Seasonal differences

The following interactive shows how hospitalisations for injuries changed over the year for the most recent three years. It illustrates: 

  • a seasonal pattern for some categories of injury, and
  • the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on injury hospitalisations

Figure 1: The effect of seasons on injury hospitalisations, 2018–19 to 2020–21 

Multi-layer interactive displaying injury hospitalisations by bimonthly admission periods over three years. The user can display graphs for each injury cause, type, or place.

After COVID-19 restrictions were introduced, there was a decrease in total hospitalisations for injuries, with 14% fewer admissions between March and May of 2020 compared with the previous year. The decrease was larger for some injury causes, types, and places than others (as illustrated above). A few categories, such as injuries happening at home, saw an increase in hospitalisations.

While most of these changes appear to have been temporary, some of them have lasted longer. For example, hospitalisations for injuries happening at home increased after March 2020 and then remained at a higher level throughout 2020–21.