Bike thefts in Belgium 2008-2022

Has your bike been stolen recently? In Belgium, 30,300 bike thefts were registered in 2022. On a positive note, the number of cases decreased overall since 2008, when 37,600 thousand bike thefts were filed. However, the number of offenses peaked in 2009 with 39,300 cases registered by the Belgian Federal Police. In comparison, neighboring France registered 361 thousand bike theft cases in 2018. In other words, although the population scale is different, the French police faced more than ten times the amount of bike thefts that occurred in Belgium.

Most bike thefts happen in one part of Belgium

Regional differences were striking in Belgium, the Flemish region registered a significantly higher number of offenses in 2020. During that year, while 2,497 bike theft cases were reported in Wallonia and 4,505 cases in the Brussels-Capital region, under 17.6 thousand bike thefts were reported in Flanders. To better understand these figures, the Flemish region has more of a bike culture than the rest of the country. Perhaps its proximity to and historical bond with the Netherlands has an influence on this. The Netherlands is indeed a bike-loving country, for instance, around 931 thousand bikes were sold in the country in 2016.

Bike theft numbers could be much higher…

The number of bike thefts registered in Belgium represents only the cases who have been reported to the authorities. It is therefore important to mention that a certain number of bike thefts are overlooked. Bike theft can be considered as a small crime, yet it is not an uncommon offense. Some cases can be left unreported to the police because a person presumes they would not see their bike again anyway.