How many people practice horse riding in France?

Horse riding is an activity that brings together many enthusiasts around the world. In France, horse riding has become one of the favorite activities of a certain part of the population within which we easily find specialists or professionals in certain disciplines. The question we ask ourselves is: how many people practice horse riding in France? We talk about it in this article.


How many people practice horse riding in France?

When we look at the statistics for 2016, France had approximately 2.7 million professionals who are horse riding enthusiasts. When asked the question, 5.8% of French people aged 15 to 70 answered that they had practiced horse riding at least once in the last 12 months.

These are practitioners who therefore represent a little over 2.7 million occasional or regular practitioners, regardless of the type of horse riding they practice. For more than two thirds of this estimate - 41%, it is a question of an activity that they practice regularly during the year.

Less than a quarter, 19.7%, practice horse riding during the holidays or only during a certain period. As for episodic practice throughout the year, only 28.4% of the population surveyed claim to do so.

It should be understood that regular horse riding practitioners, being 2.4% of the French population, represent a little over a million people in France. This corresponds to the weekly practice declarations made by 39% of practitioners. It must be said that the majority of these practitioners obtain their accessories from one of the most well-known shops in France in this area, La Sellerie Française.

An atypical practitioner profile

What we need to remember about horse riding in France is that it is a predominantly female activity. In fact, women represent 67% of the riders that can be counted. Better still, these women who ride horses do so with an estimated 39% of women aged 30 to 49.

It is noted that young women aged 15 to 29 occupy 44% of the percentage of the female stratum and 17% of this percentage goes to those over 50 years old.

We thus logically find a percentage of 7% of retirees and at the other end of this age pyramid 20% of students and high school students. 60% of French horse riding practitioners are active people.

When we compare these 60% to a three-level social scale, 39% of practitioners come from the popular category, against 35% for the average category and 26% for the upper social category. 45% of horse riding practitioners do not have a baccalaureate.

However, the high proportion of middle and high school students shapes these figures. 36% of horse riding enthusiasts have a higher education diploma.

Finally, it should be noted that 70% of French horse riding enthusiasts say they have parents who are athletes.