Other findings

Other interesting findings featured in the Medibank report include:

- sports injuries cost the Australian community about $2 billion per year;

- `individual’ rather than ‘team-based’ activities are more popular amongst active Australians - walking, aerobics/fitness, swimming and golf rank in the top five participation activities;

- Australia’s fittest State (per capita) is the ACT which has 76.1% physically active residents, with Western Australia coming a close second (with 74.9%);

- South Australia takes out the ‘wooden spoon’ in the sports participation stakes – being the least active State with 57.7% of residents taking part in regular activity;

- in terms of average body mass, Tasmania tips the scales as the heaviest State (with an average body mass index of 27.20 per person), followed by New South Wales and the ACT (both 25.88);

- Western Australians were shown to be the lightest, with an average body mass index of 24.91 per person;

- the highest risk age group for injury was 18 to 24 year-olds;

- most common sports injuries are knee (16%), ankle (11%), general bruising and cuts (8%) and back (7%);and

- sports injury rates peak during the winter months of May, June and July because cold muscles, tendons and ligaments increase the risk of being hurt.