The city of Vancouver leads the Lower Mainland but lags behind Victoria in the percentage of commuters who get to work by bicycle, according to 2011 census data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

The National Household Survey found that the city of Vancouver had 12,855 people who cycled to work, or 4.3 per cent of the total number of commuters. That compares to North Vancouver — the city and district — with 2.1 per cent (1,610 bike commuters) and Richmond at 1.3 per cent (1,055 bike commuters).

At the opposite end was Surrey, with .35 per cent of total commuters (730 cyclists). Coquitlam had 290 cyclist commuters or .49 per cent and Burnaby, 750 cyclists or .72 per cent.

Vancouver also had the highest percentage of people who walked to work, at 12.5 per cent (36,960 people). North Vancouver — city and district — had 6.7 per cent walking commuters (4,300). In West Vancouver, the census counted 755 people who walked to work, or 5.3 per cent.

In the Metro Vancouver region, which includes 22 cities and municipalities from Langley to West Vancouver, the number of trips by bike edged up slightly to 1.8 per cent in 2011, from 1.7 per cent in 2006.

Provincially, Metro Vancouver ranked third for the percentage of cyclists who commute to work. Metro Victoria was on top at 5.9 per cent followed by metro Kelowna at 2.6 per cent. Those B.C. cities were also the top two bike commuting cities nationally.

Nationally, the metropolitan region of Ottawa-Gatineau was tied for third with Kingston at 2.2 per cent. In Winnipeg and Saskatoon, two per cent of commuters travelled by bicycle; in Montreal, 1.7 per cent, and in Toronto, 1.2 per cent.