The world race calendar in numbers
SportPlan indexes one of the largest open race calendars in the world. We aggregated 82,022 approved events across 185 countries to answer three simple questions: when are races held, where, and over which distances.
82,022
185
2020–2032
When are races held?
Events per calendar month across the whole corpus. The global season has one clear peak: late spring and early summer.
- January1,006
- February925
- March4,410
- April3,565
- May14,512
- June16,598
- July9,970
- August8,430
- September9,333
- October7,117
- November3,973
- December2,183
June, May, and July alone concentrate 50% of all events in the calendar.
Race seasons in the top 10 countries
The same month-by-month distribution, country by country. Northern-hemisphere calendars peak in May–June; southern-hemisphere calendars run against them.
Peak: June
Peak: October
Peak: June
Peak: June
Peak: June
Peak: June
Peak: May
Peak: May
Peak: May
Peak: May
The distance mix
Share of the 29,684 events that publish a distance, grouped into five race bands.
- 0–5 km26%
- 5–10 km12%
- 10–21 km9%
- 21–42 km19%
- 42+ km35%
Ultra distances (42+ km) are the single largest band, with 35% of all events that publish a distance.
The sport mix
The ten biggest sports in the calendar, by number of events.
- Running26,796
- Trail Running13,907
- Road Cycling6,759
- MTB / BTT5,745
- Triathlon4,144
- Golf3,241
- Gravel3,232
- Walking / Hiking1,705
- Basketball1,678
- Tennis1,585
- Other sports13,230
Running and Trail Running together account for 50% of the entire calendar.
The busiest month, country by country
Peak race month for every major country in the calendar. Tap a country to open its full race calendar.
- United States — busiest in June (7,137 events)
- Spain — busiest in October (1,462 events)
- France — busiest in June (1,440 events)
- United Kingdom — busiest in June (1,105 events)
- Italy — busiest in June (952 events)
- Canada — busiest in June (684 events)
- Germany — busiest in May (619 events)
- Belgium — busiest in May (419 events)
- Australia — busiest in May (450 events)
- South Africa — busiest in May (290 events)
- Netherlands — busiest in May (341 events)
- Austria — busiest in June (274 events)
- Switzerland — busiest in June (206 events)
- Sweden — busiest in May (166 events)
- Portugal — busiest in June (122 events)
- Ireland — busiest in June (139 events)
- New Zealand — busiest in May (81 events)
- Poland — busiest in June (99 events)
- Denmark — busiest in May (181 events)
- Czech Republic — busiest in June (99 events)
- Norway — busiest in June (85 events)
- Brazil — busiest in June (67 events)
- Chile — busiest in September (104 events)
- Japan — busiest in May (34 events)
- Mexico — busiest in August (40 events)
- Finland — busiest in May (51 events)
About this data
Figures are aggregated from 82,022 approved events in SportPlan’s own event database, covering January 2020 to February 2032. Counts reflect published events, not participants. You are welcome to cite this study with a link to SportPlan.