Just a few scrolls around social media influencer-ville can make you believe that you need to run hundreds of miles around the clock to be a ‘real runner’, or that consecutive 24-hour-plus endurance races are normal. In reality, much of what you see on these platforms is extremely skewed – and the amount of running that the average person actually does is a lot more achievable.
We dug into new data shared in this year’s SportsShoes.com Running Report to identify how many times we lace up our running shoes each week.
How often do people go running in the UK?
According to SportsShoes.com’s statistics, runners in the UK clock, on average, two or three runs a week, with 36% of the 5,000 people involved in the study adhering to this running frequency.
After that, 18% of UK-based runners said that they run once a week, while 17% – the third-highest proportion of runners – said they head out for a run between four and six times a week. As for those who go running every day? They account for 9% of runners in the UK – almost one in 10.
Do men or women run more often?
When looking at outdoor runs only, men outdo women, with almost a quarter of men (23%) saying that they run at least once a year. By contrast, nearly one in six (15%) of women run one or more times a year. Matters surrounding safety play into this – and we’ll cover this fully in a separate piece.
Which generation clocks the most runs in the UK?
Millennials lead the charge when it comes to running frequency, with 30% of this generation running on the roads, trails or track at least once a year. Not far behind are the 27% of Gen Z runners who log at least one run a year.
By contrast, just 15% of Gen X and 5% of Baby Boomers run at least once a year, which demonstrates a decline in running activity as age goes up. Being older does not mean that you can’t run, though – far from it. You really can start and succeed at the sport at any age.