Active Travel

The National Cycling Participation Survey (NCPS) is a standardised survey that has been repeated biennially since March/April 2011, with minor changes to the survey structure between 2011 and 2013. The NCPS provides data on cycling participation at a national level and allows for estimates of participation for each state and territory, and the capital cities and non-capital areas within each state and territory.

Cycling participation rates across Australia are measured over the previous week, month and year.

The survey suggests that 15.5% (95% CI: 14.4% - 16.6%) of Australians ride a bicycle in a typical week. More than a third (34.1%, 95% CI: 32.8% - 35.4%) had done so in the past year. This equates to around 3.74 million Australians riding in a typical week, and 8.23 million doing so over a year.

Measured over the previous week the cycling participation rate has declined from 18.2% in 2011 (95% CI: 17.6% – 18.8%), to 15.5% (95% CI: 14.4% - 16.6%) in 2017. The decline measured over the previous week is mirrored when measured over the past month and year:

• Cycling participation over the past month has declined from 27.1% (95% CI: 26.4% - 27.8%) in 2011 to 21.8%(95% CI: 20.6% - 23.0%) in 2017.
• Cycling participation over the past year has declined from 40.2% (95% CI: 39.4% - 40.9%) in 2011 to 34.1%(95% CI: 32.8% - 35.4%) in 2017.

These changes are statistically significant at the 5% level. Moreover, the general downward trend appears to be supported by the survey results from 2013 and 2015.

The supporting documents tabs contains:

• Separate reports detailing the results from each state and territory.
• Single page national and jurisdictional summaries.

Note: a revised version of the NSW report was uploaded at 2:35pm AEST 22/06/2017 with a correction to the text explaining Figure 2.7.