Formula 1 24 deaths per 800 drivers
Possibly up there, but motorsport as a whole, including 1000's of weekend warriors on trackdays?
Also, a per minute/hour figure would be fairer, eg basejumping is dangerous and only takes a few seconds/minutes, cave diving takes hours but similarly dangerous?
Per activity would make more sense I would think - per ride, per match, per jump, per race
My guess would be basejumping (fatality rate is about 1%) and road racing (220 fatalities at the TT since it started)
Hmm looking at that list, with Base jumping rated highest with 9 from a population of 20,000 ish, I doubt there are many more Kite surfers and there have been more deaths than that in that period, there were three in two weeks last summer in Tarifa.
So per head, Kitesurfing must be up there and it is dangerous.
Equestrian Cross Country?
I'd guess this. Also ice climbing/rock climbing and base jumping.
I tried Paragliding for a bit and the Mag that came with that had far too many "Doing what he loved" obituaries for my liking. Climbing was a lot lower.
Horse riding is often quoted as being the most dangerous sport in the UK, way above climbing, cycling and other "high" risk activities. I have worked in both cycling and equestrian events, and the worst injuries I have seen have been horse related... Climbing, whilst a high risk sport is usually quite safe as climbers take so much more caution and evaluate each move better.
That micromorts link suggests horseriding is equally deathly as sking, but scuba diving is 10 times more deadly, hang gliding is 16 times more so.
But where you to put the line between sport and activity - do you group the grand national with pony trekking? Ski Jumping with ski holidays?
Holiday sport insurance must be a good guide as the actuarys tend to be on the money. The last time I looked the top sports risk wise were
riding horses especialy competion and racing motor bikes
A few people have mentioned climbing in various forms on here. This is a really common misconception. Obviously there are risks but not all forms of climbing are the same.
Rock climbing is incredibly safe. Mountain rescue teams produce yearly stats on what their callouts are and depending on where they are based the % of rock climbing accidents is tiny and very very few of them are fatalities or actually involve a fall whilst climbing. More normally it's a trip on descent or a twisted ankle walking up to the crag.
A great part of the skill of climbing is minimising the obvious (and less obvious) risks.
As you move into bigger mountains and icy / glaciated environments the risks increase but I think you'd need to go to Himalyan 8000ers before you got to a kind of climbing that would pass muster on your list.
The mountain rescue figures will be skewed because rock climbers will be heavily out numbered by all the other people out on the hills. "Alpine Mountaineering" has a risk of 1.87 deaths per 1000 climbing days
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