Brain injury key facts & figures

Brain injury key facts and figures

1 in 45 Australians live with a brain injury. (AIHW, 2007)
Every 4 minutes, someone in Australia is hospitalised for a head injury. (AIHW, 2021)
More men have brain injuries than women. (AIHW, 2007)
Almost 3 out of 4 people with a brain injury are under 65. (AIHW, 2007)
1 in 4 brain injury hospitalisations are people aged 15 – 24. (AIHW, 2021a)
More than 450,000 Australians have a brain injury. (AIHW, 2023

Perpetrators of intimate partner violence are twice as likely to have sustained a brain injury (Brain Injury Australia, 2018)
40% of domestic and family violence victims over a 10-year period sustained a brain injury (Brain Injury Australia, 2018)
In 2022–23, almost 3 in 5 (59%, or 2,200) hospitalisations of women aged 15 years and older for assault by a spouse or domestic partner involved assault with bodily force. 1 in 10 (10%, or 380) involved assault by hanging, strangulation and suffocation. (AIHW 2024a)
Head and/or neck injuries are the most common injuries due to assault by a spouse or domestic partner-In 2022–23, almost 3 in 4 (72%, or 2,600) hospitalisations of women aged 15 years and older due to spouse or domestic partner assault involved injuries to the head and/or neck, including 435 (12%) hospitalisations for brain injury. (Monash university, 2023)
31% of victims of family violence attending Victorian hospitals over a ten-year period were children under the age of 15, and 25% of these children sustained a brain injury. (Brain Injury Australia, 2018)

82% of male prison entrants reported a history of a head injury. (AIHW, 2022)
Almost 2 in 5 (38%) prison entrants reported a history of a head injury resulting in loss of consciousness. (AIHW, 2022) (Indicator 1.3.3).
89% of young people in Western Australian youth detention had neurodevelopmental impairments with 36% foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) prevalence in that same population. (Citation2018)
Disadvantage and support needs are highly prevalent among people in prison, particularly: mental health conditions (40%), cognitive disability (33%), problematic alcohol or other drug use (up to 66%), and past homelessness (33%) (AHURI, 2021).
42% of adult make prisoners and 33% of adult female prisoners have been diagnosed with brain injury (Department of Justice – Corrections VIC , 2011)
Former prisoners in stable housing are much less likely to reoffend than those who are homeless or in unstable accommodation (AIC Report, 2018)

The rate of head injury among Indigenous people living in Remote and very remote areas (3,261 cases per 100,000) was 4 times that of non-Indigenous people (840 cases per 100,000). (AIHW, 2016)
Among hospitalisations of First Nations people for assault-related injuries perpetrated by a family member, 70% (1,800) females and 58% (440) males experienced injuries to the head or neck in 2022–23. This included 320 females and 75 males hospitalised for brain injury (Figure 7; AIHW 2024a).
4 in 10 Indigenous homeless people are aged 18 or under (AIHW, 2014)

People aged 65 and over are more than twice as likely as those aged under 65 to have acquired brain injury (ABI) with activity limitations or participation restrictions. (AIHW, 2007)
Head injuries from falls in older Australians have doubled in the past decade. (AIHW, 2019)
Fall related injury is 6 times more likely to occur in residential aged care than the home. (AIHW, 2019)

In 2023, it is estimated that more than 411,100 Australians live with dementia. (AIHW, 2023)

In 2021–22, there were 17,700 Emergency department (ED) presentations and 10,800 hospitalisations for concussions. (AIHW, 2024)
Falls were the leading cause of concussion hospitalisations (50%). (AIHW, 2024)
As an activity undertaken at the time of the injury, sport was involved in just over 1 in 5 concussion hospitalisations, although this is likely an underestimate owing to under-reporting. (AIHW, 2024)
100,000 sport related concussions occur in Australia each year. Most concussions occur in community sport however many are still not documented. (AIS, 2024)

In 2025 there are an estimated 433,300 Australians living with dementia. Without a significant intervention, the number of people with dementia is expected to increase to an estimated 812,500 by 2054. (AIHW, 2023)
An estimated 1.7 million people in Australia are involved in the care of someone living with dementia. (AIHW, 2024)
2 in 3 people with dementia are thought to be living in the community. (AIHW, 2022)
Young Onset Parkinson’s makes up 10 to 20% of all people living with Parkinson’s. They are diagnosed in their 20s to 50s. (Parkinson.org.au, 2025)
Parkinson’s is the second most common neurological disease in Australia after dementia. (Parkinson.org.au, 2025)
There are over 150,000 people living with Parkinson’s in Australia. 50 Australians are diagnosed every day. (Parkinson.org.au, 2025)
It’s estimated that around 2,160 Australians have an Huntington’s Disease diagnosis. (Layton. N & Brusco, N, 2020)

Source: (Newby et al., 2013)

Newby, G., Coetzer, R., Daisley, A., & Weatherhead, S. (2013). Practical neuropsychological rehabilitation in acquired brain injury : a guide for working clinicians. In Brain injuries series. London: Karnac.

Source: (Newby et al., 2013)

Newby, G., Coetzer, R., Daisley, A., & Weatherhead, S. (2013). Practical neuropsychological rehabilitation in acquired brain injury : a guide for working clinicians. In Brain injuries series. London: Karnac.