The Burrow

Health insurance and fitness: Your guide to greater health

Matthew Keogh

Dec 15, 2020

If you’re looking to boost your health by hitting the gym, an extras cover health insurance policy can help cover some costs, depending on your level of cover and the fund you are with. This can include:

  • benefits towards fitness classes and gym memberships
  • discounts on active wear
  • remedial massage treatments
  • and more

So, if you’re a gym junkie, you should consider this type of insurance. You can compare health insurers through our health insurance comparison tool. It’s free, easy to use and only takes minutes.

But benefits aside – have you ever wondered what people in the US are paying for their monthly gym membership? What about those in Germany, Italy or Japan?

Well, wonder no more. The health experts at Compare the Market have listed 50 of the highest countries in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to get a better idea of the average monthly standard adult gym membership price for 2020.1

How does your country compare to the others in the list?

Top five gym chains in the world by Google search volume

Methodology

We selected 50 of the highest countries by GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund’s 2019 estimates.1

Here’s how we obtained the average monthly ‘adult gym membership’ price for each country.

First, we used Google’s Keyword Tool to gather the most prominent gyms or gym chains in that particular country. We did this by entering ‘gym’ or the country’s word for gym, plus the country in the location field, into the keyword tool to generate related and suggested keywords.

We then used SEMrush to ascertain the top 10 gym chains by Google search volume as of September 2020.

Once we established our 10 gyms/gym franchises, we identified the most populous city in each country (for example, Sydney in Australia) so we could search for each gym’s membership price in that common/populous location. We kept the search to a five-kilometre radius of the Central Business District (CBD). If the gym’s website didn’t display its prices or didn’t have a location in the chosen area, we omitted that gym.

Finally, we added the recorded prices together and averaged the total by the number of gyms recorded. For example, if the total amount of five gyms equalled $500, dividing that number by five would give us a $100 price average.

 

Notes

  • We defined ‘gym’ as a health or fitness club (i.e. a venue to lift weights and use aerobic equipment, e.g. treadmill).
  • We recorded monthly prices for an adult gym membership.
  • If a gym only offers a 12-month membership, we divided the total amount by 12 to get the monthly figure.
  • Discounts or special offers were not factored into the price.
  • If the gym has multiple price tiers/packages, we chose the standard membership (i.e. memberships with gym access only and no classes or add-ons like Personal Training).
  • Prices may not include tax.

All prices collated in their original currencies and converted to USD and EURO using XE Currency Converter between 3:00pm and 3:30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) on 19/10/20. All currencies rounded to the nearest cent.

Sources:
1. Data Bank. The World Bank. https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf. 2019. Accessed October 2020.
Google Keyword Tool. Accessed October 2020.
SEMrush. Keyword overview. Accessed October 2020.
XE Currency Converter. Accessed October 2020.

Brought to you by Compare the Market: Making it easier for Australians to search for great deals on Health Insurance.