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Strava Releases 2019 Year In Sport Data Report
Annual data report reveals trends in athletic performance, socialness, motivation and popular gear from Strava’s global community
SAN FRANCISCO – December 11, 2019 – Strava’s annual Year In Sport data report, released today, reveals new insights into athletic performance, socialness, motivation and popular gear from its community of over 48 million athletes from 195 countries.
Over the past year, Strava athletes uploaded more than 822 million activities, collectively covering more than 8 billion miles.
Cyclists covered more than 5.6 billion miles in 2019 — far enough to get to Mars and back 82 times. Runners covered 1.3 billion total miles with an average distance of 4.1 miles per run.
“As the world’s largest community of athletes, with nearly one billion activity uploads over the last 12 months, we’re constantly learning about how athletes work out, often with fascinating results. To produce Year In Sport, our annual data report, our data team explores athlete behavior – looking for surprises, trends and unique storylines around the world,” says Cathy Tanimura, Senior Director of Data Science & Analytics at Strava.
Highlights include:
- Community keeps people active longer and motivates athletes to be their best.
- One in four activities in the U.S. is recorded with at least one other person.
- Nearly half of all bike rides are grouped (49%) and group rides cover twice the distance of solo rides (global average).
- Consistency is the key to good habits
- 96% of Summit subscribers who set a goal in January are still active in July
- Athletes uploading three activities a week instead of two tend to be more consistent, resulting in 2x more activities over the year.
- Summit subscribers upload 30% more activities in their first 6 months on Summit
- Indoor / virtual cycling is the next big thing in biking
- Virtual reality cycling adoption by cyclists has nearly tripled since 2016.
- We’re getting close to global gender parity for commuting: globally, women cyclists commute 6.7% less than men.
- But the U.S. still has a way to go: women cyclists commute 17.4% less than men on average. But some U.S. cities have reached gender parity:
- In Portland, OR, 44.5% of women commute compared to 45.4% of men.
- In New York City, 30.9% of women commute compared to 33.1% of men.
- In Los Angeles, 21.8% of women commute compared to 25.5% of men.
- Strava Metro is the largest aggregated and de-identified active transportation data set on the planet.
- But the U.S. still has a way to go: women cyclists commute 17.4% less than men on average. But some U.S. cities have reached gender parity:
- 2020 marathoners might want to check out the Nike Next%
- Among runners of the six marathon majors who logged their running shoes on Strava, those who wore Nike Next% finished the races fastest, closely followed by Nike Zoom Vaporfly.
Contact press@strava.com to receive the full Year in Sport data report.
* Year In Sport 2019 contains data from 10/1/2018 – 9/30/2019.
Download Strava for iOS and Android now, and upgrade to Strava Summit to customize your experience and enjoy added features. For more information on Strava visit www.strava.com.
About Strava
Strava is the social network for athletes. As the platform at the center of connected fitness, Strava’s mobile apps and website connect millions of active people every day. All athletes belong on Strava, no matter where they live, which sport they love or what device they use. Join the community at strava.com.
Our favorite stats:
- 20 activities uploaded every second
- 300+ compatible mobile phones and GPS devices
- More than 2 billion activity uploads
- 180 employees, most in San Francisco with more in Denver, CO, Hanover, NH and Bristol, UK
- 1,100+ professional athletes are on Strava
- 1 million athletes join every 30 days
- More than 48 million Strava athletes upload activities from 195 countries
- 4.9 billion kudos given between athletes last year
- Over 4 million photos shared per week on Strava
- 85 million comments and Kudos given by Strava athletes per week
- 130+ communities making commuting better with Strava Metro