Key facts about cycling safety

It takes over 3,000 years of average cycling to suffer a serious head injury. (Derived from DfT, 2001, NTS 1998-00 and Cook and Sheikh, 2000)
Road cyclists account for less than 1% of serious head injuries seen by hospitals in the UK. (Derived from OPCS 1 and Thornhill et al, 2000)
Only 1 in 350 emergency admissions to hospital are due to any kind of cycling injury.
Around 1 in 1,000 are due to head injury. (Cook and Sheikh, 2000)
The most effective way to reduce the likelihood of injury when cycling is to increase the number of people who cycle. When cycle use doubles, the risk of injury per cyclist falls by 35% to 40%. (Wardlaw, 2002)

Cook and Sheikh, 2000

DfT, 2001

Transport Statistics Great Britain 2001. Department for Transport.

NTS 1998-00

National Travel Survey, 1998 - 2000. National Statistics.

OPCS 1

Data from Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. .

Thornhill et al, 2000

Thornhill S, Teasdale GM, Murray GD, McEwen J, Roy CW, Penny KI, 2000. Disability in young people and adults one year after head injury: prospective cohort study. BMJ 2000;320:1631-5.

Wardlaw, 2002

Wardlaw MJ, 2002. Assessing the actual risks faced by cyclists. Traffic Engineering + Control Dec 2002 p352-356.