Objectives To study incidence characteristics and causes of injury, and its medicalconsequences in school children of China. Methods A total of 2 553 school children aged 7-16years were recruited from Shantou City in Gunagdong by cluster sampling method, and wereinvestigated with questionnaires on cases of injuries occurred among them from October 1, 1996 toSeptember 30, 1997. Results Injuries tended to increase with childrens age, with an overallincidence rate of 37.96%, higher in boys than in girls (P＜0.05); and 38.1% of children had more thantwo episodes of injury during this period. Falls took leading place of injury incidence both in boys andgirls and in all age groups. Most injuries occurred when they were playing, sporting, riding andwalking at home or in school. Self-inflicted injury ranked the first place of all injuries, followed byhurt caused by others (classmates, sibling or others). Moderate and serious injuries accounted for 8%of the total with a disability rate of 121.4/100 000. Conclusions Currently, injury has become oneof the serious public health problems in China. For the improvement of children survival, it is crucialto reduce their injury to strengthen research on child safety and to implement safety-promotionprograms.