Objective To explore the frequency domain characteristics of pedestrian head dynamic response in vehicle collisions and investigate the correlation between frequency domain parameters and time domain injury criteria. Methods Finite element modelling based on human body model was used to simulate the process of pedestrian head-vehicle impacts, and the wavelet packet signal analysis method was employed to obtain the frequency domain response of pedestrian head in the simulations. Results The head energy under impacts at the bonnet area was mainly dispersed in the 0–300 Hz frequency band, while the head energy under impacts at the windshield area was mainly concentrated in the 0–5 Hz frequency band. The peak energy of frequency band for pedestrian head generally increased with the increase of linear and rotational speed, and the influence of rotational speed on the peak energy of frequency band was more significant when the linear speed was higher. The linear correlation R2 between the peak energy of the head frequency band caused by the collision between the bonnet and windshield area and the time-domain criterion for skull injury were 0.85 and 0.61, respectively. But their correlation with the time-domain indicators for brain injury evaluation was relatively low (R2<0.5). Conclusions The frequency domain response characteristics of pedestrian heads are affected by collision speed and location. The peak energy of the frequency band can potentially characterize the risk of skull injury, but the frequency band and concentration of the peak energy in the frequency band are not related to the risk of head injury. This study can provide references for the evaluation of head blunt injury combined with time-frequency response.