Question: What % of the U.S. Population Has Completed a Marathon?

At breakfast today, Les was wondering how common it is in the U.S. for someone to have completed a marathon. Turns out it is pretty rare.

In 2006, the most recent year for which I could find trustworthy numbers about marathon finishing rates, about 410,000 people completed marathons according to a Running USA/RRIC report. That's up from the previous year estimate of around 395,000, by the way.

The U.S. population estimate for 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was 299,398,484.

This means that about .001 (that's one one thousandth) of the U.S. population completed a marathon in 2006. A select group.

One more little nugget...median finishing time for U.S. male marathon finishers in 2006 was 4:15:34.