Snowsports Industries America (SIA) released its 2020/21 Winter Sports Participation Study* focused on skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, and touring. It highlights a general cumulative view of winter sports participation and demographics on an annual basis and analyzes each winter sport activity.
Participant demographics, frequency, regional representation, and crossover activities provide insight into the behaviors of winter sports participants. Key findings include:
- Consumers participated more frequently (the number of times a person participated each season) across all winter sports than in previous years. Slight gains were made in new participants in skiing and snowboarding; however, the total number of participants, ages six and older, in winter sports declined by 24.6 million compared to its 2019/20 winter season study, and 25.1 million with older participants more likely to not participate in 2020/21.
- Diverse populations make up 31 percent of winter sports participants, snowboarding being the most inclusive, with 38 percent and 12 percent of the LGBTQ+ community participating in winter sports.
*The SIA 2020/21 Winter Sports Participation Study is produced collaboratively with the Physical Activity Council (PAC), a partnership of eight trade associations in U.S. sports, fitness and leisure activities, and expanded this year to include data focused on the LGBTQ+ community.
Photo courtesy Matador Network, Aspen Gay Ski Week, Aspen, CO, 2020
