In the islands, there was a 2.9% rise in 2024.
Madrid/Zaragoza/Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 15th February (Europa Press) –
Aragon, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, and Cantabria are the autonomous communities with the most significant increase in crime in 2024, which experienced a slight reduction of 0.3% across Spain as a whole compared to the previous year. Conversely, the Community of Madrid recorded the largest reduction in criminal activity.
According to the official report from the Ministry of Interior, as consulted by Europa Press and represented in the accompanying map, overall crime—encompassing both conventional and cyber offences—increased in 2024 from January to December as follows: Aragon (+5.4%), Canary Islands (+2.9%), Balearic Islands (+2.4%), and Cantabria (+2.4%).
Castilla y León (+2%) and Asturias (+1.6%) followed with the next most concerning figures, while Ceuta (+0.9%), Melilla (+0.8%), Galicia (+0.6%), the Region of Murcia (+0.5%), and the Basque Country (+0.3%) showed more subdued increases. Catalonia reported no change in crime rates compared to 2023.
Four CCAA with decreases in crime
Consequently, four autonomous communities have reported decreases in crime rates, both in conventional crime—which includes everything from homicides to sexual offences, property crime, and drug trafficking—and cyber offences, with the Community of Madrid showing an overall decline of 2.9%.
La Rioja (-1.5%) follows with the most significant reduction, closely trailed by the Valencian Community (-1.3%), while Andalusia (-0.8%) approaches the national average decline of 0.3%.
The total number of registered criminal offences in Spain between January and December 2024 amounts to 2,456,413. Notable increases were seen in malicious homicides (+4.5%) and in sexual assaults involving penetration (+6.7%).
Both serious and minor injuries, along with public disorder offences, also surged last year by 8.3% nationwide. In contrast, burglaries in homes, businesses, and other properties decreased (-6.4%), as did thefts overall (-2.5%).
The report further notes that drug trafficking-related offences rose by 2.4%, while kidnappings experienced a dramatic decline of 13.9%.
Decline in cybercrime
A total of 1,990,575 crimes (81% of the total) fall under the category of conventional crime (considering all forms of crime not perpetrated in the cyber realm and showing a variation of -0.1% compared to 2023), while cybercrime (465,838 offences, representing 19% of the total) has decreased by -1.4% relative to 2023.
With these statistics, the conventional crime rate in Spain stands at 41.0 crimes per thousand inhabitants, prompting the Ministry of Interior to assert that it is “in the lowest bracket of the historical series and among the lowest globally.” The cybercrime rate is positioned at 9.6 crimes per thousand inhabitants.
The Ministry of Interior’s official statistics were compiled using data supplied by the National Police, the Civil Guard, Ertzaintza, Mossos d’Esquadra, the Coral Police of Navarra, and local police forces that contribute data to state security agencies.
