Hockey and Other Sports:
Injuries Compared

    At least between 1995 and 1998, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) did a study estimating the national injury rates among several sports. Here are some examples, gleaned from two sites as cited below.
Estimates for Sports Injuries in 1995 -- http://iisa.org
Sport Injuries
Baseball 219,023
Basketball 693,933
Bicycling 599,874
Football 390,180
Golf 40,000
Hockey (all types) 77,140
Inline Skating 99,600
Skating (all types) 322,311
Soccer 157,251
Volleyball 86,603

Estimates for Sports Injuries in 1997 -- http://www.nyssf.org/
 Sport Injuries
Baseball 188,140
Basketball 644,921
Bicycles 544,561
Field Hockey 4,830
Football 334,420
Golf 39,473
Hockey (not specified) 45,306
Ice Hockey 17,327
Ice Skating 25,379
In-Line Skating 98,414
Skating (not specified) 22,748
Soccer 148,913
Volleyball 67,340

Estimates for Sports Injuries in 1998 -- http://www.nyssf.org/
 Sport  Injuries
Baseball
180,582
Basketball 631,186
Bicycles
577,621
Field Hockey
4,666
Football
355,247
Golf
46,019
Hockey (not specified) 42,285
Ice Hockey
 22,231
Ice Skating
33,741
In-Line Skating 110,783
Skating (not specified) 27,481)
Soccer
169,734
Volleyball
66,191

    As you can see, www.iisa.org lumped all the hockey together, it seems, while www.nyssf.org kept them in seperate categories for the most part. What I'm interested in is the roller hockey numbers particularly, so there is some more estimation going on. For 1995 the number I have is 77,140 (Hockey all types), but that is going to be well above the actual number. According to the IISA, 37% of the inline skaters injured played roller hockey, so that number (36,852) gives a better estimate of the roller hockey players. It is also less than half of the total hockey number, as it should be. For 1997 and 1998, the best numbers I can come up with are the Hockey (not specified) numbers, which will also be above the actual number, but not so high as the 1995 estimate. These are 45,306 and 42,285, respectively.
    Put into a table with Basketball, Volleyball, and Golf, three other well known sports, this is what we see:

Yr:     Sport--> Basketball
 Golf
 R. Hockey
 Volleyball
1995
 693,933 40,000 36,852 86,603
1997
 644,921 39,473 45,306 67,340
1998
 631,186 46,019 42,285 66,191

    Of course, this does next to no good without the participation numbers of each of these four sports in those years. So:

Yr:     Sport--> Basketball
 Golf
 R. Hockey
 Volleyball
1995
 46,500,000
 25,000,000 3,100,000 41,300,000
1997
 45,100,000 26,200,000 2,910,000?
 36,200,000?
1998
 42,400,000 26,400,000
 3,100,000
 26,600,000
From: http://www.sgma.com, http://www.nsga.org, http://www.iisa.org, http://www.entrepreneur.com/

    From these two sets of numbers, we can compile a rough estimate of the percent of participants that sustained injuries per year, as shown below.
Yr:     Sport--> Basketball
 Golf
 R. Hockey
 Volleyball
1995
 1.49%
 .16%
 1.19%
 .21%
1997
 1.43%
 .15%
 1.56%
 .19%
1998
 1.49%
 .17%
 1.36%
 .25%

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