In the US, more than one in four adults over 65 report a fall each year, and the fall death rate rose 21% from 2018 to 2024
How many older adults fall in the US?
The finding
More than one in four adults aged 65 and over (over 14 million) report a fall each year. The age-adjusted fall death rate rose from 64.7 to 78.4 per 100,000 between 2018 and 2024.
- Authors
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Published
- Older Adult Falls Data (4 Sept 2026); Facts About Older Adult Falls (8 Sept 2026) · 2026
- Evidence
- Read in the primary source; numbers checked.
- Source
- www.cdc.gov/falls/data-research/index.html
How it was studied
US surveillance data; death rates from NVSS and CDC WONDER.
The numbers
About 4.5 million emergency department visits a year are for older adult falls. Falls cause 83% of hip fracture deaths; nearly 319,000 older people are hospitalised for hip fractures a year. About 37% of people who fall report an injury needing treatment or restricting activity for a day or more.
What it does not show
Self-reported falls; US only.
What Longstanding does with it
Context only.