Statistics
Facts and figures from Nordic triathlonLast updated 12 November 2026 at 04:07
Growth year by year
Yes. The same domestic races had 12.1% more starters in 2026 than in 2025.
+12.1%
Measured on the 282 races held in both years (37,401 against 33,373 starters). Growth 2 years in a row. The year is not over, so the figure covers the races held so far.
Change in the number of starters at domestic races held in both years. The figure is not affected by how many races we have added to the database.
Brand-new races are left out, since they have no previous year to compare with. The totals are further down.
How the Nordics are developing
The five Nordic countries side by side, whatever their size
- 🇳🇴Norway
- 🇸🇪Sweden
- 🇩🇰Denmark
- 🇮🇸Iceland
- 🇫🇮Finland
| Country | Change 2016–2026* |
|---|---|
| 🇫🇮Finland | +52% |
| 🇸🇪Sweden | +15% |
| 🇮🇸Iceland | +8% |
| 🇳🇴Norway | -13% |
| 🇩🇰Denmark | -34% |
- 🇳🇴Norway
- 🇫🇮Finland
- 🇸🇪Sweden
- 🇩🇰Denmark
- 🇮🇸Iceland
Split in 2026*
- 🇳🇴 Norway 21.3%
- 🇫🇮 Finland 19.3%
- 🇸🇪 Sweden 23.6%
- 🇩🇰 Denmark 33.8%
- 🇮🇸 Iceland 2%
* 2026: season in progress, shares are year to date.
| Country | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇳🇴 Norway | +50% | +1% | -6% | -20% | -78% | +120% | +43% | -7% | +19% | +26% | +20% |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | +41% | +4% | +34% | +17% | -98% | +1,834% | +134% | -8% | -6% | -5% | +29% |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | +24% | -4% | -27% | -23% | -89% | +447% | +31% | -4% | +25% | +13% | +16% |
| 🇮🇸 Iceland | +15% | -15% | -5% | +26% | -53% | +57% | +22% | -13% | -9% | +42% | +7% |
| 🇫🇮 Finland | +17% | +20% | +3% | -5% | -8% | +12% | +4% | +12% | +3% | +11% | -5% |
* 2026 is year to date (up to 12/11), compared with the same period in 2025. The faded part is provisional and changes through the season.
The figures show what TriSonen has results for, and coverage is not equally good in every country and every year. Read the changes as tendencies, not exact figures.
40,846 so far in 2026 · 2025: 36,415
28,949 so far in 2026 · 2025: 25,598
411 so far in 2026 · 2025: 416
How the forecast is calculated: we take what has been recorded so far this year and scale it up by how much of last year had been completed by the same date (100% of the season). It assumes the season looks like last year’s. A big race cancelled or added later in the year will move the number.
More athletes taking part is not the same as each athlete racing more often.
The two charts below keep these apart. Races per athlete covers a single season. The average on Overview is higher because it counts every race across an athlete’s whole career.
24.8% of the 2025 debutants have raced again in 2026.
3,166 of 12,769
The season is not over, so this share will rise. The table below shows the same measure for earlier debut cohorts.
| Debut cohort | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026(14,880) | 100% | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2025(12,769) | 100% | 25%* | – | – | – | – |
| 2024(11,731) | 100% | 23% | 16%* | – | – | – |
| 2023(13,892) | 100% | 16% | 12% | 9%* | – | – |
| 2022(9,631) | 100% | 23% | 16% | 12% | 10%* | – |
| 2021(6,019) | 100% | 26% | 20% | 15% | 12% | 10%* |
| 2020(2,009) | 100% | 34% | 24% | 20% | 16% | 14% |
| 2019(12,805) | 100% | 5% | 10% | 12% | 10% | 8% |
Each row is the athletes who debuted that year. The columns show the share of them who started a race in season 1, 2, 3 and so on. Cells with an asterisk are the current season: the number is real, but it will rise before the year is out. Cells with “–” are seasons the cohort has not reached yet. Cohorts under 25 athletes are left out.
A row does not always fall steadily. For the 2019 cohort, the second season was 2020, when covid stopped most racing.
The low point in 2020 is due to covid. Hardly any races were held, so almost nobody could start. 2026 is not over, so the last point will rise.
When the debutant line sits above the total, the athletes joining are more evenly split between women and men than those already racing. Shares are calculated from results where gender is recorded.
Distance choice in 2026 so far: women vs men
Share of women’s and of men’s starts at each distance. Supersprint/sprint: 39.2% of women’s starts, against 23.9% of men’s.
- Supersprint/sprint39.2%23.9%
- Standard24.3%24.8%
- Half/T10024.8%30.2%
- Full11.7%21.1%
Yes, there are more starts abroad now (+21.6%).
2026 against the same period in 2025. The share of all counted starts that were abroad went from 9.5% to 10.2% (+0.7 pp). In 2010, 14% of active athletes raced abroad. In 2026 it is 12%.
Women’s share of starts in 2026
Women make up 26% of starts abroad, against 30.5% at home.
- Women26%30.5%
Distances abroad in 2026
- Supersprint/sprint196 · 4.7%
- Standard194 · 4.7%
- Half/T1002,178 · 52.3%
- Full1,595 · 38.3%
Series abroad in 2026
- IRONMAN3,310 · 79.1%
- Challenge333 · 8%
- World Triathlon322 · 7.7%
- XTRI98 · 2.3%
- Other53 · 1.3%
- T10045 · 1.1%
- XTERRA15 · 0.4%
- Nordic Cup6 · 0.1%
A race in several series is counted under the best known one, for example T100 ahead of World Triathlon. “Other” is races without a series.
For domestic races we count every starter. For races abroad we only collect athletes from this country, so that part shows how many of them took part, not how big the race was. Some of the increase also comes from better coverage of Ironman and World Triathlon results. Read the long-term curve as a trend.
Standard is growing the most (+24.9%), supersprint/sprint is falling the most (-4.5%).
2026 against the same period in 2025. The last column shows the change in share, in percentage points. A distance can grow in numbers and still lose share if the others grow faster. Under each distance is the change for women and men separately.
“Full” includes ultra-distance races such as XTRI, and para classes are merged with their main distance. While a season is running, the comparison above is cut at the same date in both years. The curve for the current year is skewed by the season, though, since the long-distance races fall late in the year.
The solid line stops where the season stands today. The dashed line is the forecast: the rest of the year is spread the way last year was spread over the same months, and it ends on the same number as the forecast card further up.
How much we have added is not the same as how many took part. Every absolute number shows what we have results for. That is why the comparison of the same races comes first: it is not affected by how much we add.
The comparison does not pick up new races. Growth that comes from brand-new races falls outside it, so read the figure together with the total volume.
The current year is not finished. The numbers only cover what has been held so far, and the forecast is an estimate.
Recent debut cohorts look worse than they are. They have had fewer seasons to come back in. Those cells are marked in the table.
Age is left out on purpose. We have birth years for too few athletes, and age should not be guessed from age group. An age curve would show our data quality more than the sport.