Is fear of serious injury keeping you from exercising?

Here’s good news for people who are active – or want to be: A new study shows that the risk of serious injury in most forms of exercise and sports is remarkably low.

Looking at 2012-2017 data from hospitals in England and Wales, a team of researchers from the University of Bath examined 61 different sports and activities to estimate the risks. They found that, over the six years, sports and exercise led to 12,000 trauma injuries. The overall annual injury incidence rate was 5.4 injuries per 100,000 participants. Only 1.3% of injuries were fatal.

Fitness activities such as walking (0.03 traumatic injuries per 100,000 participants), fitness classes (0.1), running (0.7) and golf (1.3) had the lowest injury risks.

Activities with the highest risk? Motorsports (532.3 injuries per 100,000 participants), equestrian sports (235.3) and gliding (190.8).

The researchers note that serious injury risks increased in the later years of the study period. They hope the data will encourage people who participate in or organize sports and recreation to make activities even safer. They also recommend developing a national registry of injuries to help identify and act upon risk patterns.

“While no physical activity is entirely without risk, the chance of serious injury is exceedingly low when compared to the myriad health and wellness advantages gained from staying active,” researcher Sean Williams added.

The study was published online in the journal Injury Prevention.