WHEN next you see a marauding cow or an angry centipede, or you even just bump into a passer-by - beware, death could be stalking you.

Worried about crocodile attack, earthquakes or avalanches?

Don't be.

You are statistically more likely to die from falling out of bed, an exploding gas cylinder at your next barbecue or being bitten by an "urticating caterpillar" or other "venomous arthropod".

And keep away from doing repetitive movements - they can be deadly, especially if you're a man.

Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its latest list of how Australians died in the last year in a report called "Causes of Death, Australia: Doctor Certified Deaths".

There were 147,098 Australians who died in 2012, just 166 more than the previous year and at a rate of 5.5 for every 1,000 people in Australia, slightly down on the death rate in 2011.

Slightly more men, 50.8 per cent of the total, died than women, 49.2 per cent.

Cancer caused the most deaths,(42,961) and heart disease and stroke killed almost as many (38, 743).

Among among the diseases and hundreds of mental and physical disorders from which Australians die, no Australians have been unlucky enough to die from rabies, leprosy or the plague.

But even for the most healthy of Australians, there are hazards around the home which can prove fatal.

Here are the statistics about Australian deaths you didn't know, taken from the ABS report "Causes of Death Australia, 2011".

Contact with a hot water tap is more deadly than a venomous spider, and you are nine times more likely to drown in the bath tub than be killed in a train crash.

You are eight times more likely to die falling off a chair than a skateboard, and just as likely to die from being bitten by a person as by a dog.

You are slightly more likely to die from repetitive movements than you are from being struck by lightning.

You are three times more likely to die in front of a moving object if you're male, and twice as likely to die from cold than heat.

Being male is more hazardous in some respects.

Twice as many males died from exposure to high or low air pressure, although this was not widely dangerous, with a total of six fatalities.

Other male gender risky forms of exposure were to forces of nature in general, which killed 45 men and 23 women, exposure to excessive natural cold which was not only killed more men, but killed more than twice as many Australians as exposure to excessive natural heat.

Accidental poisoning by exposure to noxious substances is also deadly for men, killing more than twice as man (686) as females (301).

Contact with venomous animals and plants killed twice as many as did contact with snakes and lizards.

Unsurprisingly, contact with sharp objects was four times more fatal than with blunt objects.

More people died from contact with a non-powered hand tool, than they did with an exploding gas cylinder, but both were more deadly than machinery or powered lawnmowers.

If you want to get somewhere, choose plane over boat every time.

You are three times more likely to die from water transport accidents than "air and space" accidents.

Motor accidents aside, as far as public transport goes, stick to the conventional.

Nine Australians died from accidents on horse drawn vehicles, 15 on tractors or farm machines compared with one travelling by train, four on buses and a whopping 17 from off road vehicles.

The family home can be a dangerous place.

While eight people died falling from cliffs and 41 falling from a building, 58 people died just falling out of bed.

A further 26 fell off a chair and perished, compared with only three deaths - all male - from falling off ice skates, skis or skateboards.

Just slipping, tripping or tumbling was extremely hazardous, killing 715 people.

Even simply bumping into another person caused four men to die, only slightly fewer than being "hit, struck, twisted, kicked, bitten or scratched by another person".

Men were three times more likely to die from falling, lying or running before or into a moving object, than women and 13 times as death prone when it came to falling, jumping or being pushed from a high place.

Completely non-hazardous in Australia were the following which each resulted in zero deaths: crushed or stepped on by a human stampede, earthquake, avalanche, being bitten by a rat or being struck by sports equipment.

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