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Most Common Hospital Admissions for Injuries
Which injuries are driving hospital admissions in Australia?
At iSelect, we wanted to find out which injuries are sending Aussies to hospital the most. Between July 2023 and June 2024, injuries were the leading cause of death for people aged under 45 and accounted for over 1.8 million emergency department visits and over half a million hospitalisations.
We analysed the latest Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data, covering injuries and hospital admissions from July 2023 to June 2024.
What types of injuries most commonly lead to hospitalisations?
According to our research, falling was Australia’s most common cause of hospital admissions. Injuries caused by a fall accounted for 43.1% of all injury-related admissions between 2023 and 2024, which represents over 248,000 people admitted. This is significantly higher than any other cause. The most common type of fall was falling on the same level from slipping, tripping, and/or stumbling, with 233.5 per 100,000 people admitted for this type of injury.
The second most common cause of injury was coming into contact with an object. There were over 80,000 hospitalisations for this type of injury in 2023– 24, accounting for 14% of admissions. These injuries were generally caused by contact with sharp objects, accounting for 54.1 people per 100,000. Other common injuries in this category were getting struck by an object and something entering the eye.
The next most common cause of injury was transport accidents, including car, motorcycle, and bicycle crashes. More than 65,000 Australians were hospitalised for these types of accidents, making up 11.3% of admissions. In this category, car accidents were the most common injury, with a rate of 38.1 people per 100,000. Motorcycle accidents accounted for 15.2% of transport-related hospital admissions, with 36.8 people per 100,000 hospitalised. Over two-thirds of transport injury hospitalisations involved men, perhaps indicating that this gender is more reckless on the roads.
Following transport accidents, contact with living things, such as animal bites and insect stings, accounted for 5.7% of injury-related admissions, with 33,000 people hospitalised. And while Aussies might be mainly scared of sharks, snakes, and spiders, it’s dogs that have proven the most dangerous, with 31% of animal-related injuries caused by dogs and only 2.4% caused by venomous snakes.
Between July 2023 and June 2024, men were more likely to end up in hospital due to injuries, with an admission rate 36.1% higher than women. Across nearly all injury categories, men were more impacted, with falls being the only exception, where 5.6% more women were admitted. Men had a much higher rate of injuries involving contact with objects, with a 157.8% higher admission rate than women. This trend continues in injuries related to electricity and air pressure (137.5%), which may be due to more men working in risk-heavy jobs.
How does age affect hospitalisation rates for injuries?
Injuries that hospitalise Aussies don’t impact all age groups equally. When examining the data, several patterns emerge.
Infants, aged 0–4, were more likely to be hospitalised for specific types of injuries than the general population. Sadly, this includes things like drowning and submersion, choking and suffocation, burns and scalds, and accidental poisoning.
Teenagers and young adults aged 15–24 were the most likely group to be hospitalised across several major categories: contact with objects, transport accidents, interactions with living things (such as animal or insect bites), and electricity and air pressure.
At the other end of the scale, Australians aged 65 and over had the highest hospital admission rates for falls, overexertion, and forces of nature, which include extreme weather events or natural hazards. Overall, those aged 65+ had the highest rate of injury-related hospital admissions in Australia, with over 4,300 hospital visits per 100,000 people, and with injuries caused by a fall making up 3,298.7 of those hospitalisations.
How have injury rates changed over time?
We reviewed the most common injuries that resulted in hospitalisations year on year and found that injuries due to contact with living things had risen by 21.8% over the past decade. Back in 2014–2015, the number of people hospitalised in this category was 101.3 per 100,000. Fast forward to 2023–2024, and that figure has grown to 123.4 per 100,000.
This increase may reflect growing pet ownership, increased time spent outdoors, or more human interaction with wildlife resulting from urban sprawl and land development. There’s also the possibility that the increase is partly due to greater awareness and reporting of these types of injuries.
On the other hand, hospitalisation for thermal-related injuries, which include burns from hot liquids, contact with heated surfaces, or exposure to fire or smoke, has dropped by 16.2% since 2014. This decline could be attributed to improved product safety standards, enhanced public education on burn prevention, and the widespread adoption of safer home appliances.
Which injuries are keeping Australians in hospital the longest?
Not all injuries are equal when it comes to recovery time; some require far longer hospital stays than others.
Burns and thermal injuries lead to the longest hospital stays, with patients spending an average of 4.9 days in hospital. That’s likely due to the severity and complexity of these injuries, which often need specialised care and ongoing monitoring.
Falls, the most common reason for injury-related hospitalisation, come in second for duration, with an average stay of 4.8 days. Interestingly, women spent about half a day longer in the hospital for fall-related injuries than men, potentially due to differences in injury type or recovery needs.
Transport accidents, such as car, motorcycle, or bicycle crashes, came next with an average hospital stay of 3.4 days. These injuries often involve serious trauma, which can mean more time in recovery and rehabilitation.
On average, men spent 18.4% less time in the hospital than women.
According to our research, falling remains the leading cause of injury-related hospitalisations in Australia, but we’ve also seen a noticeable rise in incidents involving animals and insects, showing that everyday accidents can have serious outcomes.
Having the right private hospital cover can offer more choice and control when you need it most, whether that’s faster access to treatment, choosing your own doctor, or the comfort of a private room. At iSelect, we’re here to help you compare health insurance options from a range of health funds to ensure you can find a policy that suits you.
Andres Gutierrez
General Manager – Health at iSelect
About the data
iSelect conducted an analysis of the latest available data provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in two main areas: hospital admissions for external causes of unintentional injury, and admitted patient care.
The goal was to find out the most common causes of injury that lead to hospitalisation in Australia. Through these categories, we looked at how the rates of hospitalisation differ by age groups and gender and trends over time. We also analysed the rates of hospitalisations for common injuries.
We also looked at admitted patients’ data to uncover the injuries that keep Aussies in the hospital the longest.
Our data spans 2014–15 to 2023–24 and was sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, who source directly from the National Hospital Morbidity Database and the National Mortality Database.
Where applicable, age-standardised rates have been used to allow fair comparisons of health-related data between different populations or over time, by removing the effects of age differences.
Please note that all-gender totals include hospitalisations where the sex of the patient was described as ‘other’, inadequately described, or not stated. Age total includes hospitalisations where the age of the patient was not stated.
When stating the proportion of causes to total injury hospitalisations, this includes intentional causes, such as assault and intentional self-harm; however, these have been removed from all other forms of analysis in this report.
Data listed as n.p. Has been suppressed due to either small numbers, confidentiality or other concerns about the quality of the data. For data relating to activity, it should be noted that 66.7% of records did not have this information available.
Separations from Public psychiatric hospitals include some with very long individual lengths of stay, including some as long as several years – this has made an impact on the average length of stay when looking at public vs. private by state.
When looking at average length of stay by diagnosis, this includes separations for which the care type was reported as Acute, Newborn (with qualified days) or was not reported. It excludes separations where the length of stay was greater than 120 days. Average length of stay has been suppressed for private hospitals in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, or if fewer than 100 separations were reported.
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