FOI reference: FOI-2026-3728
You asked
Could I please request access to statistics around the following:
- How many falls from heights are recorded in the UK between 2020 and 2026.
- The gender of those injured through these events.
- The ages of those injured through these events.
- The ethnicity those injured through these events.
- The geographical areas of these incidents.
- The location of these incidents (for example, the home, workplace, or public place)
- The outcome of these incidents (for example, death, serious injury, minor injury).
We said
Thank you for your request.
We do not hold information on falls which did not cause or contribute to death.
We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our mortality data come from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.
The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
The relevant ICD-10 cause codes for falling are:
- W00 to W19: Falls
- W10: Fall on and from stairs and steps
- W11: Fall on and from ladder
- W12: Fall on and from scaffolding
- W13: Fall from, out of or through building or structure
- W17: Other fall from one level to another
- W19: Unspecified fall
Information on the number of deaths due to falls by age group and sex, by various geographies is available from our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice.
Instructions for use of this service:
select geography (England and Wales, regional, or by local authority)
select age (all ages, or five-year age bands)
select sex (total, or male or female)
select rates (all births, rates, or percentage of population, for example)
select the ICD10 code for the underlying cause of death
select format (Excel or CSV, for example)
Until September 2024, ethnicity was not collected on the death registration. With the introduction of Death Certification Reform in England and Wales, ethnicity is now collected. We are currently assessing the quality of the ethnicity information provided on the death certificate. Initial analysis can be found in our Death Certification Reform, England and Wales article. Further analysis will be published later this year. Until we have fully investigated the quality of this ethnicity information, we will not be using it to produce statistics on deaths by ethnicity.
We have previously produced experimental mortality statistics for ethnicity using a dataset of death registrations linked to the 2011 and 2021 Censuses. We are currently investigating new methods and data sources to produce regular mortality statistics by ethnicity. Therefore, statistics on the number of deaths due to falling by ethnicity is not held.
Further information on the number of deaths due to falls by place of accident, age group, sex or geography could be produced via our bespoke services route. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs, subject to our charging policy. Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk for further information on these services.
NHS England produces an annual Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity publication, which contains the dataset Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity: External Causes, which includes data on the number of hospital admissions for falls including age group or sex breakdown. The time series includes data between 2015 and 2025.
They may be better suited to answering your query regarding injuries and outcomes. They can be contacted at england.contactus@nhs.net
NHS Wales publishes Hospital Admissions Publications Tables, which include datasets on external causes including falls by sex and broad age groups. For further information they can be contacted at: DHCW.FOI@wales.nhs.uk.