Cambridge tops list of UK cycle theft hotspots, new crime data analysis reveals – as large student population and cycling culture blamed for “thriving” bike theft environment

Oh look, it’s Cambridge and Oxford, battling it out for the top spot of an annual, eagerly anticipated UK ranking table. And no – as any cyclist in those cities will know all too well – I’m not talking about that ranking table. Instead, for what feels like the umpteenth time, Cambridge has been crowned the city where you’re most likely to have your bike stolen, according to new crime data analysis.

Using crime statistics data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), e-bike company Aventon complied a table ranking local authorities in England and Wales by the number of bikes stolen per 1,000 people.

“We wanted to find out which UK regions pose the highest theft risks for bicycle owners,” a spokesperson for the brand said in a statement. “By understanding these patterns, we hope to raise awareness and help cyclists better protect their investments.”

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According to this analysis, Cambridge saw the most bike thefts per capita in 2023, with eight bikes stolen per 1,000 people, and 1,228 nicked in total for the year.

“The large student population, coupled with a culture that encourages cycling as a primary mode of transport, creates an environment where bike theft can thrive,” Aventon’s John Vinton said.

“With so many bikes on the road, opportunistic thieves can easily blend in, making it difficult for authorities to track stolen bicycles.”

Following closely behind Cambridge was, naturally, Oxford, where 1,198 bikes were reported stolen in total, accounting for seven per 1,000 people in the city.

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Hackney, meanwhile, was third with five bike theft per 1,000 people and 1,276 total stolen bikes, with Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster, York, Camden, Tower Hamlets, Cardiff, and Bristol rounding off the top ten.

Given those numbers, it’s perhaps unsurprising that earlier this year, the Liberal Democrats warned that bike theft in the UK has been effectively “decriminalised”, after analysis of Home Office data found that nine in 10 cases reported to the police since 2019 had gone unsolved.

After publishing its own analysis of crime figures, the party’s home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael called the figures “shocking” and cause for cyclists to be left “wondering if bike theft has been decriminalised”.

The Lib Dems’ analysis found that, of all bike thefts reported to the police since 2019, 89 per cent (more than 365,000) have gone unsolved, pointing to more than eight reported bike thefts an hour and 200 per day going unsolved in England and Wales over the past four years.

And while the data suggested 11 per cent of reported cases are solved, just two per cent (8,437) resulted in an arrest and charge for the perpetrator. That figure fell from three per cent in the year to June 2019, reported bike thefts also down from 97,800 in that year to between 74,000 and 78,000 in the three years since.

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The overall picture, of course, is doubtlessly worse than that, with analysis like the ones reported on in this story only taking into account bike thefts that are actually reported to the police, with the British Crime Survey suggesting there are in fact around 300,000 bike thefts a year.

Sarah McGonagle, director of external affairs for Cycling UK, has noted previously that the “huge social impact” of bike theft, which is “sometimes perceived as a petty crime”, should be viewed as one of the key factors “putting many people off cycling altogether”.