Question: Are less people inline skating than in the 1990s?
Answer: In 1996 there were over 25 million people inline skating, and now the National Sporting Goods Association is only reporting about 10.5 million participants. That is a reduction of a more than half.
It is important to consider the new technology, alternative activities, fewer convenient places to skate, economics and fear of injury which all may play a part in the current decline in the number of inline skaters.
The numbers may may sound low, but inline skating is attracting about the same number of participants as tennis, volleyball, football and softball. And there are more inline skaters than skateboarders or ice figure and hockey skaters combined. Inline skating, is not a hot growing fad anymore, but most people are exposed to it in some way, even if they don't skate themselves. Inline skating may appear to be in decline because it has saturated the population and the newness has worn off. Roller skating in general has historically had rises and falls in popularity and always comes back strong eventually, because it is just good healthy fun.
