Ireland among EU countries with highest rate of violent assaults, figures show

Seán McCárthaigh

Crime rates in Ireland are moderate overall compared to other EU countries but new figures show the level of violent assaults in the Republic is the fourth highest in the EU.

However, Ireland also has one of the lowest homicide rates in Europe.

Figures published by the European Commission on crime in the 27 EU member states in 2023 reveals crime rates in Ireland compare favourably to many western European countries across most types of offences with the exception of serious assault.

More than 5,700 offences of assault causing harm were recorded in the Republic in 2023 – a decrease of over 400 on 2022 figures.

However, it places Ireland with the fourth highest rate of serious assault offences in the EU with the crime impacting 108 per 100,000 population.

Only , Belgium and had higher rates of violent assaults in 2023.

The latest EU figures show sexual violence offences, including rape, as well as crimes against property, including thefts, robberies and burglaries, are all on the increase across mainland Europe.

The figures are based on criminal offences recorded by police across all EU member states in 2023.

Eurostat, which compiled the data, noted that the number of crimes varies widely across the EU due to different laws, police recording practices and reporting rates which can affect comparisons.

The number of intentional homicides across the EU rose by 1.5 per cent to 3,930 in 2023 with increases recorded in 11 of the 27 EU member states.

The figure for Ireland was 34 – down from 44 in 2022.

The rate of intentional homicides in Ireland at 0.64 per 100,000 population was the sixth lowest of 27 countries in the EU in 2023.

However, the latest statistics also show that the number of females killed by family or intimate partners in 2023 was 4.1 per one million women – almost double the rate for male victims of 2.2 per million men.

“These figures highlight the persistent gender disparity in domestic and intimate partner homicides across the EU,” said a Eurostat spokesperson.

They also reveal a steady increase in sexual violence offences including rape over the past decade with levels up almost 80 per cent since 2013.

Across the EU, almost 244,000 offences of sexual violence were recorded in 2023 – an annual increase of 5.5 per cent.

The number of recorded incidents of rape was up 7 per cent to 91,370.

The figures for Ireland showed there were 1,004 rape offences recorded in 2023 – a decrease of 97 on the previous year.

The EU figures show sexual violence offences affected 56 per 100,000 citizens in the Republic in 2023 – the eighth highest rate in the EU, where the highest was Sweden with 193 per 100,000 and the lowest was Hungary with 6 per 100,000.

The Eurostat spokesperson noted that the increase in police-recorded sexual violence offences is closely connected to raising awareness about the crime in society which might impact reporting rates.

The figures also show there has been a surge in crimes against property since the Covid-19 pandemic although overall levels of thefts, burglaries and robberies had decreased steadily between 2010 and 2021.

They reveal that Ireland has the 10th highest rate for theft in the EU in 2023 with 1,316 offences per 100,000 population.

More than 69,350 thefts were recorded in the Republic that year – an increase of approximately 7,000 over the previous 12 months.

The highest rates were recorded in Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark with the lowest in Cyprus.

Although the number of burglaries increased by around 100 to 9,564 in 2023, the rate of burglaries in Ireland is only ranked 13th in the EU with 181 offences per 100,000 population.

The highest levels of burglaries – with rates more than triple those found in the Republic – were in Sweden, Austria and Luxembourg.

The lowest rates were in Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Finland.

The number of robberies in Ireland increased by 15 per cent in 2023 to 1,618.

However, the rate of robberies in the Republic at 31 per 100,000 population is only the 12th highest in the EU and less than a third of the rate of countries with the highest levels of the crime such as Spain, Belgium and .

The lowest level of robberies is found in Hungary, Estonia and Slovakia.

Ireland also had the ninth highest rate for unlawful acts involving controlled drugs in the EU in 2023 at 323 per 100,000 with the number of offences relatively unchanged at just over 16,600.