outsider wrote:
I was googling it, and I'm still unfulfilled in my search for the answer.
I heard once that only 5% (or was it 1%) are able to do it...
Also that only 1% of the world's population have the necessary genes to make it to the Olympics (never mind the work or anything like that) - and that 1% diminishes as some people couldn't be arsed with the hard workouts...
Anyway - back to the original question - What percentage of people can run a mile in under 5minutes?
I have no idea, but looking back to high school, we had about 600 boys in a school of 1200 or so. And at least 8 including myself who were under 5 (1500m times all under 4:30).
And we had a descent basketball team and were provincial champs at the highest level of football. So we had good athletes - many of whom probably could run sub 5 or equivalent but didn't do track.
I bet at least 20/600 could run sub 5, maybe more, but 20/600 would be over 3%.