Forces of nature

Injuries from natural forces 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 in this category, but fall instead under Thermal causes.

The impacts of natural events on chronic respiratory conditions such as thunderstorm asthma are explored in Chronic respiratory conditions.

Forces of nature-related injuries were the thirteenth ranked cause of injury hospitalisations in 2024–25 and the twelfth ranked cause of injury deaths in 2023–24.

Injuries from exposure to forces of nature resulted in:

Injuries were most common for:

Types of exposure

In 2024–25, exposure to excessive natural heat was the leading cause of injury hospitalisations related to forces of nature. The next most frequent causes were exposure to sunlight and exposure to excessive natural cold (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature, by type of exposure, 2024–25

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

In 2023–24, most deaths from forces of nature were due to exposure to excessive natural heat, followed by exposure to excessive natural cold (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Causes of injury deaths due to forces of nature, 2022–23

Note: Rates are not shown due to small numbers and data volatility.

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

Trends over time

Over the past decade, the rate of injury hospitalisations due to exposure to forces of nature has fluctuated, ranging from 2.4 to 3.5 per 100,000 (Figure 3). The hospitalisation rate in 2024–25 was comparable to the previous 5-year average rate of 2.9 per 100,000 population.

Figure 3: Injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature, 2015–16 to 2024–25

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

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

The number of injury deaths from forces of nature gradually increased between 2014–15 and 2021–22 and then decreased over the next 2 years. In 2023–24 the mortality rate was the lowest it had been since 2017–18 (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Injury deaths due to forces of nature, 2014–15 to 2023–24

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

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

Seasonality

Both hospitalisations and deaths from injuries caused by forces of nature increase over summer, accounting for more than half of injury hospitalisations (57%) (Figure 5). The number of hospitalisations in the 2024–25 summer was higher overall than the previous 5-year average, particularly in December.

Activity while injured and place of occurrence

Severity

In 2024–25, the average length of stay in hospital for injuries due to forces of nature was lower than the average for all hospitalised injuries. However, a higher proportion of these cases involved ICU admission and continuous ventilatory support (Table 1).

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 forces of nature injuries in the total calculations.

Sources: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database and AIHW National Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see supplementary data table H14.

Age and sex

For injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature in 2024–25:

• 530 cases (68.6%) were males
• the rate for males (3.9 per 100,000) was 2.2 times that for females (1.8 per 100,000)
• males aged 65 and over had the highest rate (8.3 per 100,000) (Figure 9).

For injury deaths due to forces of nature in 2023–24:

• 46 deaths (70.8%) were males

First Nations people

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

• there were 58 injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature in 2024–25
• males were 1.5 times as likely as females to be hospitalised (6.6 and 4.4 per 100,000 population respectively)
• hospitalisation rates were highest among people aged 65 and over.

Comparison between First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians

Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, First Nations people were 2.9 times as likely to be hospitalised due to an injury caused by forces of nature in 2024–25.

Between 2017–18 and 2024–25, First Nations hospitalisation rates due to forces of nature declined overall, with spikes in 2021–22 and 2024–25 not seen among non-Indigenous Australians (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Injury hospitalisations due to forces of nature, by Indigenous status, 2017–18 to 2024–25 

Notes:

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

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

State and territory

The states and territories with the highest rates of forces of nature injury hospitalisation in 2023–24 were:

• Northern Territory (17.7 per 100,000)
• Queensland (5.1 per 100,000)
• South Australia (2.4 per 100,000).

Rates of forces of nature injury deaths cannot be reliably calculated in most states due to low numbers. Figure 8 shows the number of deaths in each state and territory in 2022–23.

Figure 8: Age-standardised rate of forces of nature injury hospitalisations (2023–24) and number of deaths (2022–23), by state or territory 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. Compared to people living in Major cities, people living in Outer Regional areas were 3.3 times as likely to be hospitalised for an injury caused by exposure to forces of nature in 2023–24 (Figure 9). Remote and Very remote areas are not shown in Figure 9 due to small numbers.

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

Socioeconomic areas

Level of socioeconomic disadvantage in Australia impacts the risk of injuries. People living in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged areas of Australia, compared to the least socioeconomically disadvantaged, were 2.3 times as likely to be hospitalised by an injury caused by exposure to forces of nature in 2023–24 (Figure 10).

Data details

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

< causes of Injury