The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has published what it calls the first national view of hospitalisations linked to e-scooters and e-bikes, and the headline number is steep. ABC News reported on 22 October that hospitalisations involving e-scooters more than tripled, from 1,291 in 2019/20 to 4,089 in 2024/25.
What the report found
- E-scooter hospitalisations rose from 1,291 in 2019/20 to 4,089 in 2024/25
- Two thirds of the people hospitalised in 2024/25 were male
- Boys aged 12 to 15 recorded a 15 fold increase in hospitalisations from e-scooter falls between 2019/20 and 2024/25, and were four times more likely than girls of the same age to be admitted
- E-scooter related deaths rose from 7 in 2014/15 to 20 in 2024/25, although the proportion of deaths stayed stable
Where e-bikes fit in
Hospitalisation rates for e-bike riders also rose, but ABC News reported no e-bike specific figures. The reason is classification: until recently, hospital coding did not cleanly separate e-bikes from e-scooters and other devices. New codes introduced in July 2026 are meant to distinguish them. AIHW spokesperson Jacqueline Rek cautioned that the findings should not be read as precise counts of injuries involving e-scooters or e-bikes alone, and said more data is needed.
That caveat matters for anyone reading the numbers as an e-bike story. The tripling is an e-scooter figure. What the report does confirm is that the national picture is rising and that it skews young and male.
The ownership picture in Queensland
The same ABC report cited University of Queensland research suggesting almost one million e-bikes and e-scooters are privately owned by Queenslanders. Richard Buning, who worked on that research, said purchases have grown by about 30 per cent every year for the past five years, that around 70 per cent of users are over 40, and that over powered e-bikes are among his chief concerns. He backed Queensland's e-bike assurance scheme but disagreed with licensing e-bikes, and suggested teaching safe riding in schools.
What Queensland riders face now
- Riders must be 16 or older and hold a valid driver's licence (a learner licence counts)
- Children aged 12 to 17 who do not hold a licence may ride only with parental supervision
- The rules took effect on 1 July 2026
- From March 2027, every e-bike ridden in public in Queensland must carry a compliance label under the state's assurance scheme, which follows EU standards
Sources
The AIHW figures, the comments from Jacqueline Rek and Richard Buning, the University of Queensland ownership estimate and the Queensland rules are as reported by ABC News on 22 October 2026. We did not review the AIHW report itself. The hero is an ABC News image of an e-bike on a path.