The COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled a huge surge in endurance activities and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. Strava has released its annual Year in Sport 2021 report, which includes an incredible amount of data from the more than 95 million athletes who used the platform over the last 12 months. Here are a few of the interesting findings from the report:
- The surge surged again: Last year Strava saw a 33% increase in uploads, this year the 1.8 billion uploads is a 38% increase over last year.
- Walking and hiking are amongst the strongest growth sports, seeing uploads double over the last year.
- PBs abounded – 1.8 times as many people set new personal bests in 2021 vs 2020.
- Training with others is one of the best ways to stay motivated – group challenges doubled this year and group challenge participants uploaded more activities than they had before.
- Since the Maps tab was launched in May it has generated 120 million routes for cyclists, runners and walkers.
- Goals make a difference: athletes who set a goal for the New Year were two hours more active in January than those who didn’t.
- Walking is good: cyclists and runners who walk are 16.1% more likely to still be active in future than those who don’t.
The 2021 Strava community:
- 95 million athletes
- 2 million new athletes every month
- 1.8 billion activity uploads
- 32 billion km covered
- 189,000 Strava Clubs created
- 9.6 billion Kudos given
