Falls affect roughly three in ten community-dwelling adults older than 65 each year, while the burden rises to about one half among those older than 85. In the United States, falls also produce millions of emergency-department visits and tens of thousands of deaths, with markedly higher mortality rates at older ages.
Key Older Adult Fall Statistics
The following highlights span prevalence, outcomes, mortality, global burden, and recurrence:
- In 2020, 14,058,840 U.S. adults aged 65 or older reported at least one fall in the previous year.
- In 2020, 27.6% of U.S. adults aged 65 or older reported at least one fall in the previous year.
- In 2020, 28.9% of U.S. women aged 65 or older reported a fall in the previous year.
- In 2020, 26.1% of U.S. men aged 65 or older reported a fall in the previous year.
- In 2020, state-level U.S. fall reporting ranged from 19.9% in Illinois to 38.0% in Alaska among adults aged 65 or older.
- In 2023, 41,400 unintentional fall deaths occurred among U.S. adults aged 65 or older.
- In 2023, the U.S. fall-death rate was 69.9 per 100,000 adults aged 65 or older.
- In 2023, the U.S. fall-death rate reached 339.5 per 100,000 among adults aged 85 or older.
- In 2023, 21,031 U.S. fall deaths occurred among adults aged 85 or older.
- In 2023, about 4.5 million U.S. emergency-department visits were associated with older-adult falls in the annual CDC estimate.
- In the same annual U.S. estimate, about 1.4 million older-adult fall ED visits resulted in hospitalization.
- About 37% of older adults who fall reported an injury requiring medical treatment or at least one day of restricted activity in the CDC summary estimate.
- In the cited 2019 U.S. analysis, falls caused 88% of hip-fracture ED visits and hospitalizations among adults aged 65 or older.
- Globally, an estimated 684,000 fatal falls occur each year across all ages.
- Globally, more than 38 million disability-adjusted life years result from falls each year across all ages.
- In Finland, the average health-system cost per fall injury was US$3,611 for people aged 65 or older in evidence cited by WHO.
- In Australia, the average health-system cost per fall injury was US$1,049 for people aged 65 or older in evidence cited by WHO.
- After hospital discharge, the pooled incidence of any fall was 14% among older adults in a 2022 systematic review.
- After hospital discharge, the pooled incidence of recurrent falls was 10% among older adults in the same review.
Contents
- Annual older adult fall prevalence
- Age, sex, and U.S. geography
- Fall deaths and mortality trends
- Injuries, fractures, and emergency care
- Global burden, disability, and costs
- Risk factors and recurrence
Annual Older Adult Fall Prevalence
Prevalence depends strongly on living setting and age definition. The WHO World report on ageing and health, published in 2015, synthesized reviews and meta-analyses rather than reporting one single cohort.
| Population and setting | Period or source | Annual measure |
|---|---|---|
| Community-dwelling adults older than 65 | WHO synthesis, 2015 | About 30% fall at least once |
| Community-dwelling adults older than 85 | WHO synthesis, 2015 | About 50% fall at least once |
| Long-term-care residents older than 65 | WHO synthesis, 2015 | More than 50% fall |
Source: World report on ageing and health. These are review-based estimates, and the long-term-care figure uses a greater-than threshold.
The U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System provides a different measurement: a weighted, self-reported fall in the previous year. In 2020, 14,058,840 U.S. adults aged 65 or older reported at least one fall, corresponding to an age-adjusted prevalence of 27.6%.
Source: Nonfatal and Fatal Falls Among Adults Aged >=65 Years — United States, 2020–2021. BRFSS prevalence is self-reported and should not be treated as a same-year paired cohort with the mortality measures reported for 2021.
Older Adult Fall Statistics by Age, Sex, and U.S. Geography
The 2020 BRFSS results show a modest sex difference in reported falls, while state percentages vary more widely.
| U.S. population | Period | Age-adjusted fall prevalence |
|---|---|---|
| Women aged 65+ | 2020 | 28.9% |
| Men aged 65+ | 2020 | 26.1% |
| All adults aged 65+ | 2020 | 27.6% |
| Lowest state value, Illinois | 2020 | 19.9% |
| Highest state value, Alaska | 2020 | 38.0% |
Source: Nonfatal and Fatal Falls Among Adults Aged >=65 Years — United States, 2020–2021. The state figures are age-adjusted estimates and the endpoints do not describe a national distribution.
Mortality rises sharply across older age bands. In 2023, the national U.S. unintentional fall-death rate was 19.2 per 100,000 for adults aged 65–74, 74.7 per 100,000 for adults aged 75–84, and 339.5 per 100,000 for adults aged 85 or older.
Source: Unintentional Fall Deaths in Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2023. These are underlying-cause mortality rates using ICD-10 codes W00–W19.
Older Adult Fall Death Trends in the United States
In 2023, U.S. adults aged 65 or older experienced 41,400 unintentional fall deaths, with an overall rate of 69.9 per 100,000. Men accounted for 19,877 deaths and women for 21,523 deaths.
| Measure | 2023 result |
|---|---|
| Adults aged 65+ | 41,400 deaths; 69.9 per 100,000 |
| Men aged 65+ | 19,877 deaths; 74.2 per 100,000 |
| Women aged 65+ | 21,523 deaths; 66.3 per 100,000 |
Source: Unintentional Fall Deaths in Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2023. The figures come from National Vital Statistics System mortality data.
The age pattern is also visible in counts: 6,650 deaths occurred among adults aged 65–74, 13,719 among adults aged 75–84, and 21,031 among adults aged 85 or older. State rates ranged from 29.5 per 100,000 in Alabama to 158.4 in Wisconsin in 2023.
An earlier CDC comparison reported that the U.S. age-adjusted fall-death rate increased from 29.6 per 100,000 in 2000 to 56.7 per 100,000 in 2013 among adults aged 65 or older. A separate 2021 surveillance report recorded a national rate of 78.0 per 100,000, with state rates ranging from 30.7 in Alabama to 176.5 in Wisconsin; its mortality year differs from the 2020 BRFSS fall-prevalence year.
Source: Unintentional Fall Deaths in Adults Age 65 and Older: United States, 2023 and Nonfatal and Fatal Falls Among Adults Aged >=65 Years — United States, 2020–2021.
Sex differences persist within age groups. In 2023, male and female fall-death rates were 24.7 and 14.2 per 100,000 at ages 65–74, 89.6 and 62.8 at ages 75–84, and 373.3 and 319.7 at ages 85 or older.
Older Adult Fall Injuries, Fractures, and Emergency Care
CDC’s annual estimate places the U.S. burden at about 4.5 million emergency-department visits because of older people falling. About 3.1 million of those visits result in treatment and release, while about 1.4 million result in hospitalization.
Source: Facts About Older Adult Falls. These are annual estimates paired on the CDC page, not a single-year count stated in the page text.
The injury denominator matters. About 37% of older adults who fall report an injury requiring medical treatment or at least one day of restricted activity, whereas a separate CDC measure reports that one in ten falls causes a serious injury; these outcomes should not be conflated.
Hip fractures are especially closely linked to falls. In a cited 2019 U.S. analysis, falls caused 83% of hip-fracture deaths and 88% of hip-fracture emergency-department visits and hospitalizations among adults aged 65 or older.
The WHO ageing-report synthesis estimated that significant injuries occur in 4%–15% of falls among older adults and that falls account for 95% of hip fractures. A separate post-hospital systematic review summarized fracture literature estimating 90% of hip fractures are attributable to falls; the two estimates come from different syntheses and should remain separate.
Sources: Facts About Older Adult Falls, World report on ageing and health, and Post-hospital falls incidence and risk factors among older adults.
Global Older Adult Fall Burden, Disability, and Costs
WHO’s 2021 global fact sheet combines all-age totals with older-adult findings, so the denominator must stay explicit. An estimated 684,000 fatal falls occur worldwide each year, more than 80% of fall-related fatalities occur in low- and middle-income countries, and about 37.3 million falls require medical attention.
Falls cause more than 38 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally each year. Nearly 40% of fall DALYs occur in children, and WHO cautions that DALYs may understate the effect of disability among older adults.
Adults older than 60 have the greatest number of fatal falls globally, according to WHO’s qualitative synthesis. In the WHO ageing-report synthesis, falls account for 23%–40% of injury-related deaths in older adults.
| Location and population | Evidence period/source | Average health-system cost per fall injury |
|---|---|---|
| Finland, people aged 65+ | WHO fact sheet, 2021 | US$3,611 |
| Australia, people aged 65+ | WHO fact sheet, 2021 | US$1,049 |
Source: Falls. These are country-specific averages from cited evidence; currency-year and costing methods are source dependent, so they are not directly interchangeable with one another or with U.S. costs.
Risk Factors and Recurrence After Older Adult Falls
A 2021 systematic review with meta-analysis examined recurrent-fall risk factors among adults aged 60 or older. It included 22 prospective studies, and at least 19 were rated high quality; the results are pooled associations, not intervention effects or individual probabilities.
| Risk-factor domain | Relative risk for recurrent falls | 95% confidence interval |
|---|---|---|
| Balance and mobility | 1.32 | 1.10–1.59 |
| Medication-related | 1.53 | 1.11–2.10 |
| Psychological | 1.35 | 1.03–1.78 |
| Sensory and neuromuscular | 1.51 | 1.18–1.92 |
Source: Risk factors for recurrent falls in older adults: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Medication exposures, adjustment methods, and the component factors varied across studies, and the associations do not prove causation.
Recurrence is also documented after hospitalization. A 2022 post-hospital systematic review found a pooled 14% incidence of any fall and a pooled 10% incidence of recurrent falls among older adults after discharge.
In comparable post-hospital studies using non-medical fall records, any-fall incidence ranged from 12% to 40%. The review reported substantial heterogeneity across studies and follow-up periods, and recurrent-fall definitions and observation windows varied.