Trampoline Injury Statistics: How Many Kids Get Hurt, at What Age, and How

The headline numbers

2019 hospitalizations in detail

Totapally, Appanagari, Alkhoury and Meyer analyzed the 2019 national pediatric inpatient database in Pediatric Hospitalization Due to Trampoline-Related Injuries in the United States During 2019 (Cureus, December 2024). Of the 885 admitted children, 75.4% required an orthopedic operating-room procedure and 2.6% a cranio-spinal procedure; the median stay was two days. The study reports median hospital charges as well, which we leave to the paper because charge figures are not prices a family pays. The study is open access at the link in the sources.

Injury types

Totapally et al., Cureus 2024, Table data as reported in the article; categories are not mutually exclusive.

Age, sex and season

Children 5-9 were 38.7% of admissions and 10-14 another 28.0%, so two-thirds of hospitalized children were between 5 and 14. Boys were 59.9% of trampoline admissions, against 43.8% of non-trampoline trauma admissions in the same database. Admissions clustered on weekends (43.2%) and in summer (33.0%) and spring (29.7%). These are the ages, days and months a backyard trampoline is used most; the pattern is exposure, not a mystery.

How the injuries happen

CPSC lists the causes as colliding with another person on the trampoline, landing improperly while jumping or doing stunts, falling or jumping off, and falling on the springs or frame. The AAP's policy statement adds the two findings that matter most for a parent: "Most trampoline injuries occur with multiple simultaneous users on the mat," and "Cervical spine injuries often occur with falls off the trampoline or with attempts at somersaults or flips." It also reviews the safety-measure evidence and concludes that "current implementation of safety measures have not appeared to mitigate risk substantially," which is why it strongly discourages home use. Nets and pads address the falls-off and frame mechanisms; nothing but a rule addresses the first two.

What the numbers say to do

One jumper at a time (the leading mechanism), no flips (the spinal mechanism), a net attached to the mat and pads over every spring (the falls-off and frame mechanisms), anchors in the ground, no child under 6, and an adult present on the summer weekend afternoons when the admissions cluster. The product side of that list is on best trampolines with an enclosure net and how to anchor a trampoline; the rest is on are trampolines safe for kids. We update this page when a newer national dataset is published; the date at the top is the last check.