Child Safety Top Physical Dangers — hospitalisations a year
By Room — Risk Level (click to explore)
Injuries at Home, by Age (hover for detail)
Share of child injury hospitalisations that happen at home. Ages 1–4 are 20% of all child injury hospitalisations (about 17,800 a year); ages 16–18 are 22% (about 19,500). Source: AIHW, Injuries in children and adolescents 2021–22.
Emotional & Psychological Harm (click for detail)
Share of Australians who experienced each type as children. Source: Australian Child Maltreatment Study, MJA 2023.
Self-harm. About 1 in 9 teenagers (11%) self-injured in the past year at 16–17. Girls: 1 in 4 (26%) by 17; boys 9%. Hospitalisation rates are highest at 15–19 (256 per 100,000), about 8 times under-15s (31). Girls 15–19: 405 per 100,000 vs boys 114 (3.5 times). Sources: AIFS, Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (2021); AIHW, Suicide and self-harm monitoring: young people 2023–24.
Demographic Risk (per 1,000 children, click row to highlight)
Substantiated child protection cases per 1,000 children, 2024–25. A third of cases come from the poorest areas. Source: AIHW, Child protection Australia 2024–25.
At Home and on the Road
Children hospitalised — injuries at home
23,000+/yr
About one child every 23 minutes, and probably more: 4 in 10 hospital records don't say where the injury happened. Falls, poisoning, burns, drowning — in the place meant to keep them safe.
Children hospitalised — transport injuries
~12,000/yr
Transport causes 14% of child injury hospitalisations. At home it is at least 23,000 a year. Home safety deserves the same attention as road safety.