Portugal is the “biggest producer of bicycles” in the EU and “the country that uses them least” as a means of transport
“Good news: Portugal is the biggest bicycle producer of the European Union! More news: It is the European Union country that less how to use as a means of transport! This one can’t stay in the drawer forever”, stands out in a subject publish of May 3 on Facebook, sent to the Polygraph to fact checking.
He shares another publication from the same day, in which he points in the same direction: “It is curious, the country that more bikes produce in Europe is the one that less ride a bike.”
This second publication displays a graph (or map) with the distribution by each country of the European Union of the results of a inquiry (data from 2014) on the use of bicycles as a means of transport. Portugal is what presents one of the smaller percentages, 1%a pair of Cyprusbut it is important to note that there is a country with 0%, Maltaalmost imperceptible in the picture.
Is the information in question factually correct?
According to latest data of Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics service, Portugal stood out as the biggest bicycle producer among all the Member States in the year 2021with a total of 2.9 million units.
The second largest producer or manufacturer in 2021 was Romania with a total of 2.5 million units, followed by the Italy (1.9 million), one Germany (1.4 million) and Poland (1.2 million).
Eurostat details that the bicycle concept includes other bicycles, namely non-motorized tricycles. In 2021, a total of 13.5 million units were produced or manufactured throughout the European Union, which corresponds to a 11% increase compared to the year 2020.
As for the regular use of the bicycle as a means of transport, the data in the graph presented in the publish are trueoriginate in a “Eurobarometer” from the European Commission, but rebuilt in 2014. That is, they are outdated.
There is a more recent “Eurobarometer”, prepared in 2019 (you can consult here), in which the same question is asked – “typical day number, what is your main mode of transport?” (“main” in the sense of “transport that uses the most time”) – to respondents in each Member State of the European Union.
Now, in the 2019 survey, the fact is that none of the respondents in Portugal (0%) responded that they use “self-owned bicycles or scooters (including electric ones)” as their main means of transport, far below the EU average of 8%.
Between 2014 and 2019, in this indicator, Portugal dropped from 1% to 0%standing out as the country of the European Union – on par with Cyprus which also records 0% – on what less if you use “self-owned bicycle or scooter (including electric)” as the primary mode of transport.
It should be noted that, in 2014, in addition to being at the same level as Cyprus (both with 1%) in this indicator, Portugal was still above Malta which registered 0%. In the 2019 survey, however, Malta increased to 2%leaving a last table position for Portugal and Cyprus.
In the opposite direction, the Netherlands (41%) and Sweden (21%) stand out at the top of the table.
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