Accidental poisoning is caused by exposure to a substance in an amount that unintentionally causes harm. It is the ninth leading cause of injury hospitalisations and the third leading cause of injury deaths.

Accidental poisoning resulted in:

  • Hospitalisations 2024–25

    10,212 hospitalisations 

    1.7% of all injury hospitalisations

    37.3 per 100,000 population

  • Deaths 2023–24

    1,597 deaths 

    10.1% of all injury deaths

    5.9 per 100,000 population

Injuries causing hospitalisation or death were most common for:

  • Males (40.3 hospitalisations and 8.7 deaths per 100,000 population)

  • People aged 0–4 for hospitalisations (88.2 per 100,000 population), and 45–64 for deaths (11.7 per 100,000)

  • Incidents involving other and unspecified drugs and biological substances (12.6 hospitalisations and 2.9 deaths per 100,000 population)

Definitions

This article describes accidental cases of poisoning resulting in hospitalisation or death. Intentional poisoning injuries are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide. Poisoning cases where intent cannot be determined are described in the article on Undetermined or other unintentional causes. As intent is often difficult to ascertain in cases of poisoning, a substantial number of hospitalisations and deaths related to poisoning are categorised as Undetermined intent.

Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning mostly involve pharmaceutical substances as the harmful substance. In this article, we only describe the type of substance responsible for the accidental poisoning, without consideration for the means through which the substance was obtained (including regular prescriptions, over-the-counter medication, or illicitly obtained substances). We note however that the adverse side effects of correctly prescribed medication consumed at the correct dosage are not in the scope of this report.

For more information on the health impact of alcohol and other drugs, see the AIHW reports on Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia, and on Illicit use of drugs.

Hospitalised injury cases are described using ICD-10-AM. ICD-10-AM external cause codes define the following 10 categories for accidental poisoning:

  • Non-opioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics, including (but not limited to) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
  • Antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics, including (but not limited to) antidepressants, psychostimulants and tranquilisers
  • Narcotics, opioids and hallucinogens, including (but not limited to) opioids such as codeine, morphine and heroin
  • Other drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system
  • Other and unspecified drugs and biological substances, including pharmaceutical and biological substances not classified elsewhere, such as anaesthetics, antibiotics and other anti-infectives, hormones and their synthetic substitutes and antagonists, and others. This category is also used in mortality data (but not in hospitalisations data) to record cases of deaths caused by multi-drug toxicity
  • Alcohol
  • Organic solvents, including (but not limited to) petroleum and its derivatives, and including vapours from organic solvents
  • Other gases and vapours, including (but not limited to) carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes
  • Pesticides
  • Other and unspecified noxious substances, including (but not limited to) chemicals not elsewhere classified such as paints or corrosive substances.

This report mostly refers to these 10 categories to describe the type of substance(s) responsible for cases of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations or deaths. Some hospitalisation records include further detail of substances in the primary diagnosis codes. Where available, these are further described for selected substances of interest.

Substances involved in accidental poisoning

In 2024–25, other and unspecified drugs and biological substances, was the category most frequently related to accidental poisoning hospitalisations (Figure 1a). This was followed by antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics and narcotics and psychodysleptics.

Figure 1a: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning, by category of substance involved, 2024–25

Figure 1a shows the ranked number and crude rate (per 100,000) of accidental poisoning hospitalisations by type of substance. The top three types, ranked from highest to lowest were other and unspecified drugs and biological substances, antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics and narcotics and psychodysleptics.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

In 2024–25, the specific types of substances most frequently recorded in accidental poisoning hospitalisations were agents primarily affecting the cardiovascular system, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and antidiabetics & insulin (Figure 1b).

Figure 1b: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning, by specific type of substance involved, 2024–25

Figure 1b shows the ranked number and crude rate of accidental poisoning hospitalisations by substance. The top three, ranked from highest to lowest were agents primarily affecting the cardiovascular systems, gamma hydroxybutyrate (ghb)s and antidiabetics & insulin.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

In 2023–24, most accidental poisoning deaths were also caused by other and unspecified drugs and biological substances (Figure 2). However, the category’s scope differs between hospitalisations and deaths data: both include cases caused by drugs or biological substances not classified elsewhere, but mortality data also covers deaths from multiple substances. Because of this coding difference, contributions to this category can't be directly compared between hospitalisations and deaths .

Figure 2: Injury deaths due to accidental poisoning, by category of substance involved, 2023–24

Figure 2 shows the ranked number and crude rate of accidental poisoning deaths by type of substance. The top three substances were other and unspecified drugs and biological substances, antiepileptic, sedative and psychotropic drugs and narcotics and psychodysleptics (hallucinogens).

Note: Rates where the numerator is less than 10 are not shown due to data volatility.

Sources: AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Poisoning Tables 1, 7 and 8).

There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18 due to a change in data collection methods (see the technical notes for details).

The number of accidental poisoning hospitalisations has generally decreased over the past decade (Figure 3).

Between 2017–18 and 2024–25, the rate decreased from 46.0 to 37.3 per 100,000 population, an average decline of 1.8% per year (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Numbers and rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisations have declined over the past 10 years from 2015–16 to 2024–25.

Note: Columns represent the number of hospitalisations, the line graph represents the crude rate (per 100,000 population).

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, the accidental poisoning mortality rate decreased by an average of 0.9% per year (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Injury deaths due to accidental poisoning, 2014–15 to 2023–24

The rate of accidental poisoning deaths decreased from 2014–15 to 2023–24.

Note: Columns are the number of deaths, the line graph represents the crude mortality rate per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.

The trends differed depending on the type of substance involved. Compared to the previous 5-year average, in 2024–25 hospitalisation rates due to:

  • other and unspecified drugs and biological substances increased by 13.3%
  • antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics decreased by 11.8% (Figure 5a).

Figure 5a: Injury hospitalisations (2015–16 to 2024–25) and deaths (2014–15 to 2023–24) due to accidental poisoning, by category of substance

Rates of hospitalisation and death have decreased for most poison types over the last decade.

Rates of hospitalisation and death have decreased for most poison types over the last decade.

Notes:

  1. Crude rate per 100,000 population.
  2. Rates where the numerator is less than 10 are not shown due to data volatility.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Recent years have seen an increase in hospitalisations due to accidental injuries where gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) was the main cause, rising from 0.7 per 100,000 in 2018–19 to 2.7 in 2024–25 (Figure 5b). 

Among pharmacological substances, agents that primarily affect the cardiovascular system were responsible for the highest number of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations in 2023–24, with a rate of 2.9 per 100,000 population.

Figure 5b: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning, hospitalisations by detailed type of substance, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Interactive graphs showing the ranking and trends of different substances recorded in the primary diagnoses as causing accidental poisoning hospitalisations over the past decade

Interactive graphs showing the ranking and trends of different substances recorded in the primary diagnoses as causing accidental poisoning hospitalisations over the past decade

Notes: This figure only presents cases where the substance was identifiable within the primary diagnosis of injury ICD-10-AM code.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Poisoning Tables 1, 7 and 8).

Seasonality

Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning are slightly higher in summer and autumn, and this pattern was also seen in 2024–25 (Figure 6). 

In 2024–25, alcohol poisoning hospitalisations peaked in summer as in previous years but remained under the 5-year average. 

Accidental poisoning injury deaths were higher than the previous 5-year average across the summer months of 2023–24.

Figure 6: Injury hospitalisations (2024–25) and deaths (2023–24) due to accidental poisoning, by calendar month

Interactive graph showing the number of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations and deaths by month in the latest year compared to the previous 5-year average, by substance category.]

Interactive graph showing the number of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations and deaths by month in the latest year compared to the previous 5-year average, by substance category.]

Notes:

  1. The number of hospitalisations in the most recent financial year is shown by the bars, and the previous 5-year average by the dotted line graph.
  2. Month is based on month of hospital admission.
  3. Hospitalisation counts in June of the most recent financial year may be an underrepresentation of the true number of admissions - see technical notes for details.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Severity

In 2024–25, the average length of stay in hospital for accidental poisoning was lower than the average for all hospitalised injuries, and a smaller proportion died in hospital (Table 1). However, a greater proportion of cases involved ICU admission or continuous ventilatory support. 

Table 1: Severity of accidental poisoning hospitalisations, 2024–25

Severity measure

Accidental poisoning

All injuries

Average number of days in hospital

2.4

3.4

Percentage of cases with time in an ICU (%)

9.8

2.0

Percentage of cases with time on ventilator (%)

7.5

1.1

In-hospital deaths (per 1,000 cases)

2.6

5.7

Notes: 

  1. Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions that are transfers from one hospital to another or transfers from one admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.
  2. All injuries includes accidental poisoning injuries in the total calculations

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Over the past decade, the proportion of accidental poisoning hospitalisations needing ICU admission or ventilatory support has increased, with variations by substance type (Figure 7).

In 2024–25:

  • over 1 in 5 cases involving narcotics, opioids and hallucinogens required ICU care.
  • for alcohol poisoning, nearly 20% needed ICU care, and 15.1% required ventilatory support – the highest among all substance categories

Figure 7: Percentage of accidental poisoning hospitalisations requiring ICU care or ventilatory support, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Interactive graphs showing the percentage of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations requiring ICU or CVS over the past decade, by type of substance

Interactive graphs showing the percentage of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations requiring ICU or CVS over the past decade, by type of substance

Note: The denominator for percentage calculations is the number of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations related to each specific substance category in a given year.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Poisoning Table 6).

Age and sex

Rates of hospitalisation and death due to accidental poisoning differ between males and females, and by groups of substances (Figure 8).

  • 40.5 34.0 Males Females

    Accidental poisoning Hospitalisations 2024–25

    • the highest number of cases was for males (5,506 cases, 53.9%)
    • the rate for males was 1.2 times that for females 
    • people aged 0–4 had the highest rate

    Chart shows crude rates per 100,000 population

  • 8.7 3.2 Males Females

    Accidental poisoning Deaths 2023–24

    • the highest number of deaths was for males (1,167 deaths, 73.1%)
    • the rate for males was 2.7 times that for females 
    • people aged 45–64 had the highest mortality rate

    Chart shows crude rates per 100,000 population

Most poisons resulted in higher hospitalisations and death rates among males over the past decade, except for nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics, and antirheumatics, which led to more hospitalisations in females (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Injury hospitalisations (2015–16 to 2024–25) and deaths (2014–15 to 2023–24) due to accidental poisoning, by age group and sex

Interactive graphs displaying age and sex trends over the past decade for accidental injury hospitalisations by selected substance type.

Interactive graphs displaying age and sex trends over the past decade for accidental injury hospitalisations by selected substance type.

Notes:

  1. Crude rates per 100,000 population. Rates where the numerator is less than 10 are not shown due to data volatility.
  2. Break in hospitalisation time series between 2016–2017 and 2017–18. See technical notes for detail.
  3. Age groups where the count is less than 5 are not displayed
  4. All ages includes records where the age of the patient was not stated.
  5. Persons includes records where the sex of the patient was other, inadequately described, or not stated.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Accidental poisoning in children aged 0–4

Children aged 0 to 4 have consistently exhibited the highest rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisation over the last decade for multiple substance categories, including (Figure 8):

  • nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics
  • antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics
  • unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances
  • organic solvents and hydrogenated hydrocarbons and their vapours
  • pesticides

Hospitalisation rates among children aged 0–4 have fluctuated in recent years. The rate decreased from 93.6 per 100,000 in 2017–18 to 77.0 per 100,000 in 2022–23 (an 18% decrease) but subsequently increased to 88.2 per 100,000 in 2024–25.

The main causes of accidental poisoning in this age group are pharmaceutical substances. Specifically:

  • There has been an increase in poisoning from other and unspecified drugs and biological substances, rising from 26.8 to 32.5 per 100,000 between 2022–23 and 2024–25.
  • Cases involving antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics increased from 13.9 to 16.1 per 100,000 in the same period.
  • Similarly, the rate for nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics increased from 6.5 to 9.3 per 100,000, reversing a previous downward trend before 2022–23.

By contrast, hospitalisation rates for poisoning caused by non-pharmaceutical substances, such as other and unspecified chemicals and noxious substances, have remained stable over this period.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Poisoning Tables 1 and 2).

First Nations people

Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people:

  • there were 998 hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning in 2024–25 (95.1 per 100,000)
  • males and females were hospitalised at similar rates (96.8 and 93.2 per 100,000 population)
  • hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 0–4 (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning among First Nations people, by age and sex, 2024–25

The rate of hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning was highest among First Nations people aged 0–4 for both males and females.

Note: Columns are number of hospitalisations, the line graph is the crude rate per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Among First Nations people:

  • there were 148 deaths due to accidental poisoning in 2023–24 (14.4 per 100,000)
  • males were twice as likely as females to die of accidental poisoning (19.2 and 9.5 per 100,000 population respectively) (Table 2).
Table 2: Number and crude rate of accidental poisoning injury deaths among First Nations people, by sex, 2022–23

Sex

Number of injury deaths

Crude mortality rate (per 100,000 population)

Males

99

19.2

Females

49

9.5

Persons

148

14.4

Note: Numbers and rates are reported for the following 5 jurisdictions combined: New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. These jurisdictions are considered to have adequate levels of Indigenous identification in mortality data.

Sources: AIHW National Mortality Database, ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Poisoning Table 5).

Comparison between First Nations people and non-Indigenous Australians

Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, First Nations people were:

  • 3 times as likely to be hospitalised due to accidental poisoning in 2024–25
  • 5.6 times as likely to die from accidental poisoning in 2023–24 (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Injury hospitalisations (2017–18 to 2024–25) and deaths (2017–18 to 2023–24) due to accidental poisoning, by Indigenous status

Hospitalisations and deaths due to accidental poisoning among Frist Nations people have risen since 2017–18.

Notes:

  1. Age-standardised rate per 100,000 population.
  2. ‘Non-Indigenous’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.
  3. Deaths data only includes data for people whose usual residence was New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, as these jurisdictions are considered to have adequate levels of Indigenous identification in mortality data. 

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In 2024–25, the injury hospitalisation rate for accidental poisoning was highest among the 0–4 age group for both First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 11). However, hospitalisation rates for First Nations children were more than twice that of non-Indigenous children (a pattern observed across all age groups).

Data for deaths are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 11: Injury hospitalisations due to accidental poisoning, by Indigenous status and age group, 2024–25

Injury hospitalisation rates due to accidental poisoning were highest among those aged 0–4 for both First Nations and non-Indigenous people.

Notes:

  1. Crude rate per 100,000 population.
  2. ‘Non-Indigenous’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, ABS Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

For more detail, see Supplementary data tables (Table H5 and Poisoning Table 5).

States and territories

The states and territories with the highest rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisation in 2023–24 were:

  • Northern Territory (49.0 per 100,000)
  • Queensland (47.5 per 100,000)
  • Western Australia (42.6 per 100,000) (Figure 12). 

The states and territories with the highest rates of accidental poisoning deaths (where available) in 2022–23 were:

  • Western Australia (8.9 per 100,000)
  • Australian Capital Territory (6.7 per 100,000)
  • Victoria (6.4 per 100,000) (Figure 12).

Figure 12: Age-standardised rate of accidental poisoning hospitalisations (2023–24) and deaths (2022–23), by state of usual residence, Australia

Maps displaying accidental injury hospitalisations and deaths by state of usual residence.

Notes:

  1. State and territory refers to the state and territory of usual residence for the individual.
  2. Age-standardised rate per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

There are some differences in trends across states by type of substance involved (Figure 13). As compared to the previous 5-year average, 2023–24 saw an increased percentage of hospitalisations due to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances across all states and territories except the Northern Territory. In 2022–23 there was an increase in overall poisoning death rates in the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania.

Figure 13: Percentage difference in age-standardised rates of accidental poisoning injury hospitalisations (2023–24) and deaths (2022–23) compared to the previous 5-year average, by state or territory of usual residence, Australia

The rate of hospitalisation for accidental poisoning increased by 8.5% in Tasmania, and decreased in every other state and territory.

The rate of hospitalisation for accidental poisoning increased by 8.5% in Tasmania, and decreased in every other state and territory.

Notes:

  1. State and territory refers to the state and territory of usual residence for the individual.
  2. Age-standardised rate per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database, AIHW National Mortality Database, and ABS National, state and territory population.

For more information see the geography dashboard.

Remoteness

Remote areas of Australia tend to have higher rates of hospitalisation from injury due to accidental poisoning than less remote areas. People living in Remote areas had the highest rate of hospitalisation in 2023–24 (49.8 per 100) and were 1.5 times as likely to be hospitalised for accidental poisoning as people living in Major cities (Figure 14).

For most substances, the rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisation increased with remoteness (Figure 14). However, for poisoning caused by antiepileptics, sedatives and psychotropics, as well as narcotics, opioids and hallucinogens, the highest hospitalisation rates in 2023–24 were observed in Major cities.

Figure 14: Age-standardised rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisations, by remoteness, type of substance and financial year, Australia

For all types of substances, rates of hospitalisation for accidental poisoning increase with remoteness.

For all types of substances, rates of hospitalisation for accidental poisoning increase with remoteness.

Notes:

  1. Age-standardised rate per 100,000 population.
  2. ASRs where the numerator is less than 20 are not shown due to data volatility.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

For information on how statistics are calculated by remoteness, see the technical notes.

Socioeconomic areas

People living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Australia, compared to the least socioeconomically disadvantaged were:

  • 1.7 times as likely to be hospitalised for accidental poisoning in 2023–24 (46.5 compared to 26.6 per 100,000 population) (Figure 15)
  • 1.8 times as likely to die from accidental poisoning in 2022–23 (7.3 compared to 4.0 per 100,000 population).

Figure 15: Age-standardised rates of accidental poisoning hospitalisations, by socioeconomic areas, type of substance and financial year, Australia

Interactive graphs displaying trends in accidental injury hospitalisations over the past decade by selected type of substance and socioeconomic status of area of usual residence

Interactive graphs displaying trends in accidental injury hospitalisations over the past decade by selected type of substance and socioeconomic status of area of usual residence

Note: Age-standardised rates per 100,000 population.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and ABS National, state and territory population.

Data details

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