As a Rugby coach and ref I suspect that, per capita, there is a greater frequency of injury and of a more serious nature. Although the on-pitch reaction of some soccer players would tend to suggest my view is wrong. Between '85 and '95 there were something in the order of 80 serious spinal injuries reported, 70% of which resulted in permanent impairment. As a rule of thumb I'd guess that the greater the contact, the greater the risk of injury. I have no statistics regarding origami paper cuts.

Wills some American stats to get the ball rolling http://www.livescience.c...0614_sport_injuries.html

Ergonomics of Sports & Exercise, T O'Reilly, Human Kinetics. 2009

There used to be soem useful stats collected under the title HASS/LASS. These were compiled from reports of visits to A&E Depts of selected hospitals and then "grossed up" to give Uk numebrs. The "L" stood for Leisure and the "H" for Home of household. They were the source of the "tea cosy causes injury" stories a few years back. Unfortunately they ceased production in 2003 - I think no one was prepared to fund data collection/analysis. I do not know whether they were replaced - I think not. RoSPA retains the historic data which can be searched over the period 2000 - 2002. http://www.hassandlass.o...uk/query/HassLassFAQ.htm Regards - Phil

Some info on rugby stats: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sp.../rugby_union/8471469.stm

Average lifespan of a cave diver is something like 6 months. Horse riding is pretty dangerous. Most serious injury I've had was a mountain biking injury but the most common injury I get is related to running. Probably find the things you consider to be dangerous (parachuting) actually aren't as generally you live or die!! To be honest I don't think you will find a list of stats across all sports as 'sport' is such a broad term that means different things to different people and sporting groups remain insular to themselves. Is there a purpose to this. Personally I wouldn't consider sports injuries to be a H&S issue. They're not reportable.

Stuff4blokes - I said cave DIVING. Different sport entirely. Hubby does normal caving. Think he's mad. Not because I think it is dangerous but because I can' think of anything worse than being underground (mind you I am terribly claustrophobic). Having said that, we both do lots of so called-dangerous sports but the only one our life insurance refuses to cover is caving. Daft that. I've done some climbing (and ice climbing) but not been injured through it (except my pride) and don't really know of anyone who has.

Yep!!