Other injury topics

Unintentional injuries are responsible for 68% of all injury-related deaths in the European Region. There are 396 000 injury deaths estimated every year. After road traffic injuries, the main causes are falls, drowning, fire-related and poisoning deaths.

Falls account for 78 000 deaths every year. From all unintentional injury specific causes of death, falls experienced an increase in 3% of deaths from 2000-2011. Falls are among the 15 main causes of death in people aged 5-29 years of age.

Drowning accounts for 37 000 deaths every year. Compared to 2000 data there was a decrease in 21 000 of annually deaths in 2011. Drowning is the second main cause of death in children aged 5-14 years. Among injuries, drowning have the biggest rate ratios comparing male and females, with 5.1 more deaths in males compared to females in 2011.

Fire-related injuries account for 26 000 deaths every year. Low- and middle-income countries death rates are 10.5 times higher than high income countries for this specific cause of death.

Poisoning accounts for 22 000 deaths every year. Compared with the year 2000, poisoning deaths have fallen by 48% in 2011.

Other unintentional injuries account for 140 000 deaths every year. Different from main unintentional injuries categories, other unintentional injuries are mainly due to accidental threats to breathing (suffocation and strangulation), contact with venomous animals and plants or complications of medical and surgical care.