Background Injury is now an emerging public health problem in China. Hubei Province, located in the central of China, has an area of 185,900 km² and a population of 57.9 million. Injury is the fourth leading cause of death both in Hubei Province and in China. Given the similar injury mortality situation, this study result will be useful to offer reasonable strategies in China.

Methods The injury mortality rate, distribution of rate by gender and age, potential years of life lost (PYLL) were adopted to analyse injury mortality data from the Death Registry System in Hubei Province during 2008-2012.

Results The proportions of annual injury deaths were 10.59%, 10.26%, 9.62%, 9.92% and 9.16% respectively during 2008–2012.The mortality rates were 60.54/10⁵ , 60.79/10⁵, 61.41/10⁵, 59.72/10⁵ and 59.81/10⁵ respectively from 2008 to 2012.The standardised mortality rates were 53.21/10⁵, 52.34/10⁵, 52.19/10⁵ and 48.96/10⁵ respectively. The male mortality rates were 72.63/10⁵, 71.70/10⁵, 68.33/10⁵, 77.59/10⁵ and 73.82/10⁵ while the female mortality rate were 47.49/10 ⁵, 49.10/10⁵, 44.35/10⁵, 44.81/10⁵ and 44.86/10⁵ respectively during 2008–2012. Besides, injury mortality comprised about 9.88% and 8.12% respectively for men and women in the death toll. The sex ratio of injury mortality was 165 males for every 100 females which was higher than the sex ratio of mortality among the total population. Suicide was the first leading cause of injury death in Hubei Province which comprised more than 30%. The mortality rates of suicide were 47.49/10⁵, 49.10/10⁵, 44.35/10⁵, 44.81/10⁵ and 44.86/10⁵ respectively during 2008–2012.The five major injury causes of death were as followed: suicide, traffic-related injury, falls, drowning and crushing injury. Injury death was the first cause of death in children aged 1 ~ 44 years. The injury mortality rates in male were higher than female in all ages’ groups. The injury mortality rates were almost stable during the above period. However, the mortality rates of suicide had a slight decrease and the death rate of road traffic injury showed a slight increase.

Conclusions Injury is the leading cause of death for kids, teenagers and working population. It is necessary to prevent traffic-related injury and strengthen psychological counselling for suicide prevention.