Official data
Violent crime in Europe: what official statistics say
We compiled Eurostat police data for 30 countries and 1,114 regions (2022–2024) to see how persistent violent crime is and how it's spread. Below are only the indicators that can be compared, each with its caveats.
4,044
recorded homicides across 30 European countries in 2024
254,330
recorded robberies across 29 countries in 2024
×75
gap between districts in one country, wider than the gap between countries
Persistence
Three years, no decline
Over three years the median homicide rate across countries barely moved and the median robbery rate rose. Neither figure is falling.
| Indicator, median across countries | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicides per 100,000 | 0.81 | 0.76 | 0.84 |
| Robberies per 100,000 | 23.08 | 25.62 | 27.37 |
| Total recorded homicides | 3,914 | 3,995 | 4,044 |
Key finding
Districts differ more than countries do
Between the most and least affected European country the robbery gap is about 23×. Inside a single country the gap between districts reaches 75×. In other words, a national average says almost nothing about the specific place a person is in.
| Country | Highest district | Lowest district | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Bremen — 191.3 | Freyung-Grafenau — 2.6 | ×75 |
| France | Paris — 374.3 | Lozère — 7.9 | ×48 |
| Belgium | Brussels-Capital — 443.0 | Diksmuide — 9.5 | ×47 |
| Spain | Barcelona — 371.4 | Teruel — 8.1 | ×46 |
| Italy | Naples — 92.4 | Catanzaro — 5.3 | ×17 |
| Netherlands | Flevoland — 47.0 | Achterhoek — 10.8 | ×4 |
Robberies per 100,000, 2024, NUTS-3 regions. A NUTS-3 region is not a city: “Paris” here is the department, “Naples” the province.
So it's more useful to look at the district. The national average says little about it.
Regions
Where the figure is highest
The eight NUTS-3 regions with the highest recorded robbery rate in 2024. For reference, the country median is 27.4 per 100,000.
| Region | Country | Per 100k | Cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale | Belgium | 443.0 | 5,601 |
| Paris | France | 374.3 | 7,804 |
| Barcelona | Spain | 371.4 | 21,832 |
| Arr. Liège | Belgium | 260.8 | 1,653 |
| Seine-Saint-Denis | France | 253.3 | 4,353 |
| Arr. Charleroi | Belgium | 241.5 | 969 |
| Bremen | Germany | 191.3 | 1,118 |
| Grande Lisboa | Portugal | 187.3 | 3,983 |
Comparable indicator
Homicides by country, 2024
The only indicator with a single ICCS definition, so it is valid to compare across countries. The spread is almost ninefold around a median of 0.84.
- Lithuania2.63
- Latvia2.40
- Estonia1.82
- Iceland1.82
- Finland1.78
- Belgium1.40
- France1.28
- Bulgaria1.23
- Slovakia1.09
- Croatia1.01
- Cyprus0.93
- Malta0.89
- Denmark0.87
- Sweden0.87
- Austria0.85
- Germany0.83
- Romania0.79
- Greece0.78
- Spain0.72
- Slovenia0.71
- Norway0.70
- Ireland0.69
- Poland0.69
- Hungary0.69
- Portugal0.68
- Netherlands0.67
- Czechia0.63
- Italy0.57
- Switzerland0.50
- Luxembourg0.30
0per 100,000 population2.63
With caution
Robberies by country, 2024
Comparable across countries with a caveat: the threshold of “violence” and recording rules differ. The spread is more than twentyfold.
- Spain129.53
- Belgium116.33
- Portugal88.37
- France82.81
- Germany51.76
- Italy49.77
- Finland46.25
- Sweden45.11
- Malta43.66
- Netherlands35.25
- Austria32.60
- Ireland28.72
- Iceland28.42
- Greece27.89
- Norway27.37
- Denmark24.39
- Switzerland23.58
- Croatia19.58
- Romania15.08
- Latvia14.43
- Bulgaria14.16
- Slovenia14.08
- Czechia12.74
- Lithuania11.64
- Poland11.60
- Cyprus9.62
- Estonia7.35
- Hungary6.94
- Slovakia5.71
0per 100,000 population129.53
Methodology
What these data do not say
- These are offences recorded by police, not all offences that occurred. Willingness to report varies between countries and between offence types.
- Only homicide (a single ICCS definition) and, with caution, robbery may be compared across countries. Assault and sexual violence are not comparable across countries — definitions differ.
- A rise in recorded cases does not equal a rise in events: it may reflect changes in recording practice or greater willingness to report.
- Official statistics are published with a lag: last year's figures are not available for every country.
- The United Kingdom is deliberately excluded: it dropped out of the harmonised Eurostat series, and no comparable rate exists for 2022–2025. UK data exist separately and are not comparable with European figures.
- We do not assign territories labels such as “safe” or “dangerous”. This page shows figures and their source only.
Why we compiled this
Violent crime in Europe is measurable, persistent and very unevenly spread. It makes more sense to account for it than to go by impressions: districts in one country differ more than countries do, and that's rarely obvious from the outside.
We're building a district-level safety map for the Global Guard app.
Go to the Global Guard site