Key points
- About 842,000 people died from falls worldwide in 2023 — the second-leading cause of unintentional injury deaths after road injuries (WHO, 21 October 2026).
- About 71% of fall deaths in 2023 were among adults aged 60 and over (WHO).
- The older figure of 684,000 deaths a year is superseded — it comes from the 2021 WHO falls fact sheet and should not be quoted as current.
- WHO's Step Safely package recommends balance-challenging exercise, home hazard assessment and modification, medicine review, and vision, footwear and mobility attention.
Direct answer: About 842,000 people died from falls worldwide in 2023 (WHO Global Health Estimates) — the second-leading cause of unintentional injury deaths after road injuries. About 71% of fall deaths in 2023 were among adults aged 60 and over. Falls ranked eighth among causes of disability-adjusted life years globally in 2023. This page is awareness only: it gives WHO's figures and the prevention measures WHO recommends at population level, and it gives no personal safety advice.
The figures
The figures are WHO’s, from the falls fact sheet published 21 October 2026. About 842,000 deaths from falls worldwide in 2023. About 71% of fall deaths in 2023 were among adults aged 60 and over. By sex, 481,000 fall deaths were male and 361,000 female in 2023. By region, South-East Asia (284,200 deaths) and the Western Pacific (239,800) together accounted for about 62% of fall deaths. Falls ranked eighth among causes of DALYs — disability-adjusted life years, the years of healthy life lost — globally in 2023. The fact sheet was republished in October 2026, and the death figure changed with it: that change is the subject of the next section.
The old figure is superseded
The widely quoted “684,000 deaths a year” figure is the old WHO falls figure, from the 2021 fact sheet. It is superseded by the 2023 Global Health Estimates figure of about 842,000, and it should not be quoted as current. The change is a live example of why this site dates every figure and re-checks fact sheets when WHO republishes them: a figure that was correct in 2021 became wrong in 2026, and any page still carrying it is carrying a figure WHO no longer stands behind. The same discipline applies across this site — the suicide figure changed from 727,000 to 746,000 between fact-sheet editions, and the mental-disorder headline changed from about 970 million to more than 1 billion. Figures move; the page must move with them.
Who is most at risk
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in older age, but they are not only an older-age problem. WHO’s falls page covers three at-risk groups: older people, children, and workers. This page is older-people only, by scope — but the other two groups are named here so the page does not imply falls happen only in old age. Among older people, the risk rises with the conditions of ageing itself: the common conditions in older age include falls as a geriatric syndrome, alongside frailty, urinary incontinence, delirium and pressure ulcers (WHO, ageing and health, 1 October 2025). The risk factors accumulate across the life course, like dementia risk — which is why the healthy ageing guide and this page belong together.
What Step Safely recommends
WHO’s Step Safely technical package (2021) organises prevention in three parts: safer people, safer environments, and safer policies. For community-dwelling older people, the measures are: balance-challenging exercise; home hazard assessment and modification for higher-risk people; medicine review; and attention to vision, footwear and mobility. The package grades its evidence — strongly recommended, recommended, promising, prudent — and this page does not reproduce the grades or the package’s detail: Step Safely is written for health systems and practitioners, and this page links to it rather than restating it. One point is stated plainly because it corrects a common belief: routine vitamin D supplementation should not be presented as a general fall-prevention strategy (WHO).
Falls beyond older people
Falls in children and in workers are covered by the same WHO Step Safely package, and the WHO falls fact sheet gives the same regional and sex splits for all ages. This page keeps its older-people scope and links out for the rest: a page that tried to cover older people, children and workers in one place would do none of them properly. The life-course point stands, though — a fall in childhood, a fall at work, and a fall in old age are the same kind of event, at different ages, and the prevention that works at one age often works at another.
Frequently asked questions
How many people die from falls each year?
About 842,000 people died from falls worldwide in 2023, and about 71% of those deaths were among adults aged 60 and over (WHO, 21 October 2026).
Is the 684,000 figure still current?
No. It comes from the 2021 WHO falls fact sheet and is superseded by the 2023 Global Health Estimates figure of about 842,000.
Does vitamin D prevent falls?
No. Routine vitamin D supplementation should not be presented as a general fall-prevention strategy (WHO).