Double bubble

It has been a while since I wrote (harped on) about the parkrun doubling effect, so now must be about time.

On a few occasions in the past on this blog I have written about how parkrun seems to roughly double in size (based on various criteria) every year. Well there is good recent evidence that this growth rate is still continuing.

Roughly 9 months ago I wrote a blog post about "parkrun world domination in your lifetime". Have a quick read of that post if you have the time, as it does show that expecting parkrun to keep doubling in size forever is simply not possible  (just like story of the grains of wheat on a cheeseboard did for some king whom I can't remember the name of). This growth cannot go on forever, that is unless someone uses parkrun to spread friendships beyond this planet.

I have had a quick look at recent attendances, and the equivalent date last year, and have found that for this period of the year at least attendances are still doubling in attendance numbers.

2012		2013
Date	Attendance	Date	Attendance	Growth
18th August	21,877	17th August	42,694	95%
25th August	20,113	24th August	39,042	94%
1st September	21,187	31st August	44,351	109%
8th September	24,408	7th September	44,226	82%

Firstly, of course, I must say that this is a very small sample to base statistics on. And secondly, it demonstrates that there is significant fluctuation in the figures each week of each year.

However, it certainly shows that, give or take some fluctuation, the number of people running a parkrun each week this year (over the last 4 parkrundays at least) is pretty much double the number of last year.

To make this coming parkrunday double up on the same weekend last year we need to get 47,034 of us to complete a parkrun. Let's see if we can manage that!

parkrun registration stats this week

There is still a little time for new registrations this week, but at the time of writing and compared to the figures in my post this time last week....

Totalling up new registrations across parkrun globally, shows that parkrun has attracted a further 3,666 registrations this week.

This takes the total number of global parkrun registrations (according to the official source page on the parkrun website) up to 395,991 (up from 392,325). That is a growth of 0.9% on last week. However, a parkrun Facebook status earlier today suggested that the figure was over 399,000, so it seems the official stats page is not 100% up to date.

It would therefore appear that parkrun should break-through the 400,000 registrations mark sometime in the next few days.

This weekend sees the addition of Torrens parkrun (Adelaide, Australia) to the parkrun family.

Three runs in and Malahide parkrun continues to be top of the charts in the number of new registrations category, this week adding yet another 137 new registrants so far. That is now four weeks in a row that Malahide parkrun has added the most new registrations.

parkrun events showing notable growth in registrations this week are:

Event	Total	This week
Malahide parkrun	1133	137
Newy parkrun	1832	71
Brighton & Hove parkrun	9941	51
Torrens parkrun	64	51

No great surprises in the "largest parkrun in the world" category this week, where it is still:

Event	Total
Bushy parkrun	20912
Glasgow parkrun	12288
Leeds parkrun	11125

And at the other end of the spectrum, but just as worthy of a mention we have (including a new entry):

Event	Total
Congleton parkrun	13
Upton Court parkrun	28
Kingscliff parkrun	52

parkrun registration stats this week

There is still a little time for new registrations this week, but at the time of writing and compared to the figures in my post this time last week....

Totalling up new registrations across parkrun globally, shows that parkrun has attracted a further 4,041 registrations in the last week.

This takes the total number of global parkrun registrations up to 392,325 (from 388,284). That is a growth of 1% since last week. At this rate of growth parkrun should break-through the 400,000 registrations mark in 2 just weeks time.

As far as I am aware Sandgate parkrun (Brisbane, Australia) is the only new event starting this week.

With two weeks now under it's belt, Malahide parkrun continues to be top of the charts in the number of new registrations category, this week adding yet another 187 new registrants so far. That is now three weeks in a row that Malahide parkrun has added the most new registrations.

parkrun events showing notable growth in registrations this week are:

Event	Total	This week
Malahide parkrun	932	187
Sandgate parkrun	134	113
Newy parkrun	1752	55
Leeds parkrun	11070	52
New Farm parkrun	4056	48
Glasgow parkrun	12240	47

Good to see a couple of the larger UK events high up the table this week after the southern hemisphere domination of this table recently.

Also of note this week:
Cannon Hill parkrun has broken through the 5000 registrations mark
Harrogate parkrun has broken through the 2000 registrations mark
Burnley parkrun has broken through the 1000 registrations mark

No great surprises in the "largest parkrun in the world" category this week, where it is still:

Event	Total
Bushy parkrun	20874
Glasgow parkrun	12240
Leeds parkrun	11070

And at the other end of the spectrum, but just as worthy of a mention we have:

Event	Total
Torrens parkrun	1
Upton Court parkrun	16
Kingscliff parkrun	43

Torrens parkrun will be the next new parkrun event joining the family. It will be located in Adelaide (Australia) and will be starting next weekend (1st December). parkrun is really growing quickly in Australia at the moment.