How many snowboarders? Some answers from the NSGA

Periodically I get e-mail from people--usually middle-school students, it seems--looking for information on the number of people who snowboard.

It's hard to get definitive answers. Much of the information is from surveys taken by trade associations. Since the associations want to offer their research as a membership benefit, they are sometimes cautious about distributing their findings free of charge, and may give away some but not of the information you're interested in. Further, different associations use different measuring tools, meaning that the results may not line up from survey to survey. Finally, the associations don't always ask the kinds of questions you'd like answers to.

With those limitations in mind, today I'll review a few findings from the National Sporting Goods Association.

Total number of riders nearing number of downhill skiers

First, the National Sporting Goods Association says, in its 10-year survey, that snowboarding is on an upward trend. It estimates the number of people, age 7 and up, who engage in a whole host of activities, ranging from aerobic exercise to yoga, at least twice in a year.

Here are the numbers for snowboarders:

YEAR ... Participants (millions)
1998 ... 3.6
2000 ... 4.3
2002 ... 5.6
2004 ... 6.6
2006 ... 5.2
2008 ... 5.9

Despite snowboarding's legacy as a "hot" or "sexy" sport, it draws a fairly limited number of people. There are many more people engaged in walking for exercise (96.6 million), bowling (49.5 million), and golf (25.6 million), among other activities. Among board sports, skateboarding draws more participants (9.8 millions), while surfing isn't mentioned.

Among snow sports, downhill skiing is the biggest sport (6.5 million). Cross-country skiing (1.6 million) lags far behind both downhill skiing and snowboarding.

One interesting finding is that snowboarding is drawing closer to skiing in popularity. In 1998, there were 2,139 skiers for every 1,000 snowboarders. In 2008, that ratio has dropped significantly, with only 1,102 skiers for every 1,000 skiers. In 2004, the number of snowboarders was actually greater the number of skiers, though that may have been a statistical anomaly.

One fact to point out is that it's possible for a person to participate in snowboarding, downhill skiing, and cross-country skiing.

Snowboarding still a niche sport among 45 to 54-year olds

How many of those snowboarders are 40 and up? The NSGA doesn't provide those numbers. Instead, it provides estimates of the number of 45 to 54-year olds engaging in various sports, both in 1997 and 2008.

While the number of snowboarders in this age range increased 34 percent, its growth was far behind that of skateboarding, which at 243 percent was the fastest-growing of the 36 sports listed. (Snowboarding was 21st.)

In 2008, there were 146,000 snowboarders aged 45 to 54. That's less than the number of people playing basketball (1.6 million), hockey (228,000) and even tackle football (275,000), though more than the number of skateboarders (127,000). Snowboarding is still a niche activity within this age group.

Snowboarding is still dominated by boy and young men

Overall, snowboarding is predominately a male activity, according to the NSGA report, "2007 - 2002 Participation by Mean Age - Male & Female." The report, which measures participants 7 and up, says that in 2007, 74 percent of snowboarders were men or boys, with a median age of 21.6 years old. The median age of female participants was even lower, at 18.8 years. By comparison, 61 percent of downhill skiers were men or boys, with an average age of 33.6. The median age for females was actually higher, at 35.8.

Is the slide in snowboarding participation over?

How many snowboarders are there? Read on.

Transworld Business has the latest on the SnowSports Industries America 2009 SIA Intelligence Report.

Among the points that Mike Lewis found in the report.

More and more sales are taking place online. That's no surprise, given that the market skews younger than the general population. Sales (by units, not dollars) grew 23% online, but fell 4% in specialty shops, and plummeted 13% in chain stores. There similar numbers if you look at dollars: Up 23% online, down 6% in specialty shops, down 20% in chain stores. About 17% of all sales are now online. (If you're looking for a new board, I'd recommend looking for a never-used last-year's model at a specialty shop. You'll increase your chances of finding someone who might actually help you find the right board for your interests and abilities.)

Women-specific boards are a significant part of the market, coming in at 20%. As long as it's not a pink and flowery version of a standard unisex board, some women may find a women's specific board useful, though the key is probably finding the right combination of stiffness, flex, length, width, and so forth, something that can be done with unisex boards. Still, from strictly a marketing point of view, the growth of women-specific boards is a good trend.

The average rider was on the snow 8 days last season. That's not a lot. With a busy "real life" schedule last year, I got in 5 full "resort" days and perhaps 7 to 10 partial days at a local ski area.

In what may be another sign of the youthful skew in the snowboarding population, 60% of riders said they rode at least once "outside of resort areas." This could mean slipping briefly beyond the out-of-bounds limit of a resort, full-blown back-country riding, or "a simple rail in the school yard," which actually be the largest category within that 60 percent. (This is where I say that youth comes into play. I suspect that rail riders, even more than snowboarders in general, skew younger.) Come to think of it, I fall into that 60%, too, having taken my board to a small hill at a city park to give someone a very basic lesson.

One-third of all resort visitors were on a snowboard. Does this mean that one-third of all snow "riders" are snowboarders? Not necessarily. It could be that skiers outnumber snowboarders by a ratio of 4 to 1, but that snowboarders visit the slopes more frequently. There are numbers out there on this;I have to check that out.

The decline in the number of riders may have stopped. A few years ago, the number peaked at 6.5 million. It dropped three years in a row, to 5 million in 2007-08. During 08-09, 5.8 million people went snowboarding at least twice once, the first "up" season in four years.

What I don't find in the quick treatment of the report is the number of riders who are 35 year old and up. I've long thought it was somewhere around 500,000, but it's been a while since I have seen new statistics.

(Corrected to indicate "twice" instead of "once" as the threshold for determining the number of snowboarders in a season.)

Who Starts Snowboarding, Who Stops, and Why?

Writing at Transworld Business, Mike Lewis talks about trends in snowboarding and skiing--how many people participate, why, and what the ski and snowboard industry is doing to keep them going back for more.

It's a long article, so I'll just highlight a few statistics.

- Nearly 3 in 4 snowboarders are boys or men. No surprise there, if you look at your local hill.
- Historically, only 15 percent of people who try skiing or snowboarding return for a second day.
- A 10-year effort by the ski area association has raised that rate to ... 16 percent.
- Even among people who snowboard regularly, 25 percent drop out during any given year, for reasons relating to health, work, interest, family, or finances.
- The "typical' snowboarder went snowboarding 10 days during a season.
- During 2007, over 5 million people went snowboarding at least twice.
- Only 10 percent of snowboarders are 35 and older. Still, that makes for a half-million riders 35 and up.

Here's an approximation of the number of snowboarders for each season, with a 2-visit per season minimum:

1994 - 2,061,000
1995 - 2,254,000
1996 - 3,711,000
1997 - 2,516,000
1998 - 3,635,000
1999 - 3,313,000
2000 - 4,347,000
2001 - 5,343,000
2002 - 5,589,000
2003 - 6,309,000
2004 - 6,572,000
2005 - 5,987,000
2006 - 5,204,000
2007 - 5,063,000

Notice that participation has been going down ever since it peaked in 2004. Why? I don't know.

Most of the article deals with industry efforts to reverse the slide and retain first-time participants. The focus is on youth and minorities. Only 10 percent of companies focus on "older" adults. And "older" isn't defined, so it may be 25 to 34!

The article also reminds us that people take up snowboarding for different reasons. Roughly half do so for the challenge, while while a quarter look for the social benefits. And of course someone can have more than one motivation, either in a given time or over time. I started skiing for social reasons, but took up snowboarding for the challenge.

By the way, I wonder if those numbers look the same if you're talking about skiers.

For more on this topic, see the statistics page of GraysOnTrays.com.