How and why do people engage with running? It’s a question that can’t easily be answered by looking at one or two factors. So in an attempt to capture the full complexity, I used a technique called Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) — a powerful statistical tool for detecting patterns and mapping relationships across a large
Time for an update of the latest running demographics in England, drawing on insights gleaned from Sport England’s massive Active Lives Survey. I’ve broken runners down into five categories, which helps to illustrate the social diversity within the sport. Overall participation These are the figures for participation (any time in the last 12 months) in
From a sociological point of view, one of the interesting things about running is its association with high levels of privilege – particularly with education and income. This seems surprising: Unlike sports such as tennis, cycling or golf, running requires no expensive equipment or club membership; all most people really need to participate, it has
This article presents a collection of demographic statistics about running in the UK and beyond. The data is drawn primarily from Sport England’s Active People Survey and its unrivalled dataset, but also my own Big Running Survey, which provides finer detail. UK Running Demographics How many runners? The current size of the UK regular running
This is part 2 of my series on simple running statistics (part 1 here). The data used on this page is primarily drawn from my own Big Running Survey from 2017. Here we focus on exploring the demographic and psychographic features of different ways of participating in running. Section 1 – Demographics within runningGender –
Below is a list of key statistics about running derived from a number of sources, but mainly the Big Running Survey, which canvased the opinions of almost 2,700 runners on their running practices, motivations and attitudes in 2017. Follow the links on selected items for more detail. Section 1 – running demographicsParticipation rates – Social