Skateboarding Demographics and Participation

Skateboarding is a sport loved by many. From being a free mode of transport and something fun to do at the weekends for kids to Olympian athletes at international championships, skating attracts fans of all ages, genders, nationalities, and backgrounds.

From being a male-dominated sport in the beginning, skating now boasts an almost equal split between male and female interests. More and more young people are picking up a skateboard as a source of exercise, socialising, and confidence-building, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Read on as we round up key facts and figures on who’s getting into skateboarding.

Race, Age, and Gender Distribution of Skateboarders

What do the age and gender distributions look like for skateboarding? A 2010 study on the number of skateboarders in the US revealed that 8.6% of American teenagers had tried skateboarding that year and that 1.7% of under-18s skated regularly. 

They also reported that 77.1% of skaters were male, with 83.4% of ‘core skaters’ (regular skaters) being male, and 23.9% of skaters were female, with 16.6% of core skaters being female. 

But in recent years, it seems the number of female skaters has grown. A report by GOSKATE fom March 2023 found that female skaters now represent 40% of overall skaters.

Age and Gender Distribution of Skaters

The USC 2021 Skate Study, Beyond the Board, surveyed 5,717 skateboarders across major North American cities with the intention to highlight the perspectives of skateboarders and understand the culture and content of the sport better. The survey revealed this breakdown of skater age demographics by region, gender, and race. The majority of skaters were male and skaters of colour. They were also mostly between the ages of 13 and 25.

Location	Age 13-25	Age >26	Male	Female	Race (Skater of Colour)	Race (White)	Race (Decline to State)
East LA, CA	25	0	23	2	23	2
Gallup, NM	16	4	19	1	20
Boston, MA	17	0	12	5	5	12
Detroit, MI	11	2	12	1	6	7
Houston, TX	2	8	10	0	8		2
New York, NY	8	1	9	0	8	1
Johnson City, TN	6	0	6	0	5	1
TOTAL	85	15	91	9	67	31	2

Race and Identification of Skaters

75% of skaters were male, and 72% identified as straight. 54% of skaters were white, and 43% identified as a skate of colour. Of that 43%, see the table below for a breakdown of how they identified.

Self-Identified Race/Ethnicity	Count	Percentage
LatinX (Hispanic/Latino/Spanish)	293	36%
Checked more than one race/ethnicity	270	33%
Asian/Pacific Islander	85	11%
Of African descent (Black, African American, Afro-Caribbean)	84	10%
Other	55	7%
Indian/Alaska Native	22	3%

Within the skateboarding community, race and gender did not appear to affect how skateboarders thought they were viewed. However, in interactions with non-skaters, participants reported the fact they were a skateboarder was their most prominent identifying marker, with gender at 16%, race at 10%, and other identity at 10%. The majority (41%) of skaters felt the ways they were treated by non-skaters didn’t affect them. Here’s a breakdown of all the identity markers they reported by race and gender.

Skating Age and Gender Distribution In the UK

The popularity of skateboarding in the UK has steadily increased over the years, seeing a sharp uptake in 2021 when we were all suffering the restrictions of lockdown, with a 94% increase compared with the previous year.

In the UK, the Duke of Edinburgh Award revealed a sharp increase in female interest in skateboarding in the last five years, comparing 2017, when just 37 girls and women aged 14–24 registered skateboarding as their chosen activity, to 2022, when that number was 353; an 800% increase.

According to RoSPA, the average age for skateboarders in the UK is between 13 and 14. In fact, Team GB’s skateboarding champion Sky Brown was 13 when she won bronze and became the youngest British summer Olympian ever.

Skateboarding Participation by UK Region

Research by Our Sporting Life on the popularity of skateboarding in 2021 listed the popularity of skateboarding by region in the UK and found the places where skateboarding-related search terms were used online to be the following.

Place	Average Monthly Searches Per 100,000 People For ‘Skateboard’
Stockport	717.81
Oldham	683.55
Peterborough	618.40
Warrington	568.13
Rochdale	565.20
Bournemouth	527.99
Bristol	522.48
Exeter	519.79
Swindon	509.75
Huddersfield	490.95
UK (Average)	382.60

The region where skateboarding is being searched the most online is Stockport, with around 718 searches per 100,000 head of the population. Overall, skateboarding was searched more frequently in the North West and South West.

Thanks to Trucks and Fins, we can view an interactive map of all the skate parks in the UK. There are 1,786 individual parks in the UK in total (that we know of). That’s one park for every 38,504 people. Search by keyword to find skateparks near you. The research also revealed that these skate park features were noted:

• Total skateparks: 1786
• Total asphalt/concrete pump tracks: 111
• Total skate bowls: 267
• Miniramps: 901
• Halfpipes: 12
• Fullpipes: 2

The most iconic skate parks in the UK were:

• Southbank Undercroft
• Folkestone 51
• Dean Lane Skate Park
• Haverfordwest Skate Park
• Lerwick Skate Park

Factors Influencing Participation

The Beyond the Board report further investigated other contributing factors that affect skaters’ lives, such as income, living situation, and life aspirations. Let’s look at these in more detail. 

Financial Situation

59% of skaters reported living with family, and 63% said they were not receiving public financial assistance. There appeared to be similar representation on income levels, with percentages fairly evenly split across different income brackets.

Free Time and Vocations

Of all those surveyed under the age of 21, 51% were in middle school and high school, 17% were in college or trade school, and 32% were not in education of any kind. Of those between 21 and 25, 73% were not in education of any kind, 26% were in college or trade school, and 78% were in employment. 

When asked how they felt about school, the respondents in middle and high school gave generally positive reviews, rating their satisfaction with school as 3.24 out of 5. These ratings did not change greatly with race. However, female respondents reported liking school more than male respondents.

When asked about the worries or concerns in their lives, participants listed finances and finding a job at the top, at 74% and 45%, respectively. Some of the results revealed the different worries faced by female skaters and skaters of colour. For example, skaters of colour are more concerned about getting into college, whereas female skaters are more concerned about housing issues and homelessness.