Latinos Are More Likely to Be Skaters

Industry News:

Who Skates the Most? ... Latinos

Survey Finds That 7.8 Percent of Latinos Are Inline Skaters

By Robert "Just the Factoids" Burnson

According to a new report, the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States happens to be the one that skates the most: Latinos.

The SGMA International report said the proportion of Latinos who inline skate is 24 percent greater than that for the general population.

In all, 2.7 million Latinos were skating in 2004, according to a study cited in the report.

That made inline skating the ninth most popular sport for Latinos. (The most popular sport was running with 6.4 million participants. Go to Top Ten List.)

The relative popularity of inline skating in the Latino community is likely to be perceived as good news for skate makers. The Latino community is the fastest growing minority in the United States and is expected to grow by 45 percent during the next 15 years.

The SGMA report was based in part on the Race, Ethnicity and Sports Participation study of American Sport Data, Inc.

Black and White

The study found that 7.8 percent of U.S. Latinos over the age of six inline skated at least once in 2004.

By comparison, 6.1 percent of Caucasians and 5.0 percent of African-Americans skated.

The average age for Latino skaters in the study was 19; the average number of days they skated during the year was 22.

Latinos also had above-average participation in several other sports, including soccer, running, volleyball, baseball and football.

The SGMA report said that this may be due to the relative youth of the Latino population.

The average age for U.S. Latinos is 26.7, the study said. The average age for Caucasians is 39.6.

In 2004, 42.3 million Latinos lived in the United States, making them the second largest ethnic group after Caucasians.

(Posted on Jan. 4, 2006)