Causes of sports injuries
Nearly one-third of all sports injury hospitalisations in 2024–25 were caused by falls (19,200 cases), followed by transport (22% of injury hospitalisations or 13,200 cases) and contact with living things, such as being struck by another person or animal (12% of injury hospitalisations or 7,400 cases) (Figure 1). Of these injuries, males aged 5–14 were more likely to be hospitalised from falls (195 hospitalisations per 100,000 population) or transport (135 hospitalisations per 100,000 population), while males aged 15–24 were more likely to be hospitalised by contact with living things (135 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).
Figure 1: Causes of sports injury hospitalisations, Australia, 2024–25
Bar chart shows that other and unspecified causes contributed to about 15% of sports injury hospitalisations in 2024–25.
| Cause of sports injury hospitalisation | Percent |
|---|---|
| Falls | 31.5% |
| Transport | 21.6% |
| Other and unspecified external causes | 15.0% |
| Contact with living things | 12.1% |
| Contact with objects | 10.0% |
| Overexertion | 8.6% |
| Drowning and submersion | 0.3% |
| Electricity and air pressure | 0.3% |
| Assault | 0.3% |
| Forces of nature | 0.2% |
| Thermal causes | 0.1% |
| Choking and suffocation | 0.1% |
| Intentional self-harm | <0.1% |
| Legal intervention and operations of war | <0.1% |
Source:
AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
For more detail, see data table 17.
Around 66% of sports injury hospitalisations were caused by falls that happened on the same level. These include:
- collision with, or pushing by, another person (25% of fall-related injury hospitalisations or 4,700 cases)
- slipping, tripping and stumbling (20% of fall-related injury hospitalisations or 3,900 cases)
- other falls (23% fall-related injury hospitalisations or 4,400 cases), including bumping against an object, falling from a toilet and falling into a bathtub or shower.
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Females aged 65+ were hospitalised with fall-related sports injuries nearly 1.3 times more often than males aged 65+.
For sports injury hospitalisations caused by transport:
- just over a half (or 6,600 cases) involved a pedal cycle (for example bicycle, tricycle)
- more than one-quarter (or 3,600 cases) involved a motorcycle
- around 14% (or 1,900 cases) involved an animal (for example horse) or animal-drawn vehicle.
Contact by another person contributed to 86% (or 6,400 cases) of all sports injury hospitalisations caused by contact with living things, followed by bitten or struck by dog (2.5% of injury hospitalisations or 180 cases).
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Children aged 0–4 had the highest rate of sports injury hospitalisations caused by drowning or submersion (around 2.4 hospitalisations per 100,000 population).