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Regional Analysis

Regional Analysis

Crimes incidents of Public Order and Sexual offences fell across all Garda regions in 2023

Online ISSN: 2009-5171
CSO statistical publication, , 11am
Lifting of Under Reservation Categorisation

Following the publication of the fifth Review of the Quality of Crime Statistics in October 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has lifted the 'Under Reservation' categorisation around Recorded Crime Statistics. This is possible because An Garda Síochána have introduced a range of quality measures over the last number of years which have resulted in sustained improvement in the quality of the underlying crime data. These changes give a level of assurance to users that they can rely on Recorded Crime Statistics.

For further information see our Lifting of Under Reservation categorisation for Recorded Crime Statistics FAQ page.

The number of recorded crime incidents fell across all regions for three out of the fourteen offence categories in 2023 and these were as follows:

  • Sexual offences where the Eastern region showed the largest rate of decrease (-16%) and this was followed by the Southern region (-12%), Dublin Metropolitan region (-11%) and North Western region (-6%).
  • Public Order & Other Social Code offences – the largest rates of decrease were for the North Western (-10%) and Dublin Metropolitan regions (-9%) with the lowest for the Eastern region (-3%).
  • Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime – largest rate of decrease was for the Eastern region (-11%) compared with a fall of between 2 and 4% for all other regions. See Figure 3.1 and Table 3.1.

The number of recorded crime incidents rose for a further three out of the fourteen regions and these were:

  • Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences – largest rates of increase were for the North Western (+44%) and Southern regions (+39%) compared with increases of 21% for each of the Dublin Metropolitan and Eastern regions.
  • Theft & Related offences – largest rates of increase were in the North Western (+22%) and Eastern (+19%) regions and the lowest in the Dublin Metropolitan region (+8%).
  • Weapons & Explosives – 11% increase for the Southern region compared with between 3 and 5% for all other regions.

For all other offence groups, the experience across Garda regions was mixed.

An Garda Síochána are currently in the process of the rolling out of a new Operation Model. This will involve a fundamental change to the organisational structure from the existing District Based Model to a new Divisional Functional Area Model. Further updates will follow in due course.

02 Sexual offences06 Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences 08 Theft & Related offences11 Weapons & Explosives offences13 Public Order & Other Social Code offences15 Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime
Dublin Metropolitan-112184-9-2
North Western-644225-10-4
Eastern -1621193-3-11
Southern-12391411-7-3
Table 3.1 Recorded crime incidents classified by offence group, Garda region and annualised total to Q4 2022 and 2023