92 leagues · 72,874 goals
When Do Goals Arrive? Stoppage Time Across 92 Leagues
Every goal in the last completed season of 92 leagues, placed by the minute it was scored — 72,874 of them. Two things come out of it. Stoppage time matters far more in some countries than others, by a factor of 3.2. And the way goal minutes are recorded makes the most commonly quoted number in this area — the share of goals scored before half time — wrong almost everywhere it appears.
All 92 leagues together
The shape is familiar: scoring builds through each half and peaks just before the whistle. The two amber bars are stoppage time.
- 1'-15'13.0%
- 16'-30'13.8%
- 31'-45'14.7%
- 45+ stoppage4.7%
- 46'-60'14.3%
- 61'-75'15.9%
- 76'-90'16.2%
- 90+ stoppage7.4%
The half-time split that most sources get wrong
Across every league here, 46.2% of goals are scored before half time. You will more often see a number close to 41.5%, and the difference is not a disagreement about the data. It is stoppage time.
A goal scored two minutes into added time at the end of the first half is not recorded as 45+2. It is recorded as minute 47. Split the match at minute 45 and every one of those goals lands in the second half. Across 72,874 goals that moves the figure by 4.7 percentage points, which is about the size of the effects people usually write about.
Where stoppage time decides things
K League 2 (South Korea) scores 12% of its goals after the ninetieth minute. NB II. (Hungary) scores 3.7%. Same sport, same ninety minutes, 3.2 times the difference in how often the end of the match changes the result.
| League | Country | Goals | In 90+ ↓share of all goals | From 76′share of all goals | Before HTstoppage counted | Naive errorif you cut at 45′ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| K League 2 | South Korea | 686 | 12% | 27.4% | 42.1% | 4.8 pp |
| K League 1 | South Korea | 512 | 11.5% | 28.9% | 41.8% | 5.1 pp |
| ISL | India | 221 | 10.4% | 24.9% | 46.6% | 7.7 pp |
| Premier League | Kuwait | 257 | 10.1% | 27.6% | 44.4% | 5.5 pp |
| Serie C - Group B | Italy | 802 | 10% | 24.1% | 45.9% | 4.3 pp |
| Premier League | England | 1045 | 10% | 25.8% | 44.3% | 5.2 pp |
| Thai League 1 | Thailand | 642 | 10% | 27.6% | 43% | 6.2 pp |
| J1 League | Japan | 911 | 9.9% | 26.7% | 41.8% | 4 pp |
| Primera RFEF - Group 2 | Spain | 856 | 9.8% | 23% | 47.5% | 5.7 pp |
| Premier League | Egypt | 651 | 9.7% | 26% | 44.1% | 5.9 pp |
| Botola Pro | Morocco | 539 | 9.6% | 26% | 44.7% | 4.8 pp |
| Division 1 | Saudi Arabia | 911 | 9.5% | 24.9% | 44% | 5.4 pp |
| Super League | China | 771 | 9.5% | 24.5% | 45.7% | 4.3 pp |
| Liga Portugal 2 | Portugal | 751 | 9.1% | 24.5% | 43.9% | 5 pp |
| Serie B | Brazil | 843 | 8.8% | 25.9% | 45.8% | 5.5 pp |
| LaLiga | Spain | 1024 | 8.7% | 24.6% | 43.8% | 4.9 pp |
| Superettan | Sweden | 686 | 8.7% | 23.5% | 45.6% | 5.1 pp |
| Ligue 1 | France | 874 | 8.6% | 25.2% | 44.3% | 5.4 pp |
| J2 League | Japan | 934 | 8.5% | 24.2% | 46.7% | 5.3 pp |
| Primera RFEF - Group 1 | Spain | 974 | 8.5% | 25.4% | 43.9% | 4.9 pp |
How this was measured
One season per league, the most recent completed one. Leagues with fewer than 200 goals are left out, because a stoppage-time share built on a few hundred goals swings on a handful of matches. Goalless matches contribute no minutes and are not counted as anything. First-half stoppage is kept as its own bin rather than folded into either half, which is the whole reason the half-time figure above is right.
Every league has its own page with the same breakdown — see the league charts. The underlying results and goal minutes are open data under CC BY 4.0 with a DOI, at /data.