This represents 4.2% of hospitalised injuries and 1.8% of injury deaths.
People who seek health care following an assault may choose not to disclose the cause of their injuries. This may be because they know the perpetrator and want to avoid criminal proceedings. For this reason, assault injuries are probably not all identified as such in hospital statistics—they may instead be coded as an unintentional injury such as a Fall or Contact with an object—or details of the assault may be incomplete or unspecified. For more information, see Technical notes.
In 2019–20:
- 3 in 5 hospitalised assault injuries (58%) were caused by bodily force (Table 1)
- 1 in 7 (15%) were caused by a blunt object.
Table 1: Causes of injury in assault hospitalisations, 2019–20
Cause
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Bodily force (includes sexual assault) (Y04–05)
|
13,009
|
58
|
50.9
|
Blunt object (Y00)
|
3,274
|
15
|
12.8
|
Sharp object (X99)
|
2,708
|
12
|
10.6
|
Other or unspecified (X85–93, X95–98, Y01–03, Y06–09, Y35–36)
|
3,261
|
15
|
12.8
|
Total
|
22,252
|
100
|
87.2
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
For more detail, see Data tables B29–30.
In 2019–20, 2 in 5 homicide deaths (41%) were caused by a sharp object such as a knife or glass (Table 2).
Table 2: Causes of injury in homicide deaths, 2019–20
Cause
|
Number
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Sharp object (X99)
|
100
|
41
|
0.4
|
Assault by firearm discharge or explosive material (X93–X96)
|
27
|
11
|
0.1
|
Bodily force (includes assault and sexual assault) (Y04–05)
|
26
|
11
|
0.1
|
Other or unspecified (X85–93, X95–98, Y01–03, Y06–09, Y35–36)
|
92
|
38
|
0.4
|
Total
|
245
|
100
|
1.0
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
- Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).
Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.
For more detail, see Data tables E42–44.
Hospital admissions due to assault show some patterns over the year. Hospitalisations due to assaults are highest over the period November to February and lowest from May to September.
In March 2020 the first lockdowns and social distancing measures associated with COVID-19 interrupted the usual activity of many Australians. The restrictions to movement and activity coincided with a marked drop in overall injury hospitalisations. For injuries due to assault, there were 13% fewer admissions from March to May than the same period of the previous year (Figure 1). As initial restrictions eased, assault hospitalisations rose and by June were higher than in prior periods.
See the interactive COVID-19 display for data and further discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on hospital admissions.
Figure 1: Assault hospitalisations by month, 2017–18 to 2019–20

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
The age-standardised rate of hospitalisations due to assault in 2019–20 was 0.6% lower than the previous year. This decrease is likely due to the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing.
There was a downward trend in hospitalised assaults between 2009–10 and 2014–15. This was followed by an upward trend to 2016–17 – resulting in an overall average decrease of 1.9% per year for the period from 2009–10 to 2016–17. Figure 2 shows that, when examined by sex, the overall decrease is largely accounted for by the rate for males. The age-standardised rate for females in fact increased (at a more gentle slope).
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 homicide death rate showed an average annual decrease of 1.7% between 2010–11 and 2019–20. There were notable flucations, however, over this period. (Figure 2).