Overview

Injuries are a major health care issue in Australia. In the latest years for which data was available, injuries caused:

  • over 544,000 hospitalisations
  • almost 13,800 deaths – injury is the leading cause of death for people aged 1–44
  • 8.4% of the burden of disease in Australia
  • 7.6% ($8.9 billion) of health expenditure in Australia.

Most injuries requiring hospitalisation are the result of falls, contact with objects or transport accidents, while most deaths from injuries are the result of falls or suicide.

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Latest findings

There were over 13,400 injury deaths in 2019–20

There were over 527,000 cases of hospitalised injury in 2019–20

The first few months of COVID-19 resulted in a 14% reduction in hospitalised injuries compared to previous years

133,000 falls hospitalisations in 2019–20 among older Australians

2 in 3 falls hospitalisations were for females

Over half of hospitalised fall injuries occurred in the home