Wheeled motor sports

The image shows a motorbike.

Wheeled motor sports include go-carting, motor car racing, motorcycling, and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) riding.

An estimated 293,100 Australians aged 15 and over participated in wheeled motor sports in 2024–25 (ASC 2025). During this period, there were about 3,900 injury hospitalisations attributed to wheeled motor sports: 3,500 males and 390 females. The highest number of injury hospitalisations was among those aged 15–19 (740 cases), while the 0–4 age group had the lowest number of hospitalisations (17 cases) (Figure 40).

Figure 40: Number of injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sports by 5-year age group, Australia, 2024–25

Column chart shows younger age groups between 10 and 24 years had the highest concentration of hospitalisations in 2024–25.


Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see data table 5.

Trends over the past decade

From 2017–18 to 2024–25, the number of hospitalisations ranged from 3,300 to 4,100 for males and 320 to 425 for females (see Figure 41). Between 2017–18 to 2018–19, injury hospitalisation rates were stable for males and females.

Figure 41: Number and age-standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sport by sex, Australia, 2015–16 to 2024–25

Line graph shows trends for males, females and persons with a dashed vertical line separating years 2016–17 and 2017–18 to indicate a break in time series, described in technical notes.

Line graph shows trends for males, females and persons with a dashed vertical line separating years 2016–17 and 2017–18 to indicate a break in time series, described in technical notes.

For more detail, see data table 6.

From 2019–20 to 2021–22, injury hospitalisations fluctuated – a likely effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitalisation rates peaked in 2020–21 for males (34 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) and females (3.6 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).

Across 2022–23 and 2024–25, injury hospitalisation rates appeared to have stabilised for both sexes, at an average of 27 hospitalisations per 100,000 population for males and an average of 3.1 hospitalisations per 100,000 population for females.

Wheeled motor sports categories

In 2024–25:

  • Motorcycling accounted for 90% of all total wheeled motor sports injury hospitalisations (Figure 42), with a rate of 24 hospitalisation per 100,000 for males (3,200 hospitalisations) and 2.1 per 100,000 for females (285 hospitalisations)
  • Motor car racing had the fewest injury hospitalisations for total wheeled motor sports categories with 80 hospitalisations (0.3 per 100,000 population).

Figure 42: Injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sports by category, Australia, 2024–25

Bar chart shows proportion of sports injury hospitalisations in 2024–25 for each wheeled motor sports category.


Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see data table 5.

Nature of injuries

For injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sports in 2024–25, the top three most injured body parts across all ages were:

  • shoulder and upper limb, excluding wrist and hand (nearly 1,100 cases)
  • hip and lower limb, excluding ankle and foot (930 cases)
  • trunk (840 cases) (Figure 43).

Figure 43: Common injuries and causes of sports injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sports, Australia, 2024–25

Diagram of human body shows percentage of body parts injured in hospitalisations in 2024–25, including injury types and causes.

Diagram of human body shows percentage of body parts injured in hospitalisations in 2024–25, including injury types and causes.

Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.

For more detail, see data table 13.

Fractures accounted for more than half of all injury hospitalisations (or 2,200 cases), followed by open wounds (8.9% of injury hospitalisations or 345 cases) and intracranial injuries (6.1% of injury hospitalisations or 235 cases). About 74% of these intracranial injury hospitalisations were concussions: around 155 males and 20 females.

The top three common causes of injury hospitalisations from wheeled motor sports in 2024–25 were:

  • transport (3,700 cases or 13 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
  • contact with objects (e.g. being struck by objects such as a wall) (93 cases or 0.3 hospitalisations per 100,000 population)
  • falls (42 cases or 0.2 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).
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