The 2024 Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker Survey: General Information Part 1

It’s once again time for the annual Appalachian Trail survey! We’re getting things started with our first of two posts covering general information. This first post will largely include demographics and logistics, while the next post will focus more on experiences during the hike and hiker favorites. We’ve also added a handful of new questions this year, most notably about hikers’ occupations and the circumstances that got them to the trail.

This year we collected 389 responses; a huge thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! The data was collected from October through November of 2024 through our survey, which was marketed using our social media platforms, Backpacker Radio, and TheTrek.co. Some responses from previous years were removed, and obvious mistakes in start and end dates were adjusted. No obvious duplicates were found.

Let’s get into it!

Read Part 2 Here

Demographics

Age of Hikers

The distribution of ages is similar to previous years, with the largest cohort of hikers in their 20s and early 30s, followed by another, smaller spike representing hikers in their late 50s and early 60s. These age clusters make sense since retirees and recent college grads tend to have the most freedom to thru-hike. This year the mode was 28, which is a bit higher than last year’s 23. The rest of the numbers were all within one to two years of the previous year’s ages.

Gender Distribution

We asked hikers about their gender. The numbers are similar to last year, but there were 5% fewer women and 1% fewer non-binary participants than last year, bringing the number of men up by 7%.

At 63%, this was the largest proportion of men we’ve ever recorded since we began collecting demographic data in 2016. Only by a tiny amount, though: the second-highest proportion of men we recorded was 62% in 2021. Gender distribution has fluctuated between about 54 and 63% men over the years of the survey with no clear trend in any direction. Typically, 1-2% of participants are non-binary, though over 2% and 3% identified as non-binary or other in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Race Distribution

The racial distribution was similar to previous years, although this year showed a slight decline in non-white hikers and a slight increase in white hikers (up to 93% from last year’s 91%). These numbers tend to fluctuate within a few percentage points year-to-year in our survey, but the proportion of white participants is consistently over 90%.

Education

Education levels stayed very close to previous years as well, with no categories changing by more than 3%. The majority of hikers are college-educated. Keep in mind that 10% of hikers are under 22 and might not have acquired a degree yet due to age.

States

 

The majority of hikers were from the United States, as per usual, at 92% this year. Most were also from east coast states, which is usually the case since they’re closer to the trail. The states with the highest number of hikers were Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, respectively.

There were hikers from nine different countries this year. You can find the distribution below. Countries in the “other” category include Austria, Australia, Denmark, Israel, and the Netherlands, with two or fewer hikers each.

Occupation

This year we asked hikers about their occupations before starting the trail. We received 205 distinct job types, with the top ten listed below. It’s notable that the top 10 job categories included retirees (8.5%), students (4.7%), and those who self-reported as unemployed (1.6%).

Other notable job categories included engineering, sales and marketing, and healthcare. Many of the most common occupations were the sort that would require higher education, which jibes with our findings regarding education levels discussed above (73% of respondents had at least a Bachelor’s degree).

A significant number of survey participants reported holding jobs within the outdoor industry and seasonal positions, but the occupations were too distinct to be grouped together in any meaningful way.

We also asked hikers this year what circumstances allowed them the time to hike. Over one-third of hikers quit their jobs to thru-hike, with another 19 percent being retired and 15 percent taking unpaid leave. These three reasons together accounted for 71% of responses, far eclipsing all other reasons (self-employed, seasonal worker, sabbatical, etc.) You can find the full breakdown below.

Hiking Basics

Exactly 50% of hikers had between one and seven nights of backpacking experience prior to their AT hike. Hiker’s experience levels were similar to previous years. As usual, higher experience levels were progressively less common, but there was a spike in responses at 3+ months of experience (11%), which likely comes from previous thru-hikers.

Last year, there were no hikers with zero hiking or camping experience. However, four intrepid hikers this year started with zero hiking or camping experience. Props to them!

This year, 275 respondents (71%) completed their thru-hikes with over 2000 miles hiked. As is typical, we recorded a much higher completion rate than the ATC typically reports; for comparison, the ATC said 28 – 31% of hikers completed the AT in 2023, depending on direction. The ATC is working with a much larger dataset, which helps account for the disparity.

The Trek’s readership represents the thru-hiking niche more heavily than the general AT population. As such, thru-hikers participating in this survey might skew toward the more knowledgeable/committed end. We also like to think that readers of the Trek are more prepared for the rigors of trail life by being exposed to the wealth of knowledge hosted on this lovely little site.

Editors: *preen*

54 hikers this year did not complete a thru-hike. However, 16 of those (27 percent) only intended to hike a section. This is down from last year, when 34 percent of participants were intentionally section hiking. Similarly, fewer hikers cited family/personal reasons and dissatisfaction with the journey in 2024.

25% of hikers got off trail due to illness or injury, same as last year. Injury was once again the most common reason would-be thru-hikers didn’t finish.

Instead, this year more hikers pointed to financial issues, running out of time, and — most significantly — weather-related issues as reasons they didn’t finish.

Flooding and rain were cited as factors that prematurely ended thru-hikes in 8% of cases this year and 6% last year. Hurricane Helene also impacted southbound and later-season flip-flop hikers this year. 14 percent of hikers who didn’t finish this year cited weather-related events (between Helene, general rain and flooding, and heat).

Timing

As is typical, northbound was overwhelmingly the most popular direction among hikers this year. We did see a decrease in southbound hikers from 6% in 2023 to 4% this year, and more flip-floppers choosing a non-standard option.

Hurricane Helene did significantly impact southbound hikes this year — we had 7 southbound hikers respond to the survey this year, and none hiked over 2000 miles, potentially due to Hurricane Helene. Only two specifically mentioned this as the reason for their hike ending, while the rest did not include a reason for not completing the hike.

Most hikers began their hikes in March and April. The most popular date overall was tied between March 4 and April 3, while the most popular northbound start date was tied between April 3 and April 20. The earliest northbound hiker started on January 11, and the latest started on May 15. For southbound hikers, the earliest hiker started very early on March 7, and the latest started August 8.

Most hikers finished their hikes between mid-August and early October. There was a four-way tie for the overall most popular finish date, all falling between August 27 and October 4, but the northbound most popular date was August 27.

The first northbound finisher to complete their hike finished on June 1, and the last recorded northbound hiker finished on October 15.

The first southbound hiker finished their hike on September 26 — the same day as Hurricane Helene. Keep in mind that southbound hikers may still be hiking if they chose/were able to continue after the hurricane. A handful did finish on later dates going into late November, potentially hiking until they reached areas damaged by the storm.

Pace of AT Hikers

Slightly fewer hikers checked in with the ATC this year than last, with each location’s attendance dropping by 2-8%. It has been speculated there were fewer hikers overall attempting the trail this season, possibly due to the Covid-induced outdoor recreation bubble finally bursting, which could play into this.

On the other hand, attendance at trail festivals was slightly up. Nine percent fewer hikers said they attended no festivals this year compared to last. It’s difficult to say whether this reflects real attendance numbers at those festivals.

Anecdotally, organizers at Damascus Trail Days this year said the hiker parade seemed smaller this year when they compared photos of it to those from last year, while vendors and businesses (including our own Zach Davis) said the festival felt quieter overall.

Budget

The average cost of a thru-hike increased this year to $7,602 from $7,482 last year, while the most common amount spent was $10,500 this year, up from last year’s $10,000. The spread of hikers between $5k and $12.5k is fairly even — 22.5 percent of hikers fell between $5k and $7.5k, 20.75 percent fell within the $7.5k –10k range, and 23.25 percent fell within $10k – 12.5k.

Hikers spent an average of $2,121 on their gear. Over 70 percent of hikers spent between $1,000-$3,000 on gear. Keep in mind that this includes the initial cost of purchasing gear for the hike, along with the ongoing costs of replacing or repairing shoes, clothing, and gear while hiking.

Conclusion

That’s all for the first post of the AT 2024 Survey! The next post will feature more general information, with more of a focus on hikers’ experience, safety, and favorites. The following posts will cover backpacks, footwear, shelter systems, sleeping bags, and stoves/filters. Please leave any feedback, questions, or comments in the comment section below. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Congratulations to all the AT hikers this year, and a huge thank you to everyone who filled out the survey, we couldn’t do this without you!

Featured image: Graphic design by Chris Helm.