Today, Strava released its annual Year in Sport report, highlighting the global trends among active people.
For its report, Strava took a deep analytical dive into the billions of activities uploaded by its 120 million users between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023. Strava took a particular interest in what motivates active people and supplemented its activity data with a survey of 6,990 active people – both users and nonusers of the Strava platform.
General Trends
The report, available here, shows a global trend toward all things unpaved, be it trail running or gravel riding; social connections trending as the biggest motivator to exercise; and conversely, work-related time constraints is why we don’t exercise more.
Some standout stats:
- Over half of Strava athletes say they’re most motivated by friends or family members who exercise; and 77% of Gen Z athletes say they feel more connected to others when seeing their friends or family’s activities on Strava.
- Celebrities and influencers ranked as the lowest of motivators – even for Gen Z and Millennials.
- Pets are a great motivator to get moving: 76% of Strava athletes with pets say their furry friends helped them get out the door when they wouldn’t go otherwise
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- Hurdles to workout routines come in the form of work, with two-thirds of Strava athletes globally and 70% of US Strava athletes stating that a lack of time due to work is a top barrier to working out.
- Climate change also has its impacts on workout routines, with 75% of athletes on Strava stating that extreme heat affected their exercise plans in 2023 – and poor air quality affected 27%.
- There was a 55% increase globally in Strava athletes uploading gravel rides.
- 84% of athletes on Strava globally (and 87% of athletes on Strava in the U.S) say exercise –even solo– helps them combat loneliness.
(Image credit: Strava)
Generational Differences
Strava categorized its findings by generation, so as a reminder, here are the age ranges for the mentioned generations.
Boomers: age 57-75
Gen X: age 43-56
Millennials, a.k.a Gen Y: age 27-42
Gen Z: age 11-26
Being the youngest age group mentioned, it is no surprise that Gen Z athletes are globally the least likely to exercise for health alone and most likely to exercise in the pursuit of athletic performance. Gen Z athletes uploaded the fastest median run and ride speeds, though in the U.S., Gen Z logged the fastest runs but slowest rides – and their runs and rides were also the shortest.
Globally, the median speed and distance of rides uploaded by Gen Z users was 14 miles with a pace of 12.9mph. Boomers, however, had a median distance of 20.9 miles at a pace of 12.6mph.
Perhaps, Gen Z’s shorter rides is due to their embracing of bike commuting. Globally, Gen Z users make up 17% of Strava bike commuters, which is an 8% increase from five years ago. In the U.S., 18% of bike commuters on Strava were Gen Z, up from 9% five years ago.
The dominant share of bike commuters were Millennials.
In 2023, Boomers were twice as likely to upload rides than runs, whereas Gen Z users were the opposite.
