Sports injury in Australia

Cycling can be a sport, leisure activity, or mode of transport. Only injury hospitalisations where cycling was recorded as a sport (e.g. BMX, mountain biking, road cycling, track and velodrome) are included in this report (see technical notes for an inclusive list). For more information on other cycling-related hospitalisations, see Injury in Australia.

An estimated 2.1 million Australians aged 15 and over cycled in 2023–24, of which around 12% of participants (or around 263,800 Australians) cycled for sport (ASC 2024). During this same period, there were 14,200 cycling injury hospitalisations in 2023–24, of which around 7,500 were identified as cycling for sport: about 6,200 males and 1,300 females. The highest number of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport was among those aged 10–14 (around 1,400 cases), while the 0–4 age group had the lowest number of hospitalisations (130 cases) (Figure 14).

For more detail, see data table 4.

Trends over the past decade

Between 2014–15 and 2016–17, the age-standardised rate of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport was relatively stable in females at an average of 9.8 hospitalisations per 100,000 population (Figure 15). The rate of hospitalisation for males was steadily increasing during that time from 38 to 42 hospitalisations per 100,000 population. During this same period, the number of hospitalisations ranged from 4,300 to 4,900 for males and 1,100 to 1,200 for females.

Figure 15: Number and age-standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport by sex, Australia, 2014–15 to 2023–24

For more detail, see data table 5.

From 2017–18 to 2023–24, the number of hospitalisations ranged from 4,800 to 8,000 for males and 1,100 to 1,800 for females. Between 2017–18 to 2018–19, injury hospitalisation rates were relatively stable for both sexes. For males, hospitalisations were lowest during that period (41 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

From 2019–20 to 2021–22, there was a spike in injury hospitalisations – a likely effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitalisation rates were highest in 2020–21 for males (65 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (14 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

Across 2022–23 and 2023–24, injury hospitalisation rates appeared to have stabilised for males (an average of 47 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (an average of 9.2 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

Nature of injuries

For injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport in 2023–24, the top 3 most injured body parts across all ages were:

• shoulder and upper limb, excluding wrist and hand (35% of injury hospitalisations or just over 2,600 cases)
• head and neck (20% of injury hospitalisations or 1,500 cases)
• trunk (18% of injury hospitalisations or just below 1,400 cases) (Figure 16).

Figure 16: Common injuries and causes of sports injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport, Australia, 2023–24

For more detail, see data table 12.

Fractures accounted for more than half of all injury hospitalisations (or 4,300 cases), followed by open wounds (13% of injury hospitalisations or 960 cases) and intracranial injuries (6.6% of injury hospitalisations or 495 cases). About 71% of these intracranial injury hospitalisations were concussions: around 295 males and 53 females.

The top 3 common causes of injury hospitalisations from cycling for sport in 2023–24 were:

• transport (92% of injury hospitalisations or 6,900 cases)
• contact with objects (2.5% of injury hospitalisations or 185 cases)
• falls (2.2% of injury hospitalisations or 165 cases).