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This page explains what governing bodies, standards bodies and safety bodies publish. It is not a substitute for lessons from a qualified instructor, avalanche training or medical advice.
What is being counted
The numbers on this page measure different things. The worldwide and US figures are skier visits, the unit those reports use. FIS counts licensed competitors and sanctioned competitions. Federations and instructor bodies count their own members. The research behind this page found no published worldwide count of how many individual people ski or snowboard, so none is given.
Worldwide skier visits
The main worldwide source is Laurent Vanat's "International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism", a consultant's estimate. The full reports are paywalled, so the figures below are as trade press and an industry group reported them.
| Season | Skier visits worldwide | Source, as reported |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 399 million, a record | Vanat, 18th edition (April 2026), as reported by PlanetSKI on 21 April 2026 |
| 2023/24 | Over 366 million | Vanat, 17th edition (2025), per a European Outdoor Group summary seen in search results; unconfirmed |
| 2018/19 | 392 million, the previous record | Vanat, 18th edition, as reported by PlanetSKI |
PlanetSKI's report of the 18th edition adds that the 2024/25 count covers 68 countries with equipped outdoor ski areas and about 2,000 ski resorts, that global visits fell by nearly 50% in winter 2020/21 because of Covid-19, and that Israel and South Africa offered no skiing in 2024/25 for economic and geopolitical reasons.
United States skier visits
The US figures come from the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). Its press-release index lists "U.S. Ski Industry Reports Data from 2nd Best Season on Record" (12 May 2025) for 2024-25, and "U.S. Ski Industry Reports Visitor Data for 2025-26 Season" (5 May 2026) with an updated version (3 August 2026). The releases themselves were not reached, so the numbers rest on press coverage:
| Season | US skier visits | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | 60.4 million (preliminary) | Search summary of an NSAA release whose file returned an error; unconfirmed |
| 2024-25 | 61.5 million, second-best season on record (preliminary) | SAM Magazine headline seen in search results; unconfirmed |
| 2025-26 | About 52.6 million, down about 14.5% to 15% | Storm Skiing Journal and SAM convention coverage in search summaries; NSAA updated its release on 3 August 2026, so the final figure may differ |
The NSAA also publishes helmet-use shares: it says the share of US skiers and riders wearing helmets rose from 25% in the 2002/03 season to 90% in 2023/24. What that does and does not mean for safety is on what helmets do and do not do.
Competitors: FIS's own figures
FIS publishes its scale on two undated pages that do not agree:
| Measure | About FIS page (read October 2026) | FIS Factsheet General (older) |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed and active athletes | Over 39,000 (64.8% men, 35.2% women) | 30,764 (63% men, 37% women) |
| Member National Ski Associations | 141 | 133 |
| World Championships every two years | Nine | Three |
The About page appears to be the newer of the two, but neither is dated, so that is not confirmed. It also says FIS sanctions over 7,000 competitions a year, about 330 of them World Cup events. The factsheet says FIS's Bring Children to the Snow campaign supports 1,056 organisers in 53 countries, with over 1,000 events a year.
Members of the other bodies
Each of these is the body's own claim, and most are undated:
- ISMF (ski mountaineering): 55 national members after Uzbekistan and Pakistan joined, as the Olympic Council of Asia reported on 16 March 2025.
- IBU (biathlon): no dated figure was found; secondary profiles give 59 to 63 national federations.
- ISIA (instructors): 38 national associations according to the CSIA, or about 45 member flags on the ISIA's own page; neither is dated.
- CASI (Canadian snowboard instructors): more than 7,500 active members, per its own page read in October 2026.
- U.S. Ski & Snowboard: more than 240 elite athletes on 12 teams, per a search summary of its own page, which could not be opened; unconfirmed and undated.
How these bodies fit together is on FIS and the governing bodies and national federations.
Sources
- PlanetSKI, Worldwide ski industry bounces back (21 April 2026), reporting Laurent Vanat's International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism, 18th edition
- European Outdoor Group, 2025 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism (search-result summary)
- NSAA, Press releases
- SAM Magazine, US ski areas report 61.5M skier visits for 2024-25 (search-result headline)
- Storm Skiing Journal (search-result summary)
- NSAA, 2023-24 preliminary skier visits release (search-result summary; file returned 404)
- FIS, About FIS (read 24 October 2026)
- FIS, Factsheet General (undated)
- Olympic Council of Asia, Uzbekistan and Pakistan join International Ski Mountaineering Federation (16 March 2025)
- CASI-ACMS, Who we are (read 24 October 2026)
- CSIA, Who we are (read 24 October 2026)
- ISIA, Basics (read 24 October 2026)
- NSAA, Helmet Safety
- U.S. Ski & Snowboard, Why join (search-result summary; page returned HTTP 403)