I'm not much of a numbers guy, but I do have a lot of respect for those who have the discipline to really analyze and crunch data.
So for all of you number crunchers here are some interesting new numbers to ponder. I just received the 2006 demographics from USAT (USA Triathlon) and last year was a good year for triathlon.
Both total membership and sales of one day licenses increased. One day licenses are people who just purchase a license to race one day.
The hard numbers are below:
Members:
2005: 58,073
2006: 84,787
One Day Licenses:
2005: 193,717
2006: 198,645
For 2006 the membership numbers break down by both state and gender as follows:
2006 annual memberships by state (Top 10)
1. Texas 10,457
2. California 8,910
3. Florida 8,762
4. New York 4,297
5. Colorado 3,631
6. Illinois 3,408
7. Virginia 3,348
8. North Carolina 3,289
9. Massachusetts 2,924
10. Georgia 2,885
Breakdown of 2006 annual membership by gender
Total members 84,787
females 29,967 35.34%
males 54.570 64.36%
gender not indicated 250 Percent: 0.29%
This sport is way male heavy as I'm sure you can tell.
The new numbers also are interesting in that the show just how few elite and younger athletes really make triathlon a career:
Elites:
Total 411
female 160 Percent: 38.93%
males 251 Percent: 61.07%
Under23
total 3,010
females 1,189 Percent: 39.50%
males 1,821 Percent: 60.50%
And Finally, the newest numbers also tell you which races are the most popular: