In 2024, there were over 221,590 crime offences recorded in the Republic of Ireland, an increase from the previous year. Between 2003 and 2008, the number of crime offences in Ireland increased to a peak of 297,540 followed by a similarly steep decline in offences between 2008 and 2013.

Northern Ireland's crime rate has fallen from 81.4 crimes per 1,000 people in 2002/03 to 49.8 in 2024/25, when fraud is including the crime rate of Northern Ireland was 52.1 crimes per 1,000 people in 2024/25. During this time period, Norther Ireland's crime rate saw the biggest decline in its crime rate between 2002/03 and 2003/04 when it dropped from 81.4 to 73.3.

Historical dataset showing Ireland crime rate per 100K population by year from 1990 to 2021.

Recorded Crime Offences from 2003 Q1 to 2022 Q2

Dataset scraped by Zaur Gouliev (zaurgouliev@gmail.com) from CSO/Record Crime Statistics

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Introduction

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) publishes statistics on Recorded Crime on a quarterly basis. The Recorded Crime statistical release and associated tables provide detail on the number and type of crime incidents recorded by An Garda Síochána.

Recorded Crime statistics are derived from the administrative data records created and maintained by An Garda Síochána on their incident recording system PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively).

Incidents reported to, or which become known to, An Garda Síochána are recorded as crime incidents if a member of An Garda Síochána determines that, on the balance of probability, a criminal offence defined by law has taken place, and there is no credible evidence to the contrary. Recorded Crime statistics are disseminated using the Irish Crime Classification System (ICCS) and are based on the date recorded as being the date the crime was reported to, or became known to, An Garda Síochána.

Recorded Crime statistics contain only valid crime incidents reported to and recorded by An Garda Síochána. Issues of under-reporting and under-recording of crime are not addressed in this release.

Recorded Crime statistics are subject to revision because the underlying records may be subject to ongoing review by An Garda Síochána on the incident recording system as the Garda investigation into the incident progresses.

Crime Counting Rules (CCR)

An overview for how crimes ought to be recorded by An Garda Síochána is provided in the Crime Counting Rules document. The document, published by AGS, explains the procedures and rationale for whether or not to record a crime incident and what to record. It provides guidance for the classification, reclassification, and invalidation of records and for recording whether a crime incident is detected.

In summary, incidents reported or which become known to An Garda Síochána are recorded as crime incidents if a member of An Garda Síochána determines that, on the balance of probability, a criminal offence defined by law has taken place, and there is no credible evidence to the contrary. A crime incident should be recorded against the Garda sub-district in which the incident took place (or was reported if the location cannot be determined).

If it is subsequently determined that a criminal offence did not take place, the recorded crime incident should be invalidated. Invalidated incidents are not counted in recorded crime statistics.

If a person withdraws a report of a crime, stating that the criminal act did not take place, again the recorded crime incident is invalidated unless there is evidence to suggest that, on the balance of probability, an offence has taken place.

A recorded crime is classified as a particular incident type at the time it is initially recorded on PULSE. If, as part of an investigation, it becomes clear that a different crime incident type should have been used then the record should be reclassified. A reclassification to a homicide offence should occur, for example, if a serious assault has been recorded and the victim later dies as a direct consequence of the assault, or if a road traffic offence is determined to have resulted in a fatal road traffic collision.

Reclassification based on the outcome of court proceedings is only required in the case of homicide incidents. For example, a murder offence should be reclassified to manslaughter when a murder charge results in a conviction for manslaughter.

Primary Offence Rule: Where two or more criminal offences are committed in a single episode, it is the primary recorded crime incident which is counted. The primary incident is the incident for which the suspected offender would receive the greatest penalty on conviction. For example if a suspected offender is involved in an incident of dangerous driving causing death and an incident of drug possession, the incident of dangerous driving causing death should be classified as the primary incident. The drug possession incident would not be included in the Recorded Crime Statistics as only primary incidents are counted for statistical purposes. Homicide incidents should always be recorded as the primary incident.

One Offence Counts Per Victim: A separate crime incident should be recorded for each victim of a crime, and each incident is counted for statistical purposes. There are some exceptions to this rule, for example, a single burglary incident should be recorded where property belonging to two or more victims is stolen or damaged during a single burglary.

Continuous Series Involving the Same Victim and Same Offender: A series of fraud or sexual offence incidents involving the same offender and...

In 2023/24 the crime rate of Northern Ireland stood at 55 crimes per 1,000 people, with the policing district of Belfast City having the highest crime rate of 96 crimes per 1,000 people.

There were 77 homicide offences recorded in the Republic of Ireland in 2024, compared with 88 in 2023. In the provided time period, homicides in Ireland increased from 2003 onwards, reaching a peak of 153 in 2007 before declining to the relatively low figures seen in the late 2010s.

Ireland - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area was 9.60% in December of 2023, according to the EUROSTAT. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for Ireland - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area - last updated from the EUROSTAT on December of 2025. Historically, Ireland - Population reporting occurrence of crime, violence or vandalism in their area reached a record high of 16.50% in December of 2006 and a record low of 8.30% in December of 2019.

Ireland: Property crimes per 100,000 people: The latest value from is crimes per 100,000 people, unavailable from crimes per 100,000 people in . In comparison, the world average is 0.00 crimes per 100,000 people, based on data from countries. Historically, the average for Ireland from to is crimes per 100,000 people. The minimum value, crimes per 100,000 people, was reached in while the maximum of crimes per 100,000 people was recorded in .

This publication can be accessed here

Context

This Dataset contains complete information of all types of crimes committed in Ireland from the year 2003 to 2019. The data is given Garda Division( An Administrative division of Ireland ) and is given QUARTERLY

Content

Type of Offences given are :: 01 Homicide offences, 02 Sexual offences, 03 Attempts/threats to murder, assaults, harassments and related offences, 04 Dangerous or negligent acts, 05 Kidnapping and related offences, 06 Robbery/extortion and hijacking offences, 07 Burglary and related offences, 08 Theft and related offences, 09 Fraud/ deception and related offences, 10 Controlled Drug offences, 11 Weapons and Explosives offences, 12 Damage to Property and to the Environment, 13 Public order and other social code offences, 15 Offences against government/ justice procedures and organisation of crime

Inspiration

We can try to answer many Questions via this Data.

1) Changing trends of Crime in Ireland 2) Region wise distribution of crime in Ireland 3) Status of various sociological issues in Ireland( eg. Alcoholism) and its role in Crime

Acknowledgements

This data set in its original form has been taken from StatBank, Central Statistics Office, Govt. of Ireland website - > https://statbank.cso.ie/

NOTE - As told by Statbank, the crime data is under 'Reservation' and according to Statbank does not meet the prerequisites of the CSO benchmarks

NOTE - As of January 2020, the Garda Divisions have been trimmed down to 19 as from the past 28. This dataset does NOT reflect the recent reduction in the number of Garda Divisions.

In 2023/24 there were 44,143 violent crimes recorded by the police in Northern Ireland, compared with 49,992 in the previous reporting year.

The crime rate in the United Kingdom was highest in England and Wales in 2024/25, at **** crimes per 1,000 people, compared with Scotland, which had **** crimes per 1,000 population, and Northern Ireland, at **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2023/24. During this time period, the crime rate of England and Wales has usually been the highest in the UK, while Scotland's crime rate has declined the most, falling from **** crimes per 1,000 people in 2002/03, to just **** by 2021/22. Overall crime on the rise In 2024/25, there were approximately **** million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. Although this was a slight decline on the previous two years, it was still far higher than during the mid-2010s. While crime declined quite significantly between 2002/03 and 2013/14, this trend went into reverse in subsequent years. While there are no easy explanations for the recent uptick in crime, it is possible that reduced government spending on the police service was at least partly to blame. In 2009/10, for example, government spending on the police stood at around **** billion pounds, with this cut to *****billion in 2013/14. One of the most visible consequences of these cuts was a sharp reduction in the number of police officers in the UK. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of officers fell by 20,000, although the number of officers returned to pre-austerity levels by the 2020s. A creaking justice system During the period of austerity, the Ministry of Justice as a whole saw its budget sharply decline, from *** billion pounds in 2009/10 to just **** billion by 2015/16. Although there has been a reversal of the cuts to budgets and personnel in the justice system, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the depleted service hard in 2020. A backlog of cases grew rapidly, putting a strain on the ability of the justice system to process cases quickly. In 2022, for example, it took on average *** days for a crown court case to go from offence to conclusion, compared with *** days in 2018. There is also the issue of overcrowding in prisons, with the number of prisoners in England and Wales dangerously close to operational capacity in recent years.

Since 2014, Eurostat and the UNODC have launched a joint annual data collection on crime and criminal justice statistics, using the UN crime trends questionnaire and complementary Eurostat requests

for specific areas of interest to the European Commission. The data and metadata are collected from National Statistical Institutes or other relevant authorities (mainly police and justice departments) in each EU Member State, EFTA country and EU potential members. On the Eurostat website, data are available for 41 jurisdictions since 2008 until 2018 data and for 38 jurisdictions since 2019 data (EU-27, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Kosovo(1)), having drop the data for the United Kingdom separately owing to three separate jurisdictions England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.

This joint data collection and other data collections carried out by Eurostat allows to gather information on:

• police-recorded offences by type of crime
• police-recorded offences by NUTS3 region
• intentional homicide and sexual violence victims and perpetrators (suspected, prosecuted, convicted) by sex
• intentional homicide victims by age, sex, and relationship to the offender
• intentional homicide victims and offences in largest cities
• offenders by justice legal status (suspected, prosecuted, convicted), age, sex, and citizenship
• persons brought before criminal courts by legal status (convicted persons/acquitted)
• personnel by institution (police, courts, and prisons) by sex
• legal cases in first instance courts by type and stage
• prisoners by age, sex, citizenship, and status of the trial process
• prison capacity and occupancy
• people involved in human trafficking by legal status (victims, suspected and convicted traffickers) and victims of human trafficking by all forms of exploitation and citizenship

Where available, data are broken down by sex, age groups (adults/juveniles), country of citizenship (foreigners or nationals) and other relevant variables. National data are available and for intentional homicide offences, city level data (largest cities) are available for some countries. Regional data at NUTS3 level are also available for some police-recorded offences.

Some historical series are available:

• Number of police-recorded crimes by type (intentional homicide, violence, robbery, home burglary, car thefts, and drug crimes) for the period 1993 – 2007
• Number of police-recorded homicide in cities for the period 1993 – 2007
• Number of police officers for the period 1993 – 2007
• Prison population for the period 1993 – 2007

Total number of police-recorded crimes for the period 1950 – 2000

(1) under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/99

Ireland: Homicides per 100,000 people: The latest value from 2017 is 0.9 homicides per 100,000 people, an increase from 0.8 homicides per 100,000 people in 2016. In comparison, the world average is 7.4 homicides per 100,000 people, based on data from 97 countries. Historically, the average for Ireland from 1990 to 2017 is 1 homicides per 100,000 people. The minimum value, 0.5 homicides per 100,000 people, was reached in 1990 while the maximum of 1.8 homicides per 100,000 people was recorded in 2007.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland produces statistics on the number of crimes reported to police in Northern Ireland. Statistics are published on a financial year basis and a comparable data series has been available since 1998/99. These statistics are collected in accordance with the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) and the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR). Except for some differences in legislation, they are comparable with police recorded crime statistics in England & Wales.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland produces statistics on the number of crimes reported to police in Northern Ireland. Statistics are published on a financial year basis and a comparable data series has been available since 1998/99. These statistics are collected in accordance with the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) and the Home Office Counting Rules (HOCR). Except for some differences in legislation, they are comparable with police recorded crime statistics in England & Wales.

In 2023/24 there were ******* crimes recorded by the police in Northern Ireland, compared with ******* in the previous year.

Yearly (annual) dataset of the Ireland Homicide Rate, including historical data, latest releases, and long-term trends from 1990-12-31 to 2021-12-31. Available for free download in CSV format.

Monthly update within current financial year. Source agency: Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: PSNI Statistics: Recorded Crime in Northern Ireland