Approximately 19,000 fewer incidents of bicycle theft were reported to the police in the past 12 months compared to the year before, according to UK CrimeStats, using data gathered by the Economic Policy Centre.

The figures show that from July 2018 to June 2019 there were more than 90,000 reported incidents, but from July 2019 to June 2020 this had dropped to 71,000 bicycle thefts – a 21% fall.

Bicycle theft was also almost "non-existent" in Falmouth between July' 19 and June' 20.

The numbers were presented by UK CrimeStats – a leading crime data research and analysis platform – covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is based on reported bicycle thefts.

Devon and Cornwall has the 3rd lowest bicycle theft crime rate in the Eng, Wales and NI between July' 19 and June' 20 out of 43 police forces.

The highest number of reported thefts in Truro and Falmouth was in July 2019 with 7 followed by Nov 2019 with 4 reported stolen and the other months there were 3 or less thefts.

By comparison, Bristol West constituency had 100 reported stolen bikes in June by itself due to it being a suburban area.

Responding to the new data, Greg Wilson, founder of Quotezone.co.uk - which launched one of the UK's first price comparison services for bicycle insurance – added:

"It's really positive to see such a significant drop in the number of bike thefts, especially when bike sales have spiked due to the pandemic and the subsequent push for people to get fit and lose weight – at a social distance."

[H3] What do you think about this? Carry on the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages. [.H2]