The sport of skydiving continues to improve its safety record. In 2017, USPA recorded 24 fatal skydiving accidents in the U.S. out of roughly 3.2 million jumps. That’s one fatality per 133,571 jumps—one of the lowest rates in the sport’s history! Tandem skydiving has an even better safety record, with one student fatality per 500,000 tandem jumps over the past decade. According to the National Safety Council, a person is much more likely to be killed getting struck by lightning or stung by a bee.
In the 1970s, the sport averaged 42.5 skydiving fatalities per year. Since then, the average has dropped each decade. In the 1980s, the average was 34.1; in the 1990s, the average was 32.3, and in the first decade of the new millennium (2000-2009), the average dropped again to 25.8. Over the past eight years, the annual average continues its decline to 22.4.
With 14 fatalities, 1961—the first year records were kept—stands as the year with the fewest skydiving fatalities. However, USPA was considerably smaller then, with just 3,353 members, and the total number of jumps was far fewer than today.