Forces of nature

< causes of Injury

Injuries caused by exposure to forces of nature are those which occur when environmental conditions become dangerous. This includes exposure to too much natural heat or sunlight, natural disasters, and lightning strikes.

Burns injuries due to bushfires are not included, they fall under Thermal causes.

The impact of natural events on chronic respiratory conditions such as thunderstorm asthma are explored in a separate report.

Injuries from exposure to forces of nature caused:

This represents 0.1% of injury hospitalisations and 0.4% of injury deaths. Older people were at higher risk.

This report summarises data on unintentional exposures only. Intentional injuries and deaths are included under Self-harm injuries and suicide or Assault and homicide.

Exposure to forces of nature covers the group of ICD external cause codes X30–39. Exposure to excessive natural heat is the most common cause of hospitalised injury in this group. Exposure to excessive natural cold is the most common cause of death.

Causes of hospitalisation

In 2021–22, 60% of hospitalisations due to forces of nature were caused by exposure to excessive natural heat (Table 1).  ‘Other’ forces of nature include but are not limited to, lightning, earth movements and floods.

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
3. 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 B21–22.

Causes of death

In 2020–21, 58% of deaths due to forces of nature were caused by exposure to excessive natural cold (Table 2). 

Notes

1. Rates are crude per 100,000 population.
2. Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.
3. Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes (WHO 2011).

Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.

For more detail, see Data tables E31–33.

Trends over time

Over the period from 2017–18 and 2021–22, the age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature fell by an annual average of 5.7%. Over the period from 2012–13 to 2016–17 there was an average annual increase of 5.3%.

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).

For injury deaths caused by forces of nature, the age-standardised rate for 2020–21 was 5.3% lower than a year earlier. There was an average annual decrease in rate between 2011–12 and 2020–21 of 2.4% (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Injury hospitalisations and deaths caused by forces of nature, by sex and year

For more detail, see Data tables C1–3 and F1–4.

Seasonal differences

Hospitalisations from exposure to forces of nature have a strong seasonal pattern, peaking in summer (Figure 2), which is consistent with the most common cause of hospitalisations being due to exposure to excessive natural heat.

The interactive display illustrates other seasonal differences in injury hospitalisations.

Figure 2: Seasonal differences in hospitalisations due to forces of nature, 2019–20 to 2021–22

Notes

1. Admission counts have been standardised into two 15-day periods per month.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Age and sex differences

Rates of injury hospitalisation and death from exposure to forces of nature are higher for males and people aged 65 years and over (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Injury hospitalisations and deaths due to forces of nature, by age group and sex

For more detail, see Data tables A1–3 and D1–3.

Severity

There are many ways that the severity, or seriousness, of an injury can be assessed. Some of the ways to measure the severity of hospitalised injuries are:

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

The average number of days in hospital for injuries due to exposure to forces of nature and the rate of in-hospital deaths were lower than the average for all hospitalised injuries in 2021–22. The percentage of cases involving a stay in ICU and the percentage involving continuous ventilatory support were higher than the average (Table 3).

Note: Average number of days in hospital (length of stay) includes admissions that are transfers from 1 hospital to another or transfers from 1 admitted care type to another within the same hospital, except where care involves rehabilitation procedures.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see Data tables A13–15.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

In 2021–22, among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people:

• there were 52 injury hospitalisations (Table 4) and less than 5 deaths due to exposure to forces of nature.

Note: Rates are crude per 100,000 population.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians

In 2021–22, Indigenous Australians, compared with non-Indigenous Australians, were 3.6 times as likely to be hospitalised due to exposure to forces of nature (Table 5).

Notes

1. Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
2. ‘Non-Indigenous Australians’ excludes cases where Indigenous status is missing or not stated.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and National Mortality Database.

For more detail, see Data tables A4–6 and D4–6.

Remoteness

 In 2021–22, people living in Remote areas were more likely to be hospitalised due to forces of nature than those in major cities or inner regional areas (Table 6). Hospitalisation rates increased with increasing remoteness from major cities.

Deaths are not compared here due to low numbers. 

Note: Rates are age-standardised per 100,000 population.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

People aged 45–64 living in Remote areas had the highest rate of injury hospitalisation due to forces of nature (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature, by remoteness and age, 2021–22

For more detail, see Data tables A7–9 and D7–9.

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

Data details

Technical notes: how the data were calculated

Data tables: download full data tables

Glossary

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