Statistics

Using hospital admissions statistics, Headway has compiled a dataset on all acquired brain injury (ABI) related hospital admissions in the UK. These include non-superficial head injuries, strokes, brain tumours, encephalitis, and a variety of additional conditions.

You can view the key findings of our research below, or download the full data sets in the related resources section. 

There were 356,699 UK admissions to hospital with acquired brain injury in 2019-20. This is a 12% increase since 2005-6.
ABI admissions in the UK have increased by 12% since 2005-6
There were approximately 977 ABI admissions per day to UK hospitals in 2019-20 – or one every 90 seconds.
In 2019-20, males were 1.5x more likely than females to be admitted for a head injury.
In 2019-20, female head injuries were up 28% since 2005-6.
In 2019-20, there were 137,403 admissions for stroke. This is a 14% increase since 2005-6.

Data from 2019-20 highlights that there is still one admission to hospital for brain injury every 90 seconds, one head injury every three minutes and one stroke every four minutes in the UK.

Alarmingly, head injuries among females have continued to rise, with an increase of 28% in hospital admissions among females since 2005-06.

Strokes in males have increased by 24%, while total strokes have increased by 14% since 2005-06.

All ABIs have increased by 12% since 2005-06, with there being 356,699 admissions to hospital in 2019-20.

"Headway's work does provide the clearest picture to date of the pool of people who require support, from short-term advice and information, to long-term inpatient rehabilitation"
- Professor Alan Tenant, Emeritus Professor of Rehabilitation Studies, University of Leeds

United Kingdom totals

The table below shows the total admissions for all types of ABI in the UK since 2005. It also gives the % change over this period and the rates, which show the number of admissions per 100,000 of the population.

All ABI: England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales
Year Male Rate Female Rate Unknown Total Rate
2005-06 184,776 625 132,370 429 37 317,183 525
2006-07 188,755 634 133,293 429 37 322,085 530
2007-08 188,285 627 134,416 430 32 322,733 526
2008-09 191,368 632 138,646 440 31 330,044 534
2009-10 198,483 653 147,257 468 45 345,785 559
2010-11 199,652 651 148,726 470 30 348,408 559
2011-12 200,650 645 151,289 470 15 351,954 556
2012-13 192,009 613 150,649 465 15 342,673 538
2013-14 194,734 618 154,169 473 31 348,934 544
2014-15 194,648 612 155,916 475 32 350,596 543
2015-16 194,993 607 156,804 475 46 351,843 540
2016-17 192,807 595 155,593 468 53 348,453 531
2017-18 195,438 600 156,975 469 13 352,426 534
2018-19 199,906 610 160,466 477 25 360,397 542
2019-20 197,020 597 159,651 472 28 356,699 534
Change since 2005 % 7 -4 21 10 -24 12 2

Further information

You can download the full data tables and infographic in the related resources section. This allows you to see the fine detail of hospital admissions by type of brain injury, age, year and location. This detailed information can be manipulated to your needs, and will support a wide range of brain injury-related needs from funding applications to service planning and campaigning.

Our infographic is an ideal tool for raising awareness of brain injury, designed to give a quick, accessible overview of the key finding of our new statistics. It includes total admission figures by condition and geographical region as well as some of the trends we identified.