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Kieren Dsouza's avatar

“75% runners earn more than 50% over the median salary”

My 2cents on this is that running like many sports or activities is a luxury to be able to do. It’s something one can pursue once certain comfort is achieved, comfort in the form of stable and enough income- to eat, sleep, have a roof over ones head, take care of family and then have some more money, time and energy. Which is why i feel there could be similarities in terms of the kind of people we find the sport popular amongst, not just financial but other aspects as well.

Though I feel time and energy when it comes to something like running one can take out because inherently it’s an activity that someone does solely for them selves.

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Marty (KC) Kanter-Cronin's avatar

Raz: "75% of runners earn 50% over the median salary (please speculate why in a comment!)"

Speculation: Lower income jobs are more taxing physically, and people in those jobs don't need more activity. If I worked on my feet all day, I doubt I would take up running. Also: Urban dwellers in large metro areas earn more, and a high percent of runners are in those areas. Rural people tend to not be involved in recreational exercise. These are all just guesses.

The "logic" of asking the question takes two simple attributes without considering the other factors. A deeper dive would probably raise some other factors.

Such as these totally made up stats:

75% of runners live within 25 miles of a medium or large city (higher income, yes, but cost of living could show that within that area they are not actually above the median salary for that area.)

75% of runners are white/Caucasian. I can't cite an actual stat here, but I am pretty sure this is true, and the number may be higher. This will skew the salary data, since I am also pretty sure wages are higher in general for whites. Yes, I think there is still a wage disparity based on race.

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