In 2025, 7,810 people in the Netherlands died after an accidental fall – stumbling, slipping, or falling – 480 more than in 2024, or more than 21 deaths a day, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Seventy-nine percent of those who died were 80 or older; only 2 percent were under 60. Most were women. The average age at death was 83 for men and 87 for women.

Falls are now the leading cause of unnatural death. After adjusting for aging and population growth, the death rate from falls has risen every year for 15 years. Among women 90 and older, 2.1 percent died after a fall in 2025, up from 1.0 percent in 2016. Fatal falls peak in winter and are lowest in summer.

CBS counts a death only if it follows within 30 days of an unintentional fall. Falls from a bicycle or mobility scooter are recorded as traffic deaths, not in this total.

The deaths are only the worst end of a much larger problem. Last year about 124,000 people aged 65 and older were treated in an emergency room after a fall – 5,000 more than in 2024. VeiligheidNL says most of them suffered serious injuries: wrist fractures, hip fractures, and traumatic brain injury. Serious fall injuries have risen 16 percent over the past decade, with the sharpest increase among people 65 to 74.

Those ER visits are the tip of the iceberg. One in three people 65 and older falls each year – about 1 million people in the Netherlands. Many never reach an emergency department.

Fall-prevention specialist Rozan van der Veen of VeiligheidNL says the rise is driven by an aging population and by people living longer, often at home with chronic illness. “People 80 and older have a higher risk of falling,” she said. Prevention can cut the toll, but “it may well take many years before the increase levels off.”