In December 2024, An Garda Síochána advised the CSO of a backlog in the recording of potential fraud related crime incidents reported by financial Institutions under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2011 on the PULSE system.
This backlog, dating from Q3 2023 onwards, has meant that the Fraud, Deception & Related offences crime series pre and post Q3 2023 are no longer comparable. From Q3 2024, Recorded Crime contains a revised Fraud, Deception and Related Offences series for Q3 2023 onwards based only on fraud crime incidents reported directly to AGS by members of the public. Please see our accompanying Information Note for more details.
The number of recorded crime incidents involving Homicide & Related offences fell by 13% to 77 incidents in 2024 when compared with 2023. Recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were down by 10% or 265 to 2,353 incidents over the year.
The number of incidents involving Controlled Drug offences were also down over the year, falling by 7% to 16,119 incidents in 2024. This drop was driven largely by decreases in crime incidents involving possession of drugs for sale or supply or for personal use.
Decreases in the number of recorded crime incidents in some other offence categories were also noted in 2024, including Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-7%), Damage to Property & to the Environment (-2%), and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-2%).
In contrast, increases were noted in the number of incidents in 2024 involving Sexual offences (+8%), Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), Public Order & Other Social Code offences (+5%), Theft & Related offences (+3%), Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+3%), and Burglary & Related offences (+2%).
Victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences rose by 2% to 5,809 victims in 2024 when compared with 2023. The number of male victims rose by 4% to 3,438 and the number of female victims remained virtually unchanged at 2,371.
In December 2024, An Garda Síochána advised the CSO of a backlog in the recording of potential fraud related crime incidents reported by financial Institutions under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2011 on the PULSE system.
This backlog, dating from Q3 2023 onwards, has meant that the Fraud, Deception & Related offences crime series pre and post Q3 2023 are no longer comparable. From Q3 2024, Recorded Crime contains a revised Fraud, Deception and Related Offences series for Q3 2023 onwards based only on fraud crime incidents reported directly to AGS by members of the public. Please see our accompanying Information Note for more details.
The CSO published its fifth CSO Review of the Quality of Recorded Crime Statistics in October 2023. As part of this review the CSO has lifted the ‘Under Reservation’ designation from all Recorded Crime data disseminated after Quarter 1 (Q1) 2023.
Please see Lifting of Under Reservation Categorisation for Recorded Crime Statistics FAQ for further details.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 March 2025) released Recorded Crime Quarter 4 (Q4) 2024.
Commenting on the release, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime statistics published today for October, November, and December (Q4) 2024 and the full year 2024 showed that recorded crime incidents involving Homicide & Related offences were down 13% in 2024 when compared with 2023 as were those involving Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (-10%) and Controlled Drug offences (-7%).
In contrast, there were increases in crime incidents for some offence groups such as Sexual offences (+8%), Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), and Public Order & Other Social Code offences (+5%).
Crime Trends in 2024
The number of recorded crime incidents involving Homicide & Related offences fell by 13% to 77 incidents in 2024 when compared with 2023.
Recorded crime incidents of Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences were down by 10% or 265 to 2,353 incidents over the year. A fall in crime incidents of Blackmail or Extortion accounted for most of this decrease.
The number of recorded crime incidents involving Controlled Drug offences were also down, falling by 7% or 1,129 to 16,119 incidents. This was driven largely by a fall in incidents of possession of drugs for sale or supply and for personal use.
Decreases in the number of recorded crime incidents in some other offence categories were also noted, including Offences against Government, Justice Procedures & Organisation of Crime (-7%), Damage to Property & to the Environment (-2%), and Dangerous or Negligent Acts (-2%).
In contrast, there were increases in the number of incidents involving Sexual offences (+8%), Weapons & Explosives offences (+5%), Public Order & Other Social Code offences (+5%), Theft & Related offences (+3%), Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences (+3%), and Burglary & Related offences (+2%).
Analysis of Changing Crime Trends since 2020
An analysis of crime trends across all the offence groups showed that the 76,178 recorded crime incidents of Theft & Related offences in 2024 represented an increase of 48% from the 51,448 incidents recorded in 2020. In the intervening years, the number of incidents for this offence type fell to 46,799 in 2021 and rose to 65,883 in 2022. There were 73,631 recorded crime incidents of this offence type in 2023. The figures for 2020 and 2021 are likely to have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of recorded crime incidents rose for most other offence groups over this five-year period (2020-2024). The most notable percentage increases were:
By contrast, the number of recorded crime incidents fell for some offence groups and these included:
Crime Trends Among Garda Regions in 2024
The experience across Garda regions for recorded crime was quite mixed in 2024 compared with 2023. There were decreases in recorded crime across all regions for just two offence groups, namely Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences, and Controlled Drug offences. For most other regions, the experience was quite mixed. For example:
Victims of Assault & Related Offences
The overall number of people recorded as victims of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences rose by 2% to 5,809 between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024. Some 59% of victims were male in 2024 compared with just 41% for female victims. The number of male victims rose by 4% to 3,438 and the number of female victims remained virtually unchanged at 2,371.
When one looks at the age profile of male victims, the results show that the number of male victims who were under 18 years when the incident occurred increased by 15% over the period and those victims aged 18-29 years rose by 10%. The number of victims aged 30-44 years fell by 3% while those aged 45-59 years rose by 6%. The number of victims aged 60 years or more fell by 10%.
A somewhat different picture emerged for female victims where there was a decrease in the number of victims aged between 30 and 59 years (-3%). However, the number of victims who were aged 60 years or more at the time of the incident rose by 21% over the year. There was little or no change in the number of victims aged 29 years or less.
Impact of COVID-19 on Data for 2020 and 2021
Data for 2020 and 2021 for some crime categories are likely to have been influenced by the public health restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”