In 2024, South Africa had a crime index of 75.4, which is to be considered high. However, this was one of the lowest indexes recorded in the country since 2017. Over the observed period, the value continuously fluctuated between 75 and 77. South Africa has the highest crime index in Africa and ranks as the fifth most dangerous country globally according to the same index.

South Africa crime rate per 100K population for 2021 was 41.87, a 23.26% increase from 2020.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>South Africa crime rate per 100K population for 2020 was <strong>33.96</strong>, a <strong>7.48% decline</strong> from 2019.</li>
<li>South Africa crime rate per 100K population for 2019 was <strong>36.71</strong>, a <strong>0.14% increase</strong> from 2018.</li>
<li>South Africa crime rate per 100K population for 2018 was <strong>36.66</strong>, a <strong>2.11% increase</strong> from 2017.</li>
</ul>Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

In the third quarter of 2023/2024, contact crime in South Africa continues to increase except for reports relating to sexual offenses, which recorded 15,284 cases. This is a slight decrease from 15,545 recorded in the previous year. Assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm accounted for the majority of contact crime reports in the third quarter of 2023/2024, whereas assault was the most commonly reported contact crime in the same quarter in 2022/2023.

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the crime per category across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpData source: 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

As of the fiscal year 2023/2024, the total number of contact crimes in South Africa amounted to 678,701 cases. This represents an increase of around 3.8 percent from the previous year. The category with the highest number of criminal incidences was common assault, with 190,399 reported cases. Moreover, attempted murder saw the largest percentage increase at 13.2 percent.

Abstract

In April 2018, StatsSA launched the Governance Public Safety and Justice Survey (GPSJS) in response to the need for standardised international reporting standards on governance and access to justice that are recommended by the SDGs, ShaSA and Agenda 2063. In compliance with these standards, Stats SA discontinued the separate publication of the Victims of Crime Survey (VCS) and incorporated it within the new GPSJS series. Therefore, the GPSJS represents the new source of microdata on the experience and prevalence of particular kinds of crime within South Africa. The GPSJS data can be used for research in the development of policies and strategies for governance, crime prevention, public safety and justice programmes with the main objectives of the survey being to:

• Provide information about the dynamics of crime from the perspective of households and the victims of crime. • Explore public perceptions of the activities of the police, prosecutors, courts and correctional services in the prevention of crime and victimisation; and • Provide complimentary data on the level of crime within South Africa in addition to the statistics published annually by the South African Police Service.

NOTE: The GPSJS is a continuation of the VCS series, which ended with VCS 2017/18. Therefore, the VCS 2018/19 can be exctracted from GPSJS 2018/19 and is comparable to previous VCS's only where questions remained the same. Please see Data Quality Notes for more infomation on comparability.

Geographic coverage

The survey has national coverage.

Analysis unit

Households and individuals

Universe

The target population of the survey consists of all private households in all nine provinces of South Africa, as well as residents in workers' hostels. The survey does not cover other collective living quarters such as students' hostels, old-age homes, hospitals, prisons and military barracks. It is only representative of non-institutionalised and non-military persons or households in South Africa.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

The GPSJS 2022/23 uses the Master Sample (MS) sampling frame that has been developed as a general-purpose household survey frame that can be used by all other Stats SA household-based surveys that have design requirements that are reasonably compatible with GPSJS. The GPSJS 2022/23 collection was drawn from the 2013 Master Sample. This master sample is based on information collected during Census 2011. In preparation for Census 2011, the country was divided into 103 576 enumeration areas (EAs). The Census EAs, together with the auxiliary information for the EAs, were used as the frame units or building blocks for the formation of primary sampling units (PSUs) for the master sample, since they covered the entire country and had other information that is crucial for stratification and creation of PSUs.

There are 3 324 primary sampling units (PSUs) in the master sample with an expected sample of approximately 33 000 dwelling units (DUs). The number of PSUs in the current master sample (3 324) reflect an 8,0% increase in the size of the master sample compared to the previous (2008) master sample (which had 3 080 PSUs). The larger master sample of PSUs was selected to improve the precision (smaller coefficients of variation, known as CVs) of the GPSJS estimates.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Telephone Interview

Research instrument

The GPSJS questionnaire is based on international reporting standards of governance, public safety and justice defined by the SDGs.

Sections 1 to 3 of the questionnaire relate to household crimes. A proxy respondent (preferably head of the household or acting head of household) answered on behalf of the household. Section 4 to 9 of the questionnaire relate to crimes experienced by individuals and were asked of a household member who was selected using the birthday section method. This methodology selects an individual who is 16 years or older, whose birthday is soonest after the survey date.

Data appraisal

Comparability to VCS series:

While redesigning the VCS into the GPSJS, some questions were modified in order to align the series with international reporting demands (e.g. SDGs) and to improve the accuracy of victim reporting. This caused a break of series for affected questions, in particular questions on 12-month experience of crime. The question on 5-year experience of crime was not changed and hence there is no break of series. The 5-year trends can therefore be used as a proxy for the 12-month series as the two follow similar patterns. Similarity of shapes of the two series makes it possible to predict increase or decrease of crime during the past 12 months using the 5-year series.

Comparability to previous GPSJS series: To facilitate CATI data collection, the GPSJS 2019/20 sample was re-used and households that provided operational telephone numbers in 2019/20 were contacted and interviewed. The data is adjusted during the weighting process due to non-response from some households. The details of how the adjustment was done is contained in the metadata technical report. Given the change in the data survey mode of collection from CAPI to CATI, and the fact that the GPSJS 2020/21 estimates are not based on a full sample, comparisons with previous years should be made with caution.

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the number of drug-related crimes reported across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpData source: 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024Contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides the contact crimes rate across all provinces in South Africa since 2014Linage: The data presented is extracted from Statistcs South Africa (Stats SA) Mid-year population estimates (MYPE) trends as published on https://www.statssa.gov.za/ and the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpData sources: Excel - Provincial projection by sex and age (2002-2024)_web, Stats SA, published 30 July 2024 and 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024Contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

South Africa murder/homicide rate per 100K population for 2021 was 41.87, a 23.26% increase from 2020.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>South Africa murder/homicide rate per 100K population for 2020 was <strong>33.96</strong>, a <strong>7.48% decline</strong> from 2019.</li>
<li>South Africa murder/homicide rate per 100K population for 2019 was <strong>36.71</strong>, a <strong>0.14% increase</strong> from 2018.</li>
<li>South Africa murder/homicide rate per 100K population for 2018 was <strong>36.66</strong>, a <strong>2.11% increase</strong> from 2017.</li>
</ul>Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the number of murders reported across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php data source: 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the number of sexual offence crimes reported across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpContact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

As of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, 75,871 women in South Africa were reported as victims of selected contact crimes. Assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm had the highest number of incidences, with 63,054 cases. This accounts for approximately 35 percent of the overall number of assaults GBH registered.

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the number of property related crimes and aggravated robbery reported across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpData source: 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024Contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

Data presented as a spreadsheet; Provides an overview of the number of contact crimes incidents reported across all provinces in South Africa since 2014.Linage: The data presented is extracted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Statistics trends as published on https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.phpData source: 2023-2024 _Annual_Financial year_WEB, SAPS, published ‎2024Contact person: Elize van der Berg, Department of the Premier, Elize.VanDerBerg@westerncape.gov.za

As of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, only a fraction of the total number of murder and sexual offense cases reported to the South African police was brought to trial by the National Prosecuting Authority. Of the 5,276 sexual offense cases that went to trial, 3,813 ended up with a secure conviction.

As of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, a total of 11,240 children in South Africa were reported as victims of a select few contact crimes. Around 69 percent of these crimes committed against children were categorized under assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, with 7,771 reports. Attempted murder followed, which contributed around 16 percent to the summation of the selected contact crimes.

The average for 2017 based on 79 countries was 105 robberies per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Costa Rica: 1587 robberies per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Oman: 1 robberies per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 2003 to 2017. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

As of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, the number of convictions in relation to the amount of cases was relatively high. However, when compared to the total number of contact crimes committed in the same period, sexual offense reports amounted to 53,285, but only 5,276 of these cases ended up in court, and just 3,813 of these cases resulted in a conviction.

Snapshot img

Smart Security Market Size 2025-2029

The smart security market size is forecast to increase by USD 66.31 billion at a CAGR of 22% between 2024 and 2029.

The market is experiencing significant growth, driven by the increasing number of smart cities worldwide and the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) technology in video surveillance. The global proliferation of smart cities is leading to an increased demand for advanced security solutions that can effectively manage and monitor complex infrastructures. IoT integration in security systems enables real-time data collection, analysis, and response, enhancing security capabilities and improving operational efficiency. However, the market faces challenges as well. Complex infrastructural requirements necessitate substantial investments in technology and resources, potentially limiting adoption for smaller organizations or budget-constrained projects.
Additionally, regulatory hurdles impact adoption, as stringent data privacy and security regulations necessitate robust compliance frameworks. Supply chain inconsistencies, particularly in the area of component availability and quality, temper growth potential and necessitate strategic sourcing and inventory management. IoT security, data privacy, and deep learning are essential components, safeguarding against cyber threats and ensuring compliance with regulations. Companies seeking to capitalize on market opportunities must navigate these challenges effectively, focusing on innovation, collaboration, and regulatory compliance to ensure long-term success.

What will be the Size of the Smart Security Market during the forecast period?

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In the dynamic US market, the integration of edge computing and remote management in smart home systems and commercial properties is driving the demand for proactive security solutions. Security consulting and monitoring services are increasingly sought after to ensure effective security deployment and risk management. Behavioral analysis and anomaly detection through motion sensors, object detection, and intrusion detection systems are key components of advanced security systems. Biometric authentication, two-factor and multi-factor authentication, and smart window sensors enhance security while promoting energy management. Remote monitoring of connected devices and predictive analytics enable businesses to respond to security incidents in real-time.
Retail security benefits from network security, wireless security, and cloud-based security solutions, as well as security governance, maintenance, and hardening. Data encryption, cybersecurity insurance, and intrusion prevention are essential elements of comprehensive security strategies. Security integration and managed services offer businesses peace of mind, enabling them to focus on their core operations.

How is this Smart Security Industry segmented?

The smart security industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD million' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

Product

  Surveillance systems
  Intruder alarms
  Access control systems


End-user

  Commercial
  Residential
  Utility infrastructure
  Others


Distribution Channel

  Online
  Offline


Component

  Hardware
  Software
  Services


Geography

  North America

    US
    Canada
    Mexico


  Europe

    France
    Germany
    Italy
    UK


  APAC

    China
    India
    Japan


  Rest of World (ROW)

By Product Insights

The surveillance systems segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

The market encompasses a range of innovative technologies and solutions designed to enhance security for residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Vulnerability assessments are crucial in identifying potential threats, while smart lighting and fingerprint scanning offer added convenience and enhanced security. Video surveillance, a significant market segment, includes advanced cameras and video analytics that employ object detection, motion sensors, and facial recognition for intrusion detection and unauthorized access prevention. Security policies and automation ensure seamless integration of mobile app control, access control, and security audits.

Machine learning and AI-powered security systems provide proactive threat detection and incident response. Security cameras, door sensors, window sensors, and alarm systems offer physical security, while threat intelligence and penetration testing ensure network security. Remote monitoring and commercial security solutions cater to businesses, while home security systems prioritize residential safety. Energy management and smart home integration optimize resource usage and convenience. Overall, the market continues to evolve, integratin