Overview

Injury is a major contributor to mortality, morbidity and permanent disability in Australia.

Most injuries requiring hospitalisation are the result of falls and transport accidents, while most deaths from injuries occur as a result of falls and suicide. 

More reports and statistics on injury can be found under Hospitals and Life expectancy & deaths.

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Latest findings

There were over 544,000 cases of hospitalisated injury in 2018–19

There were over 13,700 injury deaths in 2018–19

55% of injury hospitalisations and 62% of injury deaths in 2018–19 were male

Brown snake bites resulted in 215 hospitalisations in 2017–18

Bee and wasp stings were responsible for 1,256 hospitalisations in 2017–18

There were 3,520 hospitalisations due to contact with venomous animals and plants in 2017–18

Highlights

The number of hospitalisationsdue to injury has steadily increased each year over the past decade and now exceeds 530,000
Malesaccount for 55% of all hospitalisations due to injury, and 61% of all injury deaths
Most hospitalisationsdue to injury occur in the 65+ age group for females, while for males, the majority occur in the 25–44 age group
Where you livecan affect your chances of serious injury or death from injury, with highest rates of injury among people in remote areas
42%of injuries requiring hospitalisation are due to falls, and transport accidents account for around 12%
13,000deaths a year are due to injury
Femalesare more likely to be hospitalised for injuries due to intentional self-harm than males; males are more likely to die as a result of suicide