Getting ready to hit the trails at Cross Country Ski Headquarters in Michigan
The Snowsports Industries America organization has released the 2022-23 Sports Participation Study that included cross country skiing and snowshoeing among the snow sports covered. There were 18,000 participants in the study conducted by the Physical Activity Council, a partnership of organizations in the sports, fitness and leisure industries. The findings are extrapolated from a nationwide sample to the US population with strict quotas associated with gender, age, income, region, and ethnicity followed to ensure a balanced sample yielding a 95% confidence level. The study reports results for the 2022-23 season since winter always crosses two years.
THE XC SKI MARKET
According to the study there were 5,317,000 XC skiers and 3.837,000 snowshoers in the US in 2022-23. The XC skiing gender showed 63.5% male and 36.5% female and there were 2.5 million skiers who were either new to XC skiing or returned after a year or more away. There were 2.2 million people who XC skied previously but did not XC ski last season. We can surmise that such a large segment of the population not going XC skiing or snowshoeing involves a combination of factors such as the weather, returning to work after the pandemic’s remote working, and typical lapsed skier issues (too far away, other priorities, do not have skills, etc.).
XC SKIER AGE CATEGORIES
The age categories in the study findings showed that 28.5% of XC skiers were under the age of 18 and another 14.5% were between 18 and 24, which yields a whopping 43% under the age of 25. A chunk of XC skiers (45.9%) are aged 25 to 54 while older skiers aged above 55 were 11% of XC skiers. American population demographics show nearly 30% above the age of 55, so it might suggest that there is a higher number of older XC skiers than the study reveals or there are reasons that elders do not XC ski.
Getting outdoors on XC skis at Frisco Nordic Center. Photo by Todd Powell
XC SKIER EDUCATION and INCOME
The XC skier education has always showed a highly educated participant and the 2022-23 findings supported this notion with 52% attending some college, who were college graduates, or post-college graduates. The XC skiers who did not graduate high school were 29.4%.
Perhaps, the XC ski industry should seek sponsorships with banks and stock traders since the income chart shows an increasing percentage of XC skiers in each of the income range categories as the bars go toward $100,000 and above (which is 43% of XC skiers). More than 75% of XC skiers earn more than $50,000 annually.
RACE/ETHNICITY
The ski industry has been focusing energy on diversity and inclusion in recent years and they are making slow progress in efforts to attract more people of color. The XC skiing statistics in this area reflect the American population with 9.6% black, 4.7% Asian, 17.8% Hispanic, and 67.2% white.
CROSS OVER RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Taking a break on the deck of the Glen House in NH
Cross over to other recreational activities showed 21% of XC skiers also went alpine skiing while 19% went snowboarding and 16% went snowshoeing. About 13% of XC skiers went fat biking, which declined from the previous year. Traditionally, there have been about a third of XC skiers who also alpine ski and when adding snowboarding, there is now about 40% of XC skiers taking a lift for those sports. There are 22% of XC skiers who also golf while 24% hike and 21% go bicycling.
Snowshoers have a 22% cross over rate to XC skiing. Interestingly, 28% of the snowshoers also go snowboarding and 20% alpine ski.
XC SKIER FREQUENCY
Finally, the frequency statistics are a promising characteristic of XC skiers with nearly 25% of them going seven or more times in 2022-23. There were 30.4% XC skiers who went out 3-6 times and 22.3% who went twice. The XC skier rate that went skiing one time was 22.4%. Individual XC skiers go out more often than any of the other snow sports at an average of 8.7 times per year. Extrapolating the number of XC skiers with the average number of times they went out in 2022-23, there may have been more than 45 million outings on XC skis.
Snowshoeing to a high vista at Woodstock Nordic Center
The snowshoers are a little less committed than XC skiers with regard to participating often but it is still very good with a 7.7 average number of times per year going snowshoeing. There was 19.1% going snowshoeing seven or more times in 2022-23. These findings suggest that XC skier and snowshoer participants are really into these forms of recreation and factors such as where they live, the weather in the participants’ area, and their commitment to getting outdoors are key for such statistics. The challenge to many industries is whether to promote making a good thing better (encourage committed participants to go even more often) or introduce more first timers to try the sport and encourage them to get into it.
Thanks to SIA for supplying part of the study funding and making it available. Consider joining the millions of people outside on the snow this winter! Banner photo from Fischer Sports.