Skydiving and bungee jumping are two birds of a feather.
They’re the activity for the thrill seekers among us, looking for the adrenaline rush of a truly awe-inspiring experience.
For those of us without that same need for thrill, safety might be the first thing on our minds.
Which one is safer, we might wonder—skydiving or bungee jumping?
Statistically, bungee jumping is a good deal safer than skydiving. Skydiving deaths are about 1 in every 220,000 jumps. Bungee jumpers are less than half of that, with 1 death every 500,000 jumps. While both come with risks, bungee jumping is certainly less risky.
Ultimately, though, both activities are very safe when done responsibly.
And there is every reason for both skydiving instructors and bungee jump instructors to adhere to safety rules to protect their business and income.
Let’s look further into this.
What’s scarier skydiving or bungee jumping?
That really depends on you as a person.
For the most part, people do tend to surprisingly say that bungee jumping is scarier than skydiving.
The fear involved with skydiving is usually over once the initial jump has been taken.
If you are able to marshal your nerves to get over the first step, the rest is a breeze-literally.
The free fall is even relaxing because you don’t have much of a sense of falling.
You hit terminal velocity and you feel as though you are floating on a cloud, soaring on the wind.
This is not scary for most people, even some who are afraid of heights.
The main thing that makes bungee jumping scarier is that the ground is typically much closer to you.
This can give a much more crystal-clear sense of falling, as compared with skydiving where the ground, for most of the jump, is far away from you.
Bungee jumping is a short, intense sensation of freefall—this is scarier for most people.
However, if the pure height is the scary thing for you, then skydiving may well be scarier.
However, both are going to be very scary experiences for those with fear of heights—there’s no way around that.
But, again, it does depend on you as a person.
The more important question, though, is whether they are safe to begin with.
Are bungee jumps safe?
Yes, they are.
Bungee jumps are, as I said, far safer than skydiving, statistically speaking.
You could do 500,000 bungee jumps and never have a single injury.
So, from a purely numerical standpoint, bungee jumping is extremely safe—much safer, say, than driving.
While bungee jumping obviously has a lot of potential for danger, the industry wouldn’t exist were there not sufficient safety standards to keep operators in line.
Bungee jump centres are someone’s business, ultimately, and their livelihood depends on keeping people safe.
It would only take one injury or death to shut the place down at worst, if not just keep everyone away.
So, bungee jump operators have every incentive to follow the safety guidelines to the letter, and ensure that no one who is at risk will ever jump.
Because the dangers of bungee jumping do not come only from the prospect of falling. If you have high blood pressure, or any kind of heart condition or anxiety disorder, bungee jumping could cause you all sorts of health complications.
Bungee jumping centers will not allow such jumpers to participate.
What about skydiving, then—is it safe?
Is skydiving safe?
Again, statistically, yes.
There is about 1 death every 220,000 skydiving jumps.
This, again, makes it safer than driving, in the simplest sense.
You are exceedingly unlikely to suffer any injury or death while skydiving, for the same reasons you are in bungee jumping.
Skydiving schools are businesses, and they are clearly incentivized to keep their operations safe.
When every safety and health rule is followed, there is little chance of anything going wrong.
Skydiving is safe, then, otherwise we wouldn’t have so many people doing it.
There are around 3 million jumps per year, and around 15 deaths.
So, which is more dangerous?
Is skydiving more dangerous than bungee jumping?
So, again, statistically, skydiving is more dangerous.
You are almost twice as likely to die while skydiving as you are while bungee jumping.
While that may sound alarming, your chances of dying while skydiving are still extremely low.
To the point that it is really not something you need to worry about.
Of course, the chances of dying aren’t zero, but you’ve got to take some degree of risk if you want to try it.
But the degree of risk is extremely small.
Bungee jumping risk is even smaller.
But past a certain point, it really doesn’t matter all that much.
Clearly, you can safely engage in both of these activities without needing to worry about death.
But the numbers don’t lie—bungee jumping is indeed safer.
So, while the simple answer is no, skydiving is not safer, both bungee jumping and skydiving are very safe things to do.
Your chances of death or injury are extremely low, and you shouldn’t be concerned about it.
Both are scary, it’s true, and you may be more at risk in terms of your own health than others, but all this will be screened by the place you jump or skydive.
Don’t let fear of safety get in the way of your chance to do either of these things.
