Study: Camping is the Safest Recreational Activity

According to a study conducted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, camping ranks as one of the safest recreational activities in America. The hunting advocacy organization recently compiled data from the National Sporting Goods Association and the Consumer Products Safety Commission to compare total injuries per 100,000 participants in 29 recreational activities. Campers only reported 4942 injuries in 2010, versus an estimated 44,700,000 participation nights, or 11 injuries per 100,000 participants.

I found it quite interesting, and perplexing, that mountain biking had a much lower injury rate than "bicycle riding", which I would interpret to mean road cycling. The only explanation that I can think of is that "bicycle riding" includes more children.

Unfortunately hiking was not included in the study.

Here are the top 10 safest activities:


Here are the most unsafe activities:

Of course this study only measures the number of incidents, and doesn't look at the severity of these injuries, which would likely tell a much different story. You can look at the full table of activities on the Fact Sheet published by the NSSF.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com