What's In A Number: Looking At Outdoor Recreation Participation ...

Who is recreating across America, and what sports are they pursuing? Is hiking on the rise, or decline? And what about biking, or paddling participation? Curious about those numbers, I turned to the latest report on outdoor recreation from the Outdoor Industry Foundation.

The numbers contained in the Outdoor Recreation Participation Report 2011 just might surprise some, and alarm others.

For instance, the report notes that, overall, the popularity of biking (BMX biking, road biking, and mountain biking) declined by 2 percent last year in the 6- to 17-year-old bracket (though interest in BMX biking specifically was up 31 percent).

And yet....that biking category (again, all three approaches to cycling) ranked third nationally in popularity of outdoor activity for those aged 6 and older, with 15 percent of Americans, or 42.4 million participants. Hiking wasn't far behind, with 11 percent of Americans, or 32.4 million participants, making it the fifth-most-popular outdoor activity.

The most popular outdoor activity for all ages above 6 years old, according to this report? That would be trail running, jogging, and running in general, with 18 percent of Americans, or 50.2 million, age 6 and older participating. Ranking second was fishing -- freshwater, saltwater, fly fishing -- with 45.4 million participants, or 16 percent of Americans. Virtually tied with biking was camping -- car camping, RV camping, backyard camping -- with 42.3 million Americans making it their most popular activity.

"Unfortunately," the report notes, overall outdoor recreation "participation among boys ages 6 to 12 continued to slide in 2010, and participation among young men ages 18 to 24 lost last year?s two-point gain, dipping back down to 59 percent.

"Although girls? participation in outdoor recreation is still lower than boys?, those participation rates showed improvement ? or at least leveling ? in 2010. Participation rates for girls ages 6 to 17 held steady at 58 percent. Rates increased by 1 percentage point for 13 to 17 year olds and by 5 percentage points for 18 to 24 year olds."

There is some good news, though, among the 18-24 age group.

"... the overall outdoor participation rate continued to increase slightly among young adults ages 18 to 24. Participation among men dropped back to the 2008 rate of 59 percent, while rates for women?s crept from 48 percent up to 53 percent," the report found. "Young adults prefer to run when they get outdoors. The participation rate increased by 1 percentage point in 2010. Biking, number one among youth, dropped down to fourth most popular among this age group."

Hiking was right behind biking, with 3.7 million people in the 18-24 age group saying it's their favorite outdoor activity, compared to 4.1 million for biking, while 4.5 million people made camping -- car camping, RV, and backyard -- the second-most popular outdoor activity in this age bracket. Ranking third was fishing (freshwater, saltwater, and fly fishing) with 4.3 million participants in 2011.

What gets people outdoors to recreate? The report has an answer for that question, too:

Youth and adolescents are motivated to get outside simply because they think ?outdoor activities are cool.? While the cool factor is still present in young adults, slightly more participants in this age group cite exercise as their top motivator for outdoor participation.

Young adults also seek outdoor activities as a way of managing stress, while youth and adolescents go outside because their relatives participate in outdoor activities.

This report is a must-read if you want to understand what drives folks to get outdoors, which sports are on the rise, which are in decline, and which are relatively flat in participating levels. Plus, the report delves into the role of technology in outdoor recreation, family involvement in outdoor recreation, and even ethnic breakdowns by sport.

Participation in outdoor activities was considerably higher among Caucasians than any other ethnicity and lowest among African Americans in all age groups.

While 67 percent of Caucasian children ages 6 to 12 participated in outdoor recreation in 2010, only 48 percent of African American kids in the same age range participated. Still, this was the largest increase seen from 2009 to 2010, from 39 percent to 48 percent.

Although their participation rate is much lower, African American and Hispanic participants tend to participate more frequently than Caucasians in outdoor activities.

According to the report, Hispanic and Caucasian youth said too much schoolwork prevented them from getting outdoors as often as they'd like, while African-American and Asian/Pacific Islander youth said they didn't have the proper equipment.

Open up this report and you can really dial in specifics by turning to pages 66-70, which breakout specific activities (ie, Adventure racing, canoeing, free weights, wakeboarding) by age group and participation levels for 2006-2010.

The survey upon which the report was built was conducted during January 2011 and early February 2011. A total of 38,742 online interviews were carried out; a total of 15,086 individual and 23,656 household surveys were completed, according to the Foundation.

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