Overall, 29 percent of cyclists are using helmets this year, up from 25 percent last year. The Traffic Safety Organisation observed that young children almost always have a helmet on, while their parents frequently go without.
The data was collected by observing some 30,000 cyclists in urban areas around the country. People living in Uusimaa were the most avid helmet users, while only around ten percent of people in southern Ostrobothnia strapped one on.
In the past few years, an average of 46 cyclists are killed each year, and nearly a thousand are injured. The most common cause of death and serious, even paralysing injury in these cases is a blow to the head.