According to a table contained in a Eurobarometer survey on urban mobility, only four per cent of UK inhabitants ride a bicycle at least once a day.

This is the same proportion as Spain and Luxembourg, and above only Cyprus and Malta.

The survey assessed the average among 28 EU member-states at 12 per cent, three times the UK level.

In the Netherlands, the bicycling capital of Europe, ahead of Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Germany, as many as 43 per cent of respondents said they cycled at least once a day.

Some 69 per cent of Britons said they never rode a bike, the same as Bulgaria, compared to 13 per cent in the Netherlands and 50 percent in the EU as a whole.

Not surprisingly, cycle use across the EU tapers off with advancing age: while 36 per cent of those aged 15-24 never cycle, the proportion rises to 62 per cent among those aged 55 and older.

Field work for the survey was conducted in May and June 2013.

More than 27,600 interviews were undertaken, with 1,300 in the UK.