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.

Latest findings

Rates of fall-related injury are increasing by 3% a year for men and by 2% a year for women The associations between SES and injury morbidity varies by age, sex, Indigenous status and external cause of injury Just over 100,000 people aged 65 and over were hospitalised due to a fall in 2016–17 In general, rates of hospitalised injury were higher among people from the lowest (most disadvantaged) SES group In Very remote regions, the largest proportion of cases (more than 65%) occurred in the most disadvantaged SES group The effect was strongest among cases of hospitalised Assault injury Injuries to the hip and thigh (22%) and head (26%) were the most common types of injury resulting from a fall Over time, rates of hospitalised injury increased for the most disadvantaged and most advantaged SES groups 15% of falls were from household objects such as beds, chairs, steps/stairs and ladders

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Highlights

The number of hospitalisationsdue to injury has steadily increased each year over the past decade and now exceeds 460,000
Malesaccount for nearly 60% of all hospitalisations due to injury, and a similar proportion 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
Indigenous Australiansare twice as likely as other Australians to be seriously injured, and also twice as likely to die of an injury
40%of injuries requiring hospitalisation are due to falls, and transport accidents account for around 13%
12,000deaths a year are due to injury—8% of all deaths
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
Where you livecan affect your chances of serious injury or death from injury, with highest rates of injury among people in remote areas