Falls in older Australians 2019–20: hospitalisations and deaths among people aged 65 and over

Compared to other types of serious injury for older people, falls are by far the most common (Figure 1). Falls account for 77% of injury hospitalisations among those aged 65 and over and outnumber all other injury causes combined by a ratio of 3:1.

Australians aged 65 and over were 8 times as likely to be hospitalised and 68 times as likely to die from a fall than those aged 15–64 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number and rate of hospitalised injuries and deaths by falls and other causes of injury combined, by age group and sex, 2019–20

For more detailed data, see Data tables C1–4.