Bicycle sales in Great Britain 2000-2022

The number of bicycles sold in Great Britain reached over two million in 2022. Sales had been decreasing between 2014 and 2018, dropping to 2.2 million that year. From 2018 sales began rising again, peaking at 3.3 million in 2021.

The end of the pandemic bike boom?

As in many countries across Europe, the United Kingdom experienced an increased demand for bicycles during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the spike in demand for new bicycles in 2021. As the pandemic waned in 2022, bicycle traffic also began decreasing across the country. This decrease was, however, not nearly as strong as the decrease in bicycle sales. Next to changes in exercise and travel behavior in 2022, supply chain issues, which could lead to months-long waits for the delivery of bicycles, also impacted sales.

Bike-sharing increasingly popular

Bike sharing schemes have been spreading to cities across the UK in recent years, no longer making ownership of a bike a prerequisite to cycling. Relative to its population size, London has one of the largest shared bike fleets in the country, which is dominated by station-based bicycles. Manchester, however, has a particularly large free-floating shared bike fleet, with 35 bikes per 10,000 inhabitants.

By 2027, the revenue from the bike sharing sector in the UK is expected to reach 78 million euros, a 50 percent increase compared to 2022.