According to United Nations statistics, Ireland ranks in the bottom half of the European murder rate table.
By gender, Ireland has the third lowest murder rate for female victims.
Based on 2022 data that includes both male and female victims, Ireland’s infection rate per capita is below the average for 29 European countries.
The infection rate in 2022 is the highest recorded in Ireland in recent years, at 0.88 per 100,000 people, compared to 0.46 in 2021.
Only one European country, Italy, had a lower tax rate than Ireland in 2021, and the two countries were effectively the same.
With more murders in 2022, Ireland has moved up the table to just below the halfway point. Her rate was 0.88 per 100,000 people, lower than the average of 0.96.
The countries included the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland, as well as 26 of the 27 EU countries (no data for Cyprus).
The figures are included in the 2023 Global Homicide Survey compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
This murder investigation uses murder counts and the figures quoted for Ireland (23 murders in 2021 and 44 murders in 2022) reflect murder statistics compiled by the CSO. .
The relevant data for Europe is as follows:
- Latvia (3.62 per 100,000 people) and Lithuania (2.44) have the highest infection rates, followed by Estonia (1.96), Romania (1.26) and Finland (1.21).
- There is a large group of people with cases of just over 1 per 100,000 people. Great Britain/England and Wales (1.17), France (1.14), Greece (1.13), Bulgaria (1.12), Sweden (1.10) and Belgium (1.08).
- Below that are groups with fewer than 1 in 100,000 people: Denmark (0.99), Hungary (0.94), Ireland (0.88), Austria (0.88), Czech Republic (0.83), Germany (0.83), and the Netherlands ( 0.81).
- At the bottom of the table is Croatia (0.77), followed by Slovakia (0.73), Poland (0.68), Spain (0.68), Slovenia (0.61), Norway (0.55), Italy (0.55), Switzerland (0.49), and Malta ( 0.38).
For the past eight years, Latvia and Lithuania have consistently been at the top.
Many countries fluctuate within narrow ranges over time.
This includes Ireland. In Ireland, interest rates rose from 0.66 in 2015 to 0.82 in 2017, but then declined in the following years to a low of 0.46 in 2021, rising again to 0.86 in 2022.
Some countries have seen significant reductions since 2015, including Bulgaria, Hungary, and Estonia.
From a gender perspective, Ireland had the third lowest proportion of female homicide victims in 2022 (0.39) out of 29 countries. Only Belgium (0.19) and Malta (0) were lower.
Nordic countries all had higher rates than Ireland, including Sweden (0.44), Norway (0.52), Denmark (0.78) and Finland (0.82).
There were 10 murders of women in Ireland in 2022. There were 7 cases in 2021 and 6 cases in 2020. In 2017, there were 15 similar murders.
There are no official murder figures for 2023 as a whole, but an annual analysis compiled by the Star shows there were 31 murders in Ireland last year, including murder and manslaughter, a significant decrease compared to 2022. did.
In 2023, there were only two gun homicides. The report said he was charged with murder in 21 cases and assault in four cases.
