Gardai are urging cyclists to increase their security and have issued this breakdown of where most, and fewest, bikes are stolen in Ireland.

Irish county by county stolen bikes statistics

It will come as no surprise that Dublin is way ahead of any other county in Ireland for bike theft. Not only does it have by far the biggest population, crime rates are also higher there.

But just how far Dublin is ahead of everywhere else might surprise. Of all the bikes reported stolen to the Garda since the start of 2016, a massive 70 per cent were robbed in Dublin.

The next worst county in the stolen bikes statistics is Cork. Less than five per cent of all bicycle thefts reported to gardai took place there.

And Limerick is 3rd in the statistics, on 4.6 per cent of the national total. You can see a full list of all counties below.

Launching their 'lock it or lose it' campaign on bicycle security today, gardai also warned bike thefts were rising across the country.

There was a 7.5 per cent increase last year; from 5,684 bikes reported stolen in 2016 to 6,109 in 2017.

And while gardai could not say how much bike thefts were up of late; they confirmed the trend was higher.

They also said because many cyclists don't report the theft of their bikes, the number of crimes was much higher than official figures suggested.

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It has also emerged that only 16 per cent of cyclists who had their bikes stolen in the past 2½ years had recorded the bike's serial number.

Gardai have urged cyclists to lock their bikes indoors when they can. And when locking bicycles outdoors they should be secured to an "immovable object".

The gardai added that 52 per cent of bikes are stolen from public streets. Furthermore, 32 per cent of bicycles were stolen from people's homes.

Of the 14,112 bikes stolen between January 1st, 2016, and June 30th, 2018; the average value of each was €510.

Garda crime prevention officer Sgt Tony Davis said: “There is a trend of not reporting theft of bikes to Gardaí which makes it difficult for us to reunite any recovered bikes with their owners.

“If your bike is stolen, report the theft to Gardaí as soon as you can. If you are buying a second hand bike, look for proof of ownership before purchasing.“