Crime theft is at its highest nationally over the five year period between 2020 and 2024, with 76,501 recorded crime incidents of theft and related offences in the 12 months to the second quarter of 2024.
According to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), burglaries and related offences increased by 9% or by 838 incidents in the year to the second quarter of 2024.
Burglary and related offences had the largest rate of increase in the southern region, which was up 32%, with the lowest in the Dublin Metropolitan region at 2%.
The figures for this year are still much lower (31%) than the 14,389 incidents recorded at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
In 2021, there were 9,002 recorded incidents of this offence type that rose to 9,817 in 2022 before falling to 9,020 incidents in 2023.
Analysis of theft and related offences, which were up by 8% or by 5,354 incidents in the 12 months to the second quarter, showed that nearly half (49%) of such incidents involved theft from a shop.
Theft and related offences had the largest rate of increase in the eastern region, which was up 13%, compared with increases of between 6% and 7% for the other regions.
Crime incidents
Robbery, extortion and hijacking, along with other related offences had the largest rate of increase in the Dublin Metropolitan region, which was up 13%, and this compared with a 2% rise in each of the other regions.
Fraud, deception and related offences had the largest rates of increase for the north west (+33%) and east (+28%) of the country.
This figure has increased significantly over the last five years. In 2024, the 12,643 recorded crime incidents was 56% higher than those 8,083 recorded in 2020.
In between those years, the number of crime incidents increased to 11,398 in 2021 before reaching a high of 16,308 in 2022. In 2023 the number of incidents fell back to 10,490.