What percentage of people can run a mile in under 5minutes?

I've wondered that too, I bet it is remarkably high if you consider FROM BIRTH who has the ability to run that fast (genetically speaking). Obviously motivation, enviorment, people your surrounded by etc are going to dwindle that number that I would say is around 30% to around 1% if you take the ~306,000,000 americans currently living. Now before people start saying that its WAY higher than 1% lets think about how many people that 1% is. 3,060,000 people is A TON of people, I would say thats a fairly reasonable guestiment and that will pretty much cover almost every male HS'er & definatly colligate as well as some post HS / Collegiate runners still running leisurely. Then you take the females that have done it.

but interesting topic

Less than 1%

outsider wrote:

I heard once that only...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

Those two statements combined don't make sense.

The number of people who can make it to the Olympics in any sport is far less than the number of people who can run a sub 5 mile.

3/10.. trite but always generates some response

Currently, or at some point in their life? And does "can" mean able given proper training, or currently can run one?

Currently, I'd like less than 0.01%

At some point in their life, still probably around 0.5%.

who has the given talent? about 75-80% from birth have or had the talent to do it

if you were to just throw them on a track right now?

1% is pushing it

Well think of it this way too. In my high school, there were 8-12/560 people who could break 5:00, or roughly 1.4-2% of them. There are also all of the post collegiates, club soccer players, decently athletic people. So I'd say it's at least 1% or pretty close to that.

Don't know on the 5 mins - but Olympics is a hell of a lot lower than 1%

ya..... wrote:

Well think of it this way too. In my high school, there were 8-12/560 people who could break 5:00, or roughly 1.4-2% of them. There are also all of the post collegiates, club soccer players, decently athletic people. So I'd say it's at least 1% or pretty close to that.

You're talking about a population between the ages of 13 and 18, and extrapolating to the general population?

I expect if you went to a nursery school or retirement community, you'd find significantly fewer than 1.4% of them going sub-5.

Just look at a population pyramid and know that you're excluding essentially everyone under age 10 or over age 50.

My running career, such as it was, is basically over, but I still run about 3x a week, go to the gym, play tennis, bike everywhere, and am more active than at least 95% of the people I see around me. And I couldn't get close to 5 minutes if I went to the track today.

[quote]Reinhold wrote:

[quote]ya..... wrote:

You're talking about a population between the ages of 13 and 18, and extrapolating to the general population?/quote]

The question should be rewritten so that it is more succinct.

What percentage of people, while in their peak years, could run under 5 minutes for a mile.

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?

WAY less than 1% can break a 5:00 mile, and while more than do would have the talent to do it if they trained, it's still a very low number 2-3% tops.

I'm going to give it a try, even though I started running less than a year ago at age 35.

I've never ran a mile all out, but have done 5:43-5:50 several times as parts of longer runs (and those are quite hard).

Only issue I will run into is that I'll have to do it as a time trial format, because I've never heard of a mile race (outside of a kids run) in central Ohio.

i would say at least 80% of men could do it with proper training

the700miler wrote:

I'm going to give it a try, even though I started running less than a year ago at age 35.

I've never ran a mile all out, but have done 5:43-5:50 several times as parts of longer runs (and those are quite hard).

Only issue I will run into is that I'll have to do it as a time trial format, because I've never heard of a mile race (outside of a kids run) in central Ohio.

Just go find a high school track and do it there. Thomas Worthington's track is almost always open. The Columbus Road Runners used to do twice-monthly Sunday "races" there...100 meters, 400 meters, 1600 meters and then a training run that left the stadium of 2-6 miles. Not sure if they still do these, but I've done a few of those Sunday races in the past just to see where I was fitnesswise.

Go here and ask -

tits McGee wrote:

i would say at least 80% of men could do it with proper training

I'm curious why you think this. 80%!? In UNDER 5:00? No freakin' way. Maybe I have a better perspective because I ran D III track and CC with distance guys who really had no business being on a college team...but D III doesn't really kick too many off for being slow -- my school didn't anyway. There weren't 80% of the guys on my college cross country team who could have run a mile in 5:30. 40% maybe, and these are guys who considered themselves runners, were trained and still young and relatively fit. Ever wait at the end of an 8,000 in CC for a teammate to finish in 35 minutes?

Flagpole wrote:

tits McGee wrote:

i would say at least 80% of men could do it with proper training

I'm curious why you think this. 80%!? In UNDER 5:00? No freakin' way. Maybe I have a better perspective because I ran D III track and CC with distance guys who really had no business being on a college team...but D III doesn't really kick too many off for being slow -- my school didn't anyway. There weren't 80% of the guys on my college cross country team who could have run a mile in 5:30. 40% maybe, and these are guys who considered themselves runners, were trained and still young and relatively fit. Ever wait at the end of an 8,000 in CC for a teammate to finish in 35 minutes?

Wow, what college did you go to? I'm also D3, but our slowest guy is around 28 minutes for 8k.

There are numerous 1-mile races in the Great Lakes region if you have the desire. Youngstown, OH, has a race every year that's a guaranteed PR course!

the700miler wrote:

Only issue I will run into is that I'll have to do it as a time trial format, because I've never heard of a mile race (outside of a kids run) in central Ohio.

% of population that at some point in their lives with proper nutrition,training,... etc can run 1 mile in 5 minutes or less is........ .

small

tits McGee wrote:

i would say at least 80% of men could do it with proper training

I don't think you have the slightest idea how fast five minute miles are to the average person.