Contact with people, plants and animals

Injuries caused by contact with people, plants and animals include bites, stings and envenomation from animals and plants, along with unintentional person-to-person contact.

Contact with people, plants and animals leading to injury is the fifth leading cause of injury hospitalisations and the thirteenth leading cause of injury deaths.

Contact with people, plants and animals is a common cause of injury hospitalisations but results in few deaths.

The highest rates of injuries were among:

Causes of injury

In 2024–25, the leading causes of hospitalisation from contact with people, plants and animals were (Figure 1):

• bitten by a dog (9,920 cases, 36.2 per 100,000 population)
• hit, struck, kicked, twisted, bitten or scratched by another person (5,863 cases, 21.4 per 100,000 population)
• bitten or struck by a cat (3,459 cases, 12.6 per 100,000 population)

Figure 1: Injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals, by cause, 2024–25

Note: Only causes resulting in more than 100 hospitalisations in 2024–25 are shown. For a comprehensive list of all causes, refer to supplementary data tables.

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

For more detail, see supplementary data Table H16.

The injury cause can be further categorised to indicate whether the contact source was venomous or not (Figure 2). Injury hospitalisations related to venomous animals represented about 7% of all contact with living things hospitalisations (for records where venomousness was known).

Figure 2: Injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals, by venomousness, 2024–25

Note: Hospitalisations where the type of living thing was unrecorded or unspecified, or venomousness was uncertain, were not included in this figure.

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

Trends over time

The number of injury hospitalisations caused by contact with people, plants and animals has gradually increased over the past decade, and the rate has ranged from a low of 97.9 per 100,000 in 2019–20 to a peak of 123.1 per 100,000 in 2024–25 (Figure 3). Between 2017–18 and 2024–25, the rate increased by an annual average of 2.3%.

Figure 3: Injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Note: Bars represent numbers of hospitalisations, lines represent crude rates per 100,000.

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

The number of deaths caused by contact with people, plants and animals has generally remained stable over time (Figure 4). Rates are not described further due to small numbers resulting in unreliable rates.

Figure 4: Injury deaths due to contact with people, plants and animals, 2014–15 to 2023–24

Note: Bars represent numbers of hospitalisations

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.

Trends varied depending on the type of living thing involved (Figure 5).

Among the top five causes of injury-related hospitalisations from people, plants, and animals, hospitalisation rates for cat bites or strikes increased the most (19.8%) compared to the previous 5-year average, followed by injuries from another person (10.2%). Hospitalisations due to dog bites have also steadily risen over the past decade.

For more detail, see supplementary data Table H16.

Seasonality

In 2024–25, injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals were higher than the previous 5-year average for most months of the year, especially in December and in the autumn months of March to May (Figure 6).

What injuries occur?

Body part injured and type of injury

In 2024–25, the three body parts most frequently injured in hospitalisations caused by contact with people, plants and animals (Figure 7) were:

• wrist and hand (10,685 cases or 39.0 per 100,000)
• head and neck (6,275 cases or 22.9 per 100,000)
• hip and lower limb (excluding ankle and foot) (5,179 cases or 18.9 per 100,000)

For more detail, see supplementary data Table H10.

Activity while injured and place of occurrence

Severity

There are many ways that the severity, or seriousness, of an injury can be measured, including:

• number of days in hospital
• time in an intensive care unit (ICU)
• time on a ventilator
• in-hospital deaths.

Hospitalisations caused by contact with people, plants and animals were less severe than injury hospitalisations overall (Table 1).

Age and sex

The rate of injury hospitalisation and death caused by contact with people, plants and animals differed between males and females, especially for certain age groups (Figure 8).

For injury hospitalisations in 2024–25:

• 56% of cases were males (19,007 cases)
• the rate for males (139.7 per 100,000) was 1.3 times the rate for females (106.5 per 100,000)
• people aged 15–24 had the highest rate.

For injury deaths in 2023–24:

• 70% of deaths were males (19 deaths)
• people aged 65 and over had the highest rate of death.

Age and sex trends over the last decade show that:

• injury hospitalisations caused by cats and by dog bites have increased across all age groups and sexes, with the largest increase observed in adults aged 45 and over, and the smallest increase in children under 4
• injury hospitalisations caused by contact with venomous spiders have decreased over the decade across all age groups and sexes
• rates of injury hospitalisation caused by contact with venomous snakes or lizards reached their highest point in the decade for both sexes and across most age groups in 2024–25.

First Nations people

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

• there were 2,759 injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals in 2024–25 (a crude rate of 262.9 per 100,000)
• males were 1.3 times as likely as females to be hospitalised (298.8 and 226.7 per 100,000 population)
• hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 25–44 (Figure 9)

Figure 9: Injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals among First Nations people, by age and sex, 2024–25

Note: Bars are number of hospitalisations, and the line graph represents crude rates (per 100,000 persons). 

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

For more detail, see supplementary data Table H6.

Comparison between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2024–25, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people were 2.3 times more likely to be hospitalised for injuries from contact with people, plants, and animals compared with non-Indigenous people (Figure 10).

Between 2017–18 and 2024–25, the rate of injury hospitalisation due to contact with people, plants and animals for First Nations people has increased by an annual average of 5% compared to an average annual increase of 2% for non-Indigenous people.

Figure 10: Age-standardised rate (ASR) of injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals, by Indigenous status and year, 2017–18 to 2024–25

Notes:

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

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

The rate of injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals was highest among the 25–44 age group for First Nations Australians, and the 15–24 age group for non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 11). Deaths data are not presented because of small numbers.

Figure 11: Injury hospitalisations due to contact with people, plants and animals, by Indigenous status and age group, 2024–25

Notes:

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

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

For more detail, see supplementary data Table H6.

State and territory

The states and territories with the highest injury hospitalisation rates caused by contact with living things in 2023–24 were:

• Northern Territory (284.1 per 100,000)
• Queensland (151.9 per 100,000)
• Australian Capital Territory (144.6 per 100,000) (Figure 12).

Injury death rates cannot be reliably calculated in most states due to low numbers. In Figure 12, we show the number of such injury deaths in each state and territory in 2022–23.

Figure 12: Age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations (2023–24), and number of injury deaths (2022–23), due to contact with living things, by state of usual residence, Australia

Notes: 

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

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

Remoteness

Areas of Australia which are more remote tend to have higher rates of hospitalisation and death from injury than less remote areas. 

Socioeconomic areas

People living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Australia, compared to the least socioeconomically disadvantaged were 1.4 times as likely to be hospitalised for injuries caused by contact with living things in 2023–24 (Figure 14).

Data details

• Technical notes: how the data were calculated
• Data tables: download full data tables
• Glossary
  
  

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