Rascasse Audience Intelligence

Kentucky Derby Fan Demographics in United States

Kentucky Derby has an estimated audience of 3.7M people in United States.

#99among events in United States#768in Sports

The average Kentucky Derby fan in United States is 46.9 years old, balanced, and lives primarily in California.

Interest is seasonal: March, April and May account for 80% of the year's searches, September is the quietest month.

Most fans live in California, Florida, New York.

Top affinities include WDRB News, Preakness Stakes, The Courier-Journal, with strongest over-indexing on WDRB News (47.41× the country average).

Demographically, the Kentucky Derby audience skews balanced with an average age of 46.9, and over-indexes on personality traits such as Patriotism, Need for Security.

The typical Kentucky Derby fan in United States is balanced, around 46.9 years old, with strong Patriotism tendencies and a notable affinity for WDRB News.

Category: Sports · Type: Event

Data status: Q3/2026 · Source & method

Section 01

At a glance

Audience size
3.7M
in United States
Gender
54.3%♀
45.7% male
Age
46.9
average years
Country rank
#8827
among all objects in United States
Fig. 01

Search interest · 12-month trend

-14%
vs. last year
JanMarMayJulSepNov
Monthly searches · Source: Rascasse Solution
Section 02

Demographics of Kentucky Derby fans

54.3% are female, 45.7% are male, average age 46.9.

Fig. 02

Gender split

54.3%
Female
45.7%
Male
Demographic split for Kentucky Derby audience in United States
MetricValue
Female54.3%
Male45.7%
Average age46.9
Estimated audience size3.7M
Fig. 03

Age distribution

Ø 46.9
average years
Age distribution of the Kentucky Derby audience in United States
Age bracketShare%
16-247%
25-3413%
35-4418%
45-5426%
55+36%
Fig. 04

Worldwide distribution

79.4%

of the worldwide Kentucky Derby audience comes from United States.

Worldwide audience distribution share by country for Kentucky Derby
CountryShare
United States79.4%
United Kingdom2.9%
Canada2.5%
Section 03
Affinity (×) = how much more likely a member of this audience is to live in a region than the United States average. Example: 2.0× means twice as concentrated as the national baseline.

Geography

Fig. 05

Top regions by affinity

Kentucky Derby fans by region: top regions in United States
#RegionReachAffinity×
01Kentucky~100K2.99×
02Indiana~100K1.39×
03Connecticut~50K1.36×
04Ohio~200K1.31×
05Massachusetts~100K1.27×
06Nebraska~30K1.19×
07Pennsylvania~200K1.16×
08Colorado~70K1.15×
09Maine~20K1.15×
10Wisconsin~70K1.14×
11Rhode Island~10K1.13×
12Tennessee~90K1.11×
13Washington, District of Columbia~8K1.11×
14Vermont~8K1.11×
15Iowa~40K1.10×
16Delaware~10K1.10×
17New Hampshire~20K1.09×
18Minnesota~70K1.08×
19Montana~10K1.08×
20Illinois~100K1.06×
21Michigan~100K1.05×
22Missouri~70K1.04×
23South Carolina~60K1.04×
24West Virginia~20K1.04×
25Wyoming~7K1.04×
26North Dakota~9K1.02×
27Florida~200K1.01×
28North Carolina~100K1.01×
29Kansas~30K1.01×
30New York~200K0.99×
31Virginia~90K0.98×
32Louisiana~50K0.97×
33Alabama~50K0.94×
34South Dakota~9K0.93×
35New Jersey~90K0.90×
36Maryland~60K0.88×
37Oklahoma~40K0.85×
38Georgia~100K0.84×
39Mississippi~30K0.83×
40Arizona~70K0.82×
41Nevada~30K0.79×
42Arkansas~30K0.77×
43Oregon~40K0.76×
44New Mexico~20K0.75×
45Idaho~10K0.73×
46Washington~60K0.72×
47Texas~200K0.69×
48Utah~20K0.65×
49California~300K0.59×
50Hawaii~9K0.55×
Fig. 06

Affinity by region

Affinity by region — Kentucky Derby, United States
0.55×1.00×2.99×
Section 04
Brands and objects ranked by affinity with this audience. Values above 1.0× mean over-representation compared with the country average.

Audience interests & affinities

Fig. 07

Top cross-interests, ranked by affinity

Affinities of the Kentucky Derby audience vs. the country average
#·InterestCategoryAffinity×
01WDRB NewsMovies & TV47.41×
02Preakness StakesSports44.59×
03The Courier-JournalNews42.27×
04Louisville CardinalsSports42.06×
05WHAS11 NewsMovies & TV40.33×
06Louisville Cardinals footballSports39.97×
07Louisville Cardinals men's basketballSports36.60×
08Equestrian vaultingSports26.04×
09United States Equestrian FederationSports25.56×
10Natural horsemanshipSports23.96×
11Classical dressageSports21.92×
12Harness racingSports20.20×
13MongoliaTravel & Leisure18.28×
14Equine therapyHealth13.48×
15Indiana Hoosiers footballSports10.36×
16Fox huntingSports9.52×
17CNN NewsroomMovies & TV8.54×
18Poultry farmingPolitics & Society8.02×
19Thomas MassiePolitics & Society7.45×
20Hayden PanettiereFashion & Accessoires5.62×
Section 05
Strongest and weakest personality traits of this audience (1.0 = country average).

Personality of the Kentucky Derby audience

Fig. 08

Deviation from the national baseline

↑ What stands out
The strongest tendencies
Personality traits of the Kentucky Derby audience vs. the country average · What stands out
TraitClusterDeviationScore
PatriotismCONSERVATISM2.63×
Need for SecurityCONSERVATISM2.23×
Community OrientationOPEN2.10×
0×1.00× baseline2×
↓ Rather not
The weakest tendencies
Personality traits of the Kentucky Derby audience vs. the country average · Rather not
TraitClusterDeviationScore
ExtroversionTHRILL0.84×
Early Adopter MentalityPOWER0.85×
Design AffinityPREMIUM0.89×
0×1.00× baseline2×
Appendix

Explore more audiences

More Sports audiences in United States

Source & method

Source
Rascasse Solution, own modelling
What “fans” means here
Estimated number of people in United States with measurable interest in Kentucky Derby over the last 12 months. Modelled, not counted; people interested in several events count for each of them.
Data basis
Anonymised behavioural signals: search demand, social media signals, sponsorship and event data. Not a survey.
Period
10/2025 – 09/2026 · updated quarterly · data status Q3/2026
Confidence
high gender and age data available and an audience of at least 100,000 people

Cite as: “Rascasse Solution, Q3/2026, rascasse.com/explore/us/kentucky-derby-83631” · Methodology