The countries where everyone runs ultras
America has more ultras than anywhere else, and some of the most famous ones in the sport. In 2025 it staged 3,068 of them, more than four times as many as France. On the number of races it is not close. On the number of people running them, France is ahead. 162,317 finishes against 136,401.
That is odd enough on its own, but races and finishers both flatter big countries, and America has five times the population of France. The number that actually says something is how many people run one per head.
France comes first, at 237 ultra finishes per 100,000 people a year. Switzerland is close behind on 182, then Sweden on 113. The United States is seventh, on 40, a shade ahead of Canada and the United Kingdom.
France runs six ultras for every one America runs, per head. Switzerland runs four and a half.
It is not really a league table, and it is not about France in particular. Every country above the United States except Australia is in Europe, and the top of it is Alpine and Nordic. France, Switzerland, Sweden. Places where the terrain is on the doorstep and running a long way in the mountains is an ordinary way to spend a Saturday.
The data comes from DUV, which is run out of Germany, so the fair question is whether it simply knows Europe better. It does not: America has four times the races in here and a median field of 24 people, so this is a database carrying thousands of tiny American events, not one that is missing them. If anything the gap is wider than it looks.
So ultrarunning is a mass participation sport in a handful of European countries and a minority interest nearly everywhere else, including the country that hosts some of the most famous races. America has the mountains and the history. Switzerland and France have the runners.
Based on DUV data as at September 2026, covering all recorded finishes in 2025 rather than individual runners. Population figures are mid-2025 estimates from the UN World Population Prospects 2024 revision.