Home › Track stats
Running tracks in America, by the numbers
We catalog 3,670 running tracks across 51 states and 1,958 cities, and mine each one for the things runners actually care about — is it open to the public, is it free, indoor or outdoor, lit for night, and what's the surface. Here's what that dataset says at the national level, drawn from public listings and 336,368 runner reviews. Cite any figure with a link.
Public Track Access Index →
Every state ranked by tracks per million residents and the share open to the public, free, lit, indoor, and rubber. Our flagship, downloadable dataset.
Best cities for track running →
The cities that combine the most tracks per resident with the highest runner ratings — where you're never far from a good oval.
Underserved cities →
Big cities with surprisingly few running tracks per resident — the gaps in America's track map.
What kind of place is it?
Running tracks live at very different venues. Here's the mix across the 3,670 tracks we've classified.
| Venue type | Tracks | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Running tracks | 2,236 | 61% |
| Park tracks | 382 | 10% |
| Stadium tracks | 300 | 8% |
| School tracks | 188 | 5% |
| Rec-center tracks | 181 | 5% |
| Sports-complex tracks | 164 | 4% |
| College & university tracks | 119 | 3% |
| Indoor field houses | 100 | 3% |
Surface mix
Among the 888 tracks with a confirmed surface. Most track listings don't state a surface, so this is the known subset — a modern rubberized oval is the one runners hope for.
| Surface | Tracks | Share of known |
|---|---|---|
| Rubber / all-weather | 292 | 33% |
| Grass | 446 | 50% |
| Dirt / cinder | 97 | 11% |
| Paved / asphalt | 53 | 6% |
States with the most tracks per resident
Nationally there are about 1.08 running tracks per 100,000 residents. These states have the most — a proxy for how easy it is to find an oval near you.
| State | Tracks | Per million residents |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 18 | 25.6 |
| Alaska | 15 | 20.3 |
| Utah | 68 | 19.4 |
| Illinois | 231 | 18.2 |
| Massachusetts | 125 | 17.5 |
| Connecticut | 64 | 17.4 |
| New Jersey | 161 | 16.9 |
| Kansas | 50 | 16.8 |
| Indiana | 112 | 16.2 |
| Arizona | 117 | 15.4 |
How this is built
Listings are compiled from public map and business data, filtered to genuine running tracks. Access, surface, lighting, and indoor/outdoor flags are our best read of each venue's own description, its website, and runner reviews — evidence, not guesswork — so the "known surface" and "open to the public" counts are conservative. Population figures are US Census estimates. Cite any number here with a link, or email hello@runningtracks.net for the raw data.