How Many People Can Ride a Bike? (Statistics Breakdown)

The Short Answer

A study across 28 countries showed that 63% of adults are able to ride a bicycle.

In the UK, 88.5% of adults know how to ride a bicycle, while 94% of American adults know how to ride a bicycle.

For most keen cyclists, it’s hard to imagine a life without being able to ride a bike. Cycling is a very popular hobby and mode of transport around the world, and studies show that the majority of adults globally do know how to ride a bike.

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But just how many people can ride a bike, and how many people actually ride on a regular basis?

On this page, we’re taking a deep dive into the data about who is capable of riding a bike and who does so regularly, as well as sharing some interesting tidbits on bike culture, bike usage, and attitudes to cycling around the globe.

How Many People Can Ride a Bike?

• Almost two-thirds (63%) of adults across 28 countries say they know how to ride a bicycle (Ipsos)
• One in eight UK adults don’t know how to ride a bike (British Heart Foundation)
• 6 percent of Americans don’t know how to ride a bike (YouGov)
• People with incomes under $20,000 and people with incomes over $100,000 are more likely to have ridden a bike in the past 12 months than other income groups (Breakaway Research Group for People for Bikes)
• Just 2% of UK pupils cycle to school (Sustrans)
• One in five Brits haven’t ridden a bike for more than ten years (British Heart Foundation)
• Men are two and a half times more likely to cycle for travel than women are, at 10% versus 4% (Sport England)
• 33% of Brits have been cycling in the last 12 months (finder.com)
• More than 70 percent of all U.S. children age five to 14 ride a bicycle (Bicycle related injuries among children and adolescents in the United States, Clinical Pediatrics, 48.2, 166-73)
• Globally, cyclists logged 10 billion miles with 480.2 billion feet of elevation gain on Strava in 2021 (Strava’s 2021 Year in Sport Data Report)

How Many Adults Can’t Ride a Bike?

• One in eight UK adults don’t know how to ride a bike (British Heart Foundation)
• 6 percent of Americans don’t know how to ride a bike (YouGov)
• Of the 103 million people who rode a bike in 2020, 26% were women and about 39% were men (PeopleforBikes Foundation)
• 58% of women in the U.S. feel very confident riding a bike, whereas 81% of men feel very confident riding (League of American Bicyclists)
• Only 12% of adults, on average, across 28 countries said they commute by bicycle (Ipsos)
• Generally, the average age to learn to ride a bike is just over five years old (Cleary Bikes)

What Percentage of the World Can Ride a Bike?

• Almost two-thirds (63%) of adults across 28 countries say they know how to ride a bicycle (Ipsos)
• About 30 percent of the population of Germany (24.9 million) ride a bike at least once a week (Transportation Research Board)
• According to a study conducted about children in England, in the period 2017/18, around 22.6 percent of the children aged between 11 and 15 had ridden a bike in the last 4 weeks prior to the survey (Statista)
• Bicycle ownership remains most prevalent amongst people under 17 years old (gov.uk)
• There were roughly 1 billion bicycles in the world in 2019 (Pioneer Sports)
• Around 16% of all trips are made by bicycle in Denmark (Cycling Embassy of Denmark)
• There are just over a billion bikes in the world (Pioneer Sports)
• On average, boys cycle nearly 6 times as much as girls (National Children’s Bureau)

What Percentage of People Have Bikes?

• 42% of adults across 28 countries report owning a bike (Ipsos)
• In Wales, the proportion of people who own or can access a bike is 63% among 16-24 year-olds; 63% among 25-44 year-olds; 58% among 45-64 year-olds; 44% among 65-74 year-olds and 30% among those aged 75 or older. (National Survey for Wales)
• People aged 40 to 49 indicated high bicycle ownership at 58% (gov.uk)
• 14% of children aged 6 to 15 would like to cycle to school (Sustrans)
• In England, 47% of people aged 5 and over owned or had access to a bicycle in 2020 (gov.uk)
• The global market size of the bike industry is $59.33 billion (Zippia)
• There are 52 million bicycle riders in the US (Zippia)
• 70% of cyclists in the United States are men, and 30% are women (Zippia)
• 34 percent of Americans over the age of three rode a bike at least once in the last year (Breakaway Research Group for People for Bikes)
• 1 in 20 people in the UK own an e-bike (Tredz) 

Number of Cyclists

• 90% of the Netherlands’ 16.8 million population are regular cyclists (Discerning Cyclist)
• Only 8% of British people cycle more than three times a week (Discerning Cyclist)
• In Copenhagen, 49% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Amsterdam, 35% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Berlin, 13% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Ljubjana, 13% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Helsinki, 14% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Zagreb, 10.1% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Dublin, 10% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Stockholm, 9% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Vienna, 7% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Paris, 5% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In London, 2% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• In Rome, 0.6% of people are cyclists (European Cyclists’ Federation)
• Across the globe, the percentage of children that walk or cycle to school has decreased from 82% to 14% within the last 30 years (MIT)
• Close to 900,000 New York City residents regularly cycle (NYC DOT)
• Portland has the largest population of cyclists out of all the big US cities at 6.3% (Move)
• There are 6.5 million registered cyclists in Shanghai and 7 million in Beijing (Cycle Chronicles)
• In the USA there are roughly three people to every bike (Cycle Chronicles)
• In the German city of Munster, 40% of the total population rides a bike, while only 36% uses a car (Cycle Chronicles)
• 15% of adults aged 35 and under say they bike to work or school, on average across 28 countries, compared to 8% of those aged 50 and over (Ipsos)
• Cycling usually only constitutes 1% of all traffic mileage, compared to 77% travelled in cars and taxis (Cycling UK’s Cycling Statistics)
• 35% of Dutch adolescents cycle to school on most days, and nearly 50% bike or walk (Preventive Medicine)
• Parents are more likely to let their children bike or walk to school when they believe that other adults in the neighbourhood watch out for children (Influence of the social environment on children’s school travel, Preventive Medicine, 50, S65-S68)
• People who have flexible work schedules are more likely to commute by bike than those who don’t (An analysis of bicyclists and bicycling characteristics: Who, why, and how much are they bicycling?)
• People with incomes under $20,000 and people with incomes over $100,000 are more likely to have ridden a bike in the past 12 months than other income groups (Breakaway Research Group for People for Bikes)
• People on the low end of the income spectrum bike more frequently for both transportation and recreation than others (Breakaway Research Group for People for Bikes)
• Youths who cycle or walk to school are more likely to cycle or walk to other activities (Health Promotion International)

UK Cycling Statistics

• Just 2% of UK pupils cycle to school (Sustrans)
• A survey conducted by Sport England between 2017 and 2020 found that 88% of 5-10 year olds owned or had access to a bike, followed by 74% of 11-16 year olds (England National Travel Survey 2020, table 0608)
• One in five Brits haven’t ridden a bike for more than ten years (British Heart Foundation)
• 41% of UK households don’t own a bike at all (British Heart Foundation)
• 47% of people in England aged 5 and over owned or had access to a bicycle in 2020 (National Travel Survey at gov.uk)
• Between 2016 and 2021 the number of people participating in cycling in England increased from 5,044,400 to 6,479,900, and increase of over 28% (Sport England)
• In Scotland an average of 10.3% of people across all age groups participated in cycling in 2016, increasing to 12.8% in 2020 (Cycling Scotland)
• The biggest increase in bicycle usage between 2016 and 2020 was for people aged 16 to 24, up from 13% in 2016 to 22% in 2020 (Cycling Scotland)
• In Wales, 4% of adults surveyed in 2020 claimed to cycle at least once a week for active travel purposes (gov.wales)
• Roughly 4% of commuting trips in England were cycled in 2018 (National Travel Survey)
• 15% of people in England cycle for leisure and sport (Sport England)
• 7% of people in England cycle as a means of transport (Sport England)
• Men are two and a half times more likely to cycle for travel than women are, at 10% versus 4% (Sport England)
• 33% of Brits have been cycling in the last 12 months (finder.com)

USA Cycling Statistics

• More than 70 percent of all U.S. children age five to 14 ride a bicycle (Bicycle related injuries among children and adolescents in the United States, Clinical Pediatrics, 48.2, 166-73)
• 34 percent of Americans age three or older rode a bike at least once in 2014 (U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report)
• Employees are less likely to cycle to work if their employer provides free car parking, and more likely to cycle to work if their employer provides bike parking and showers (Trends and Determinants of Cycling in the Washington, D.C., Region)
• The percentage of Americans who mostly used a bicycle to get to work increased by 47% between 2000 and 2011 (newgeography.com)
• The prevalence of cycling is higher in areas with higher fuel prices and less urban sprawl (American Journal of Health Promotion)
• Between 1997 and 2005, New York City found that only 22% of cyclists on the streets wore a helmet while riding (NYC Gov)
• 12% of American children’s trips to sports activities are made by bike (Transportation Research Record)
• 2.8% of US high school students bike to school at least 1 day per week (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine)
• 34 percent of Americans age three or older rode a bike at least once in 2014 (U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report)

Global Cycling Statistics

• Globally, cyclists logged 10 billion miles with 480.2 billion feet of elevation gain on Strava in 2021 (Strava’s 2021 Year in Sport Data Report)
• About 7% of urban trips worldwide are by bike (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy)
• Up to 60% of all urban trips are made by bike in Chinese cities (United Nations (UN) Environment Programme)
• A census of cyclists in Calgary, Canada found that 75% of cyclists commuting downtown were male (Transportation Research Record)
• One-quarter of Copenhagen families with two or more children have a cargo bike (in Summit starts with lessons from Copenhagen, J. Maus, BikePortland.org, March 10, 2009)
• In Copenhagen, 50% of cyclists say they bike because it is easy and fast, 42% do it for the exercise, 27% bike for the convenience, 25% state financial reasons, and 7% bike for environmental reasons (City of Copenhagen Bicycle Account, 2014)
• 35% of Dutch adolescents cycle to school on most days, and nearly 50% bike or walk (Preventive Medicine)
• Over half of the world’s bicycles are in China (Pioneer Sports)
• 52% globally say cycling in their area is too dangerous (Ipsos)
• The prevalence of cycling to run errands or to commute is highest in countries where it is most widely perceived as a safe mode of transportation, such as China, Japan, and the Netherlands (Ipsos)
• Globally, twice as many people say they ride a bicycle for exercise (28%) than for commuting (12%) (Ipsos)
• Usage of public bicycle-sharing systems averages at 8% per country globally (Ipsos)

What do these statistics mean?

This data gives us an interesting insight into different attitudes towards cycling around the world, and the disparity between how many people can cycle and how many actually do on a regular basis.

The fact that only 63% of adults surveyed in 28 countries say they know how to ride a bike is quite surprising, as this means that more than a third of adults don’t know how to ride.

In Britain, only one third of people say they have ridden a bike in the last 12 months, whereas in Denmark, around 16% of all trips are made by bicycle.

The amount of people who regularly ride a bike varies greatly from country to country, but the data also shows that this varies depending on socio-economic status, occupation, gender and more.

For example, people with incomes under $20,000 and people with incomes over $100,000 are more likely to have ridden a bike in the past 12 months than other income groups, and people on the low end of the income spectrum bike more frequently for both transportation and recreation than others.

70% of cyclists in the United States are men, and 30% are women – a huge disparity – and Sport England also found that men are two and a half times more likely to cycle for travel than women are.

Safety is also a factor: Parents are more likely to let their children bike or walk to school when they believe that other adults in the neighbourhood watch out for children, and just 2% of UK pupils cycle to school – but 14% of children aged 6 to 15 say they would like to cycle to school. Plus, cycling is more commonly used to run errands or to commute in countries where it is most widely perceived as a safe mode of transportation, such as China, Japan, and the Netherlands.

These statistics tell us a lot about not only who can cycle and who does cycle, but why more people don’t.

Safety, infrastructure, accessibility and availability are all factors that need to be improved to encourage cycling around the world, and countries like the Netherlands and Denmark (in Copenhagen, a huge 49% of people are cyclists!) can be looked up to for inspiration for how to get it right.