Ana M. López
Research expert covering travel, tourism and hospitality
Climbing in the United States - statistics & facts
Climbing is a sport in which participants ascend natural rock formations or artificial rock walls. It consists of several different disciplines including bouldering, lead climbing, speed climbing, traditional climbing, among others. Participants may be drawn to climbing not only because of its comprehensive physical training but also due to its characteristic problem-solving element, which also works as brain training.
The discrepancy observed between the number of indoor and outdoor climbers is possibly related to the additional dangers that exist when participating in the more traditional mountaineering pursuits. The number of climbing accidents reported each year in the United States increased considerably between 1951 and 2019 from only 15 in 1951 to a value of 202 in 2019. Considering the reports for both the United States and Canada, falling or slipping on a rock was the leading cause of climbing accidents across this period.
Indoor Climbing
Indoor climbing is a sport that has exhibited a considerable increase in popularity in the United States over recent years. In 2021, the number of people participating in indoor climbing in the North American country amounted to approximately six million. In that same year, there were a total of 591 climbing centers across the U.S. territory, of which over one-fifth were in the states of California and Colorado. All in all, the valuation of the indoor climbing market was above 400 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.Outdoor Climbing
Although many people access the sport of rock climbing within indoor climbing gyms, these facilities were first developed to artificially replicate the natural rock formations upon which the sport originally developed. In the United States, participation in outdoor climbing has exhibited an opposite development to the indoor activity. For instance, nearly 2.8 million people were climbing outdoors in 2016. By 2021, this figure had shrunk to around 2.4 million.The discrepancy observed between the number of indoor and outdoor climbers is possibly related to the additional dangers that exist when participating in the more traditional mountaineering pursuits. The number of climbing accidents reported each year in the United States increased considerably between 1951 and 2019 from only 15 in 1951 to a value of 202 in 2019. Considering the reports for both the United States and Canada, falling or slipping on a rock was the leading cause of climbing accidents across this period.
Competition Climbing
Although climbing is a sport with a well-established competition scene, it was only recently added to the Olympic program, with athletes competing against each other across three different disciplines: lead climbing, bouldering, and speed climbing. One of the reasons why climbing was incorporated into the Olympics was the long history of professional competition that exists within the sport. One of the most prestigious of these sport climbing tournaments is the International Federation of Sport Climbing's (IFSC) World Cup series, which, unlike the 2020 Olympic program, is separated into the three main disciplines: bouldering, lead, and speed. During the 2021 IFSC Boulder World Cup series, U.S. athletes accrued 1,088 points, placing its team in second place in the national team ranking for that year, following the Japanese national team.
