Glasgow one of the top 10 cities in the UK for runners

The Great Run Company, the UK’s biggest mass participation event organiser and owners of the iconic Great North Run, has unveiled a heatmap of their runners across the UK which highlights Glasgow as a running hotspot.

Utilising 2024 participant postcode data from over 180,000 runners across their portfolio of annual running events which includes the Great Scottish Run, the report revealed over 14,000 Glaswegians took part in one of their mass events this year, equating to 1 in 44 Glasgow residents lacing up*.

Newcastle came tops of the running cities, the wider North East region accounting for 1 in 5 (19%) ‘great’ runners this year.

Regionally the Scotland followed the North East as a running hub with 17% of runners, with 1 in 10 runners coming from either the South West and South Central regions.

The top 10 running towns and cities identified by The Great Run Company were:

1. NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
2. GLASGOW
3. BRISTOL
4. MANCHESTER
5. BIRMINGHAM
6. PORTSMOUTH
7. STOCKPORT
8. DURHAM
9. EDINBURGH
10. CLEVELAND

CEO of The Great Run Company Paul Foster said:“Given our history for hosting the Great Scottish Run annually in Glasgow for the last 11 years, It’s no surprise that running has taken a hold of the city residents.

“However more importantly our report shows that more and more people are finding a love of running and reaping the many benefits that come from participating. People of all ages, all postcodes across the UK and even overseas are running our events. We can’t wait to welcome even more ‘great’ runners in 2025!”

With events across the UK including Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and Portsmouth, The Great Run Company also reported an increase in the popularity of running events with a 39% increase in participation versus 2023. This growth in participation follows stats reported by online event marketplace Let’s Do This, which shows the running event market grew by 23% in 2024.

The increased popularity can be attributed to the following trends seen in 2024 which looks set to continue into 2025;

• Challenge accepted – There is significant growth in brand new runners taking on Great Run challenges with 53% of participants being first timers in 2024, a notable increase of 13% year on year
• Gen Z Zoom - The boom in young runners continues at pace with 47% of Great Run’s entrants aged 35 and under.These guys are also not afraid to take on a challenge with young runners over indexing on the half marathon distance versus other age groups.
• Women lace up – the gender gap in participation continues to shrink with 46% of ‘Great’ runners being female in 2024, up 2% year on year

Fancy taking on a running challenge in 2025? Visit https://www.greatrun.org/events/ to explore the full Great Run Seres of events including the Great North Run, the ballot for which opens in January.