What percentage of American males aged 18-30 can run a 6:00 mile?

I ran a 5:30 mile in high school. Road 5K in 19:57 at age 30.

I say well under 1%. Most guys are just struggling to get any abs by age 30. This is America, not Kenya.

No chance it's over 5%.

Less than 23% of US get enough exercise to run at all...more less run a mile. The average pace for runners actually running 5K races is over 10 minutes/mile (much higher for women, a little lower for younger people). There is NO way 20% of people could be running 6 minute miles!

My son and I started running regularly 6 month ago and we both started in above average shape (Way better shape than our peer circles). Today, we struggled for and 8:15 mile.

Our high school XC team just had a one mile time trial (in a way) today. Our instructions were to take it just a little bit faster than our race pace, unless we were feeling really great and wanted to go for a PR. (That ended up being what most of us did.) I decided to take it easy, aiming for about a 6:30 at 80-85% effort, but after finishing and being fully convinced that I was on target, learned that it was actually a 5:54.91. To answer your question, 26 out of 35 boys (74%) broke 6 today, and 2 out of 20 girls (10%), but it could have been more if all of us were going a full 100 percent.

Although obviously we're at an age of extremely good physical fitness, and even more so after two months of XC practice, so it's definitely not proportional to the rest of the US, we seem like we're kind of your demographic.

kids on a high school xc team make up a very, very, very small portion of the demographic in the op.

1%-3% or barely higher for 6:00.00 or faster.

Military Boot Camp - out of 1000 basically prepared male and another 1000 female recruits... also, they have a reward system to at least try: hardly any women, maybe 15-50 could break it. Men - about 75-150 ish.

Now, add the population that is too heavy or too weak to join the military.

Now add the people that are two years separated from gym class and don’t do running related activities from age 19-30.

Don’t know that answer, but I can guarantee you that 100% non obese even mildly overweight could run under 6 mi with decent training and will power.

People stop pretending that weekend warrior times are far of reach of most people. Anyone could even run semipro times with years of training yes anyone, but elite level is different.

I would say around 10%.

huh what wrote:

I would say around 10%.

Wait I misread the question...thought it was just 18 year olds.

18-30 I would guess is far lower. 3% maybe.

I would say any male with BMI less than 25 and decent running experience with good training can break 5:00. I never did any sports in my life I was sedentary till my late 20’s started jogging then at age 31 started getting coaching. I improved from a 20 min jog to 18 min 5k on my own with zero clue how to train, them in less than 2 years with a coach ran 15:50 and 4:30. So please stop thinking that running decent times are achieved by talented athletes.

Anyone that can build 2-3 years of decent aerobic capacity 40-50 mi and couple years of decent training can achieve respectable times. Yes to run 13 low or 3:50 mi takes talent and obviously gotta start at young age.

Senior records are worthless at predicting what you could have achieved at young age, cuz I know amazing master runners that could never run fast in HS or College.

Trolls...

Nothing special breaking 5 in the mile.

As I said before with couple years of training working overtime, family with young kids in my early 30’s ran ok, so is not very special at all it just takes discipline to achieve weekend warrior level. I stopped training at 33-34, now 41 jogging once or twice a week for the past couple of years and I can still run 5:23 mile in my last attempt 2 months ago. So sub 6 can be done by anyone with normal BMI and decent running background even without training.

Stop trolling, for those frustrated athletes that could never and will never run fast times, but run in HS and College you should compare yourselves with athletes like Rupp not general population that running is just a hobby or a way to get aerobic exercise for cardiovascular health.

Don't have a good guess, but I'm always surprised how many people can pull out a sub-70 400m

I started running at 13 after living a sedentary lifestyle for 5ish years, and it took me a couple months before I could even run a mile at once. I would bet that the vast majority of people 19-30 couldn't run a mile without walking.

A lot of people above 22 probably are too invested in their job to do any serious workouts, and a lot of people in college are not working out consistently unless they are on a team.

I'm going with 20% or less that could run a mile nonstop, and 1% or less that could break 6.

With no training, very few. Tough to say an exact number, but definitely fewer than 5%, probably less than 1%.

I did not run in college. I took years off running. With no training, 4 years out of HS I had to run a fitness test for a class in college. I literally had run zero miles since college. I ran 9:05 and was beyond embarrassed.

But the instructor was shocked. She was convinced I miscounted the laps. I was FAR faster than anyone in the class, and it was among the fastest times she had seen.

Americans are fat, lazy and inactive. The few that do workout are heavily strength oriented(men lifting weights). Women gravitate towards classes(high fitness, yoga etc). So even most the fit ones couldn't do it.

Less than 1% for sure. A sub 20 min 5km puts you in the top 1% of parkrun runners globally. The people attending a parkrun are surely a fitter sample than a general sample of the population (even accounting for the age and gender diversity at parkruns, they're still probably better than a random sample of 18-30yo males who are mostly sedentary)

100%

I think the number isn't that low. Anyone who plays a sport that involves running around should definitely be able to, or anyone with a physical job. Even people who just walk a lot have a good chance. A mile isn't very far and 6:00 pace isn't very fast.

Have to run a mile at all to finish in 6min.

https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2020/02/21/survey-texans-could-only-run-1-5-mile-without-stopping/4807924002/

Here’s the presidential fitness test (see charts) people keep referencing. Another fun fact in there, 50th percentile for 17yo males, just over 7min.

http://www.newton.k12.in.us/hs/pe/images/physical-fitness-guide.pdf

You mean 5:59/6:00? Not many at all. I've seen it all at parkrun (5k). Some people start of like a bat out of hell but they can't even maintain it for 200m.