In this post, you’ll find a collection of data visualizations related to the Boston Marathon.
These data visualizations have all been created with Flourish. It’s a website where you can create and share amazing data visualizations.
I’ve included the links to the visualizations below. Feel free to use them in your own work, but please include a link back to this website as attribution.
With WordPress, Medium, and many other platforms, you can simply paste the link into your post to have the visualization embedded. Clicking on the link will also bring you to the visualization on Flourish – where it will appear full screen and you’ll see additional options for sharing and embedding it.
The visualizations below were originally created to accompany the following articles, and you can find more explanation and analysis there:
- Are the Boston Marathon Qualifying Times Fair For All Age Groups?
- The 2024 Boston Marathon by the Numbers
The 2024 Boston Marathon
The following visualizations represent data from the finishers of the 2024 Boston Marathon – and in some cases compare it to previous marathons.
The chart above shows the breakdown of the finishers at the Boston Marathon – by age and gender – from 2019 to 2024. Each color represents a different age group, and they proceed left to right from under 35 to 80 and over. The mens and womens bar for each year add up to 100% (give or take a tenth of a percent due to rounding).
The chart above shows finish times across the Boston Marathon from 2019 to 2024. The median finish time represents the runner where 50% of the age group finish ahead of them and 50% behind them. The 90th percentile runner finished ahead of 90% of runners in their age group. The drop down toggles between men and women, and the colors indicate different age groups. The age groups included are Under 35, 35-39, 40-44, and 45-49.
The chart above shows the number of finishers at the 2024 Boston Marathon from each state in the United States. The number of finishers was compared to the state’s population (as of the Census Bureau’s 2023 population estimate) to estimate a number of finishers per million residents. States are sorted into five bins – with the darkest blue representing the most runners per million residents and the white representing the fewest.
The chart above shows the number of finishers at the 2024 Boston Marathon from countries around the world. The countries are sorted into bins – and the darker shade of blue indicates more finishers came from that country.
The visual above identifies the top ten countries of residence – in both 2018 and 2024 – for finishers at the Boston Marathon. There are twelve countries overall, and most of them appeared in the top 10 for both years. You can click on the countries in the legend to hide them and isolate specific countries.
The chart above shows the number of finishers at the Boston Marathon – from 2019 to 2024 – that finished beneath the qualifying time for their age group. The group of bars on the left represent the number of finishers that beat the qualifying time by any margin, while the group of bars on the right represent the number of finishers that beat their qualifying time by at least 5 minutes.
The chart above shows the total number of international runners who finished the Boston Marathon – from 2018 to 2024. A runner who’s country of residence was a country other than the United States is considered an international runner. It’s possible that a runner’s country of citizenship does not match their country of residence.
Boston Marathon Qualifying Times
The following visualizations relate to an analysis of the current (2020) qualifying times for the Boston Marathon.
The chart above is based on a data sample that includes all marathons run in the United States in 2023. The bars on the left indicate the number of runners, by gender, who met the qualifying time for their age group (as of the date of their marathon). The graph on the right displays this as a percentage of the total number of runners of that gender.
The chart above graphs the age grade of the current (2020) qualifying time for each age group and gender at the Boston Marathon. Times were graded using the current (2023) age factors. If you use the drop-down, you can toggle between the actual qualifying times and the effective qualifying time for 2024 (using a (5:29 cutoff).
This visual shows the percentage of runners from each gender and age group that met their qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. The sample includes all runners at American marathons in 2023, and the qualifying times used are those that went into effect in 2020.
This visual shows the number of qualifiers, by gender, that would met their Boston qualifying time by a given amount. The top bar (0) indicates runners who met their standard by any amount. The bottom bar (10) means that runners were at least ten minutes under their qualifying time. The sample includes all runners at American marathons in 2023.
This visual shows the number and percent of runners who met their qualifying time for the Boston Marathon by the number of marathons they run per year. The first column (1) is runners who completed only one marathon in 2023. The second column (2) is runners who completed two marathons. So on and so forth. Runners were matched based on their name and age group, so the classification of how many marathons a person ran is not perfect. But it is a good approximation.
This visual shows the breakdown of the pool of runners who met the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon by the number of minutes beneath their qualifying time. The top bar represents the gender and age breakdown of runners who met their qualifying time by any amount. The bottom bar indicates that runners met their qualifying time by at least ten minutes.