More Australians have been killed by horses in recent years than all the country's venomous creatures put together, a new study by Melbourne University researchers has found.

Dr Ronelle Welton, from the university's Australian Venom Unit, looked at hospital admissions data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, as well as Australian coronial records from 2000 to 2013.

Bites and stings in Australia Creature Deaths (2000-2013) Hospitalised (2001-2013) Hornets, wasps, bees 27 (25 bees, 2 wasps) 12,351 Snakes 27 6,123 Spiders 0 11,994 Ticks and ants 5 4,533 Marine animals 3 (box jellyfish) 3,707 Centipedes, millipedes 0 119 Scorpions 0 61 Unknown 2 NA

During that period, snakebites killed 27 people, the same number as bee and wasp stings, while 74 Australians died after being thrown or trampled by a horse, Dr Welton said.

Almost 42,000 people sent to hospital as a result of bites or stings, with bees and wasps responsible for just over a third of them.

"There was about just over 12,000 hospitalisations from bee or wasp stings, which would be the allergy or reaction to the venom, not the venom itself," Dr Welton said.

"Followed closely by spiders at about 11,000 hospitalisations, and then snake bite envenoming hospitalisation was about 6,000 across that time period."

However, while bees and wasps may be more likely to send you to hospital, snakes are still the most lethal proportionally, the data showed.

"While fewer people were encountering snakes, we have a higher proportion of people dying," she said.

But with more than 140 species of land snakes in Australia, Dr Welton said the chance of being killed by snakebite was still very remote.

Meanwhile, the records from 2000 to 2013 found not a single recorded death anywhere in the country from spider bite.

"The last death recorded on this dataset was in 1980, just before funnel web spider anti-venom came along, so before that there was no treatment for the venom, since then people have been treated very successfully," she said.

Australia's dangerous animals not so deadly?

With sharks regularly making news this summer after numerous sightings on the country's beaches, Dr Welton said she checked the database to see how other animals compared to the country's venomous species.

"I looked at the same database, we have 26 deaths in the same period from sharks and I thought that was really interesting — 19 deaths from crocodiles, and 74 deaths from horses," she said.

"I was expecting it to be more [deaths from sharks], with the funding and the awareness that's put into sharks, I actually thought it would be higher."

While animal attacks may lead the news, the number of deaths from animals is tiny compared to other things that can hurt you.

"The biggest surprise is just how small the numbers are — from a national perspective, we get a lot of media hype on how dangerous are, but if you look at things like drowning, there was nearly 5,000 deaths in the same study period," Dr Welton said.

"Burns — there was nearly 1,000 within the same period, so it's nothing to be alarmed about, just be prepared, make sure you understand your first aid, if you do have allergies or know someone who does."

Dr Welton said the data was an underestimation of the number of people who were bitten or stung overall because it did not include data from GPs, pharmacists and emergency departments.