A jockey's life is about the most dangerous there is, a new study in Australia has found.

Researchers say that in the danger stakes, being a jockey was only just outranked by offshore fishermen.

The Australian Racing Board said the study, published in the Australian Medical Journal, confirmed the importance racing authorities placed on improving health and safety standards.

"We welcome this research as reinforcing the importance of our ongoing efforts to make health and safety in Australian racing as safe as possible," ARB chairman Bob Bentley said.

"While the study found that the rates of injury in Australia were similar to, or in some cases lower than, other countries, the challenge we have set ourselves is to do whatever is possible to take safety levels in the Australian racing industry to an even higher level."

The study found skydivers, motorbike racers, loggers and pilots face less risk of being killed than the lightweight riders of thoroughbreds.

Researchers scoured four years of stewards reports covering 75,000 races from August 2002 to July 2006.

They counted 3360 race falls, which resulted in 861 serious injuries and five jockey deaths.