Background Traumatic head injury is one of the major cause of mortality, disability and morbidity worldwide. There is scarcity of population based studies in context of Low and middle income countries (LMICs). The aim of this study is to understand the magnitude and causes of traumatic head injury from a nationally representative population based survey.

Methodology Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey which was conducted nationally during March- June 2016 among 2 99 216 rural and urban population. By using multi stage cluster sampling method 16 districts and 8 city corporations were selected for this study.

Results The annual incidence of head injury found was 814.8/1,00,000 people (95% CI: 782.9 to 847.6) with mortality rate of 23.39/100,000 population (95% CI: 18.38 to 29.38). Among the victims, about 67.3% (95% CI: 65.4 to 69.1) and 32.7% (95% CI: 30.9 to 34.6) were male versus female. Male are 2.05 times greater at risk than the female (RR: 2.052; 95% CI: 1.886 to 2.233). The three leading causes found were transport injury 30.6% (95% CI: 28.7 to 32.4) followed by fall 26.2% (95% CI: 24.4 to 28.0) and violence 14.9% (95% CI: 13.5 to 16.3).

Conclusion Traumatic head injury is a considerable cause of death and disability as well as hospital admission in Bangladesh. Male are higher at risk than the female. Road traffic injury, fall and violence are the major causes found to be responsible for head injury. To reduce the impending burden of head injury, national strategies and preventive measures need to be developed.