98 % of total insured employment, it produces 31.94 % of fatal occupational accidents, a fatal risk burden roughly 2.7 times its employment share. This burden is concentrated in the Construction of buildings subsector, where the share of sectoral fatalities rose from 51.90 % in 2014 to 63.04 % in 2024. Such patterns are shaped by informal employment, organizational fragmentation, subcontracting, macroeconomic shocks, and the spatial organization of worksites. By showing how social security data can reveal labor risk inequalities, the study contributes to sustainable social development research. It also demonstrates that data-based labor risk governance, read together with a Prevention through Design lens, is necessary for building equitable, targeted, and preventive occupational health and safety policy.

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