50 Bicycle Statistics: Participation, Travel, Safety and Trends

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Bicycle statistics describe several different things: whether people ride, how many trips they make, whether cycling is their usual commute mode, and what happens in crashes. The measures below focus mainly on the United States, with periods and definitions stated so participation, exposure, injuries and fatalities are not treated as interchangeable.

Key Bicycle Statistics

The most useful headline figures span participation, travel, safety and measurement:

  • In 2024, 112 million Americans ages 3 and older rode a bicycle at least once in the United States.
  • In 2024, 35% of Americans ages 3 and older rode a bicycle at least once.
  • Between the prior PeopleForBikes study and 2024, youth bicycling participation among U.S. ages 3–17 increased from 49% to 56%.
  • In 2022, bicycles represented 1% of U.S. passenger travel trips.
  • In 2022, walking represented 7% of U.S. passenger travel trips in the United States.
  • In 2022, motor vehicles accounted for 91% of U.S. trips in the FHWA summary.
  • U.S. public-road vehicle travel totaled 3.3 trillion vehicle-miles in 2024 across the 50 states and District of Columbia.
  • U.S. person-miles of travel totaled 5.2 trillion in 2024 across the 50 states and District of Columbia.
  • From 2010 to 2021, annual U.S. bicyclist fatalities ranged from 623 to 966 deaths per year.
  • The U.S. annual average was 800 bicyclist fatalities from 2010 through 2021.
  • Bicyclists accounted for 2.2% of total U.S. traffic fatalities in 2021.
  • In 2021, 62% of bicyclist fatalities occurred at non-intersection locations in the United States.
  • In 2021, approximately 85% of bicyclist fatalities occurred in urban areas.
  • An estimated 41,615 bicyclists were injured in 2021 in the United States.
  • An estimated 45,400 injury-only bicycle crashes occurred per year on average from 2017 through 2021.
  • Bicycle traffic grew an estimated 12% to 16% in 2020 in locations covered by the monitoring sources reviewed by NHTSA.
  • The 2009 U.S. estimate included 4.1 billion bicycle trips.
  • Bicycle trips represented about 1% of an estimated 392 billion U.S. trips in 2009.

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Bicycle Participation Statistics in the United States

PeopleForBikes’ 2024 participation study counted 112 million Americans ages 3 and older, equivalent to 35% of that population, who rode a bicycle at least once during 2024. This is a survey-based at-least-once participation estimate, not a count of rides, miles or riding frequency (PeopleForBikes, “More Americans Rode a Bike Than Ever Before in 2024”).

Youth participation also moved upward between the prior study and 2024:

  • Among U.S. ages 3–17, participation increased from 49% to 56%.
  • Ridership increased 9% among children ages 3–9.
  • Ridership increased 15% among youth ages 10–17.

The source does not specify the exact prior-wave year on the opened page, so these are comparisons between study waves rather than a precisely dated annual trend. PeopleForBikes also reported that ridership increased 14% from 2016 while U.S. population growth was 4% over the same comparison; that comparison is not a per-capita calculation (PeopleForBikes, “More Americans Rode a Bike Than Ever Before in 2024”).

The 2024 study used survey results from 16,000 adults nationwide, providing sample context rather than a population count. Perceptions of the riding environment were mixed: 53% of riders said they were worried about being hit by a car, while 50% said they were familiar with local bike lanes, paths and trails; both are self-reported perception measures, not observed crash probabilities (PeopleForBikes, “More Americans Rode a Bike Than Ever Before in 2024”).

Bicycle Travel, Commuting and Trip-Purpose Data

Bicycle participation does not equal bicycle trip share. The FHWA summary of the 2022 National Household Travel Survey reported this mode distribution for U.S. passenger travel trips:

Mode Share of trips Period and definition
Bicycles 1% U.S. passenger travel trips, 2022
Walking 7% U.S. passenger travel trips, 2022
Motor vehicles 91% U.S. trips, broad NHTS category, 2022

These figures are trip-mode shares, not bicycle commute shares. They should not be combined with the 2024 participation estimate, which asks whether someone rode at least once (FHWA, “Our Nation’s Highways 2026: Travel”).

The same FHWA summary gives broader transportation context. The United States had 4.2 million miles of public roads, while the National Highway System contained 221,568 miles; neither figure represents bicycle-facility mileage.

In 2024, public-road vehicle travel totaled 3.3 trillion vehicle-miles, and person-miles of travel totaled 5.2 trillion across the 50 states and District of Columbia (FHWA, “Our Nation’s Highways 2026: Travel”).

FHWA-derived averages put 2024 vehicle travel at 9,714 vehicle-miles per resident and all-mode travel at 15,289 miles per resident. These are national averages based on reported totals and population, not measures of bicycle exposure (FHWA, “Our Nation’s Highways 2026: Travel”).

Travel patterns also shifted sharply during the pandemic period: in April 2020, U.S. vehicle-miles traveled fell to 40% of the same month in the prior year. That is a motor-vehicle travel shock and does not directly measure bicycle use (FHWA, “Our Nation’s Highways 2026: Travel”).

Bicycle Safety, Crashes and Injury Statistics

NHTSA’s police-reported traffic fatality series shows annual U.S. bicyclist fatalities ranging from 623 to 966 between 2010 and 2021, with an annual average of 800 across that period. The narrower 2017–2021 average was 883 bicyclists killed per year; neither average is a risk rate because it lacks a bicycle-exposure denominator (NHTSA, “Bicycle Safety”).

In 2021, bicyclists represented 2.2% of total U.S. traffic fatalities, and an estimated 41,615 bicyclists were injured. NHTSA also estimated an average of about 45,400 injury-only bicycle crashes per year from 2017 through 2021, a category that excludes fatal crashes as injury-only events (NHTSA, “Bicycle Safety”).

The location and lighting distributions of 2021 fatality records were:

  • 62% occurred at non-intersection locations.
  • Approximately 85% occurred in urban areas, compared with 69% in 2011.
  • 56% occurred in dawn, dusk or nighttime conditions.
  • Light trucks were responsible for 46%; this category includes SUVs, pickups and vans.

These are distributions of observed fatalities, not controlled estimates of per-trip or per-mile risk. In particular, the larger urban share does not establish that urban riding has the highest per-trip risk (NHTSA, “Bicycle Safety”).

The 2021 fatality profile was disproportionately male: 86% of bicyclists killed and 81% of bicyclists injured were male. The average age of cyclists killed was 49 years; that is the mean age among fatalities, not the age of the typical rider (NHTSA, “Bicycle Safety”).

Longer historical series show a different kind of trend. From 1975 to 2012, annual cyclist mortality declined 44%, from 0.41 to 0.23 deaths per 100,000 people, in FARS-covered states and the District of Columbia.

The study had consistent data for 48 states and D.C.; Alaska and Hawaii were unavailable for the full period (CDC, “Bicyclist Deaths Associated with Motor Vehicle Traffic — United States, 1975–2012”).

The same study reported that cyclist mortality declined most steeply among children younger than 15 during 1975–2012, but the opened text does not provide one percentage for that subgroup. Historical results should therefore be read with their coverage and definition limits rather than treated as a complete national series for every population.

Commute statistics capture only the usual trip to work. Bicycle commute share rose from 0.4% of U.S. workers in 2000 to an average of 0.6% during 2008–2012, remained 0.6% in 2016, and declined to 0.5% by 2020; these are ACS-based commute measures, not total bicycling participation (NHTSA, “Bicycle Safety”).

CDC surveillance illustrates why bicycle percentages need labels. Between 1999 and 2012, primary-commute active transportation prevalence ranged from 2.6% to 3.4%; this combines walking and bicycling.

One-day active transportation prevalence ranged from 10.5% to 18.5%, while habitual active transportation prevalence ranged from 23.9% to 31.4%; the habitual question wording changed in 2007 (CDC, “Active Transportation Surveillance — United States, 1999–2012”).

The same CDC review found that residents completed an average of 19 more annual walk-or-bike trips in 2009 than in 2001. That combined measure is not bicycle-only, so it cannot be used as a direct bicycle trend line (CDC, “Active Transportation Surveillance — United States, 1999–2012”).

Cross-national comparisons also combine walking and bicycling. In the CDC’s 16-country comparison, walking or bicycling to work was 37.9% in the Netherlands and 34.9% in France, while U.S. estimates ranged from 4.0% to 16.7% depending on assessment method; the methods and periods varied across countries (CDC, “Active Transportation Surveillance — United States, 1999–2012”).

For 2009, a CDC review estimated 4.1 billion U.S. bicycle trips, about 1% of an estimated 392 billion trips across all transportation modes. The same FARS-based analysis reported 33,808 roadway deaths, including 630 bicyclist deaths; these trip and death figures use different measures and should not be interpreted as a simple individual risk calculation (CDC, “Bicyclist Deaths Associated with Motor Vehicle Traffic — United States, 1975–2012”).

Newer data sources can supplement surveys without replacing them. Across census block groups in four U.S. cities during 2014–2015, Strava GPS-tracked commuters and ACS active commuters had a Spearman correlation of rho = 0.60; the comparison is a validation result, not a national participation estimate, and GPS users may differ from the wider population because of self-selection and technology access (CDC, “Association Between User-Generated Commuting Data and Population-Representative Active Commuting Surveillance Data — Four Cities, 2014–2015”).

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