Facts on injury
- The leading cause of death for Canadians aged one to 44 years is injury.
- Approximately 700 teenagers each year lose their lives to injury– more than all other causes of death combined. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens.
- In 2004:
- injuries took the lives of 13,667 Canadians.
- More than 211,000 Canadians were hospitalized for at least one day with an injury and over 3.1 million were treated for injuries without being admitted to hospital.
- More than 5,000 injured people were left with a permanent, total disability and another 62,000 suffered permanent, partial disabilities.
- The total cost of injury to Canadian society in 2004 was estimated at $19.8 billion, with nearly $11 billion of that being direct, health care costs and the remaining $9 billion indirect costs related to reduced productivity.
- Suicide was the leading cause of all injury deaths (3,616) in Canada in 2004, closely followed by transport incidents (3,067) and falls (2,225).
- Falls accounted for half of all injuries that led to hospitalization and were the leading cause of disability.
