The McDonald’s Corporation and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have been working together on a national education campaign to encourage bike riders, especially youngsters, to wear bike helmets. As part of this effort, Yankelovich Partners conducted a national survey of bike helmet usage patterns. This is the first such survey since 1991.

In 1991, CPSC conducted the first national survey of bike helmet usage patterns. The survey reported that 18% of all bike riders wore bike helmets all or more than half of the time. Since then, there has been a heightened awareness of the importance of wearing bike helmets. CPSC’s bike helmet safety standard, state helmet laws, public education campaigns, and better-fitting and better-looking bike helmets have all contributed to a climate that encourages helmet use.

To ascertain whether these efforts resulted in more bike riders wearing helmets, Yankelovich Partners conducted this new survey. It is similar in scope and questions to the 1991 CPSC survey.

In the new survey, about 60% of bicyclists reported owning a bicycle helmet (Table 1). About 45% of adults reported that they owned a helmet. About 84% of children under 16, as reported by their parents, owned a helmet.

About 50% of all bike riders reported that they regularly wore a bike helmet while riding a bike. This included 43% who said they always wore a helmet and another 7% who said they wore a helmet more than half the time (Table 2).

“Regular” helmet usage is defined as wearing a bike helmet “all or almost all the time” or “more than half the time.”

About 38% of adult bike riders reported regularly wearing a bike helmet. About 69% of children under 16, as reported by their parents, regularly wore a bike helmet while riding a bike.

In contrast, 43% of all bicyclists reported never or almost never wearing a helmet. Another 7% said they wore a helmet less than half the time.