Australia ranked equal fifth with New Zealand on the most gym-crazed countries index, and had one of the highest average monthly fitness club costs according to Compare the Market.
On average, Australian monthly fitness club costs are A$74.37, in comparison to the most gym-crazed country, France with a monthly cost of $54.15. This places Australia as the sixth most expensive in terms of gym fees.
Compare the Market’s executive general manager of health insurance, Steven Spicer said health insurance could help cover the cost of workout routines.
He said that gym memberships can be included in some health insurance policies.
“Finding a health insurance policy that pays a benefit towards your active lifestyle could help to cut back your monthly expenses overall,” he said.
“This doesn’t only apply to gym memberships though; some insurers can help cover you for other activities such as group fitness classes.
“If you’re a regular to any of these and you’re in the market for health insurance anyway, it makes sense to compare policies to find an option that helps you cover your lifestyle.”
Australia also has the fourth highest number of gyms per capita, with 29 per 100,000 population.
With "fitness" becoming the third most popular tag in 2020, Compare the Market also analysed countries' search trends around the topic.
The results showed that pilates was taking the world by storm, becoming the most searched fitness keyword through 2024 globally.
In Australia alone, it was searched 2,111 per 100,000 people. In comparison, "gym" was searched 899 times and "workout" was searched 114 times per 100,000 people.
France was an outlier where their most searched fitness keyword was "gym", with 13,080 searches per 100,000 people. In comparison "pilates" had 11,812 searches per 100,000 people.
