Who Shreds?

Published: December 1, 2020

Snowsports Industries America (SIA), in conjunction with the Physical Activity Council (PAC), released its annual participation study report last month. The SIA Participation Study 2019-2020 is a comprehensive look at participant demographics in skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, touring, and cumulative participation across all winter sports. The study covers demographics, frequency, regional representation, crossover activities, and more.

The study is also a good indicator of the work that still needs to be done to make the winter community more inclusive and welcoming to a more diverse group of winter enthusiasts. The report is free for SIA Premium members, who can click here to login and download. Nonmembers are able to purchase the report here. For more information on this report and/or SIA research, please reach out to Maria McNulty at SIA: mmcnulty@snowsports.org.

Here are a few key takeaways from the study:

Winter participation overall increased slightly last year by 1.9%.
Participation across winter sports by ethnicity has remained flat for Asians (7.7%) and whites (67.5%), decreased by 0.5% for Blacks (9.2%), and increased by 0.4% for Hispanics (14%).
The largest segment of skiers are 45-54 years old (19%) and the largest segment of snowboarders are 25-34 years old (23%).
Cross-country skiers favored private cross country centers over public lands
Snowshoers tend to also participate in snowboarding, cross-country skiing and hiking.
Alpine Touring had 705,000 participants and Snowboard Touring had 652,000.