Aragon, the Canary Islands and the Balearics are the autonomous communities with the highest increase in crime up to the third quarter of 2024, which recorded a generalised rise in Spain of 1.2% compared to the same period the previous year. The only regions to record decreases in crime are La Rioja and the Community of Madrid, as well as the autonomous city of Melilla, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior consulted.
According to the latest update from the Ministry of the Interior, with data between January and September, crime as a whole - both conventional and cybercrime - increased in this order in: Aragon (+6.2%), the Canary Islands (+5.1%) and the Balearics (+4.4%), followed by Asturias (+3.8%), Castile and Leon (+2.8%) and Catalonia (+2.1%).
The rest of the regions with increases are already close to the average in Spain, set at 1.2%, starting with the Basque Country (+1.7%) and the Region of Murcia (+1.4%), followed by Andalusia (+0.6%), Castilla-la Mancha (+0.6%), Ceuta (+0.5%), Comunitat Valenciana (+0.5%), Galicia (+0.3%) and Extremadura (+0.1%). The only autonomous communities with decreases in the crime balance are La Rioja (-1.3%), Comunidad de Madrid (-1.1%) and Melilla (-0.2%), according to the data sent to the Crime Statistics System (SEC) by the National Police, Guardia Civil, Ertzaintza, Mossos d’Esquadra, Policía Foral de Navarra and Local Police forces in the cases of municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.
Among the most populated Spanish cities, Malaga (+10.9%) and Zaragoza (+7.8%) are the cities with the highest increases in conventional crimes - murders, thefts, drug trafficking and sexual assaults - and cybercrime such as computer fraud. Despite the fact that, due to their population weight in absolute numbers, Madrid and Barcelona lead the way in terms of the number of crimes, with 178,131 and 133,885 crimes, respectively, both cities recorded decreases compared to the third quarter of last year: Madrid fell by 2.2% and Barcelona by 3.5%.
Seville recorded a 1.1% drop in crime, while Valencia saw a slight rise of 0.5%, based on the figures for the most populated cities.
The overall figure for Spain, with a rise of 1.2%, shows a certain slowdown with respect to the 3% increase recorded up to the middle of the year and 3.2% in the first quarter, although the rise in crimes of sexual assault with penetration (rape) is maintained at 6.6%. The Ministry of the Interior’s Crime Balance reflects a slight fall in intentional homicides and completed murders for the country as a whole (-0.7%), with 269 cases up to September, and practically repeats the figure for attempted homicides (+0.2%).
Drug trafficking offences increased by 3.2%, while serious and less serious offences of assault and battery and affray rose by 8.4%. Crimes against property fell by 2.1%, including robbery, theft and vehicle theft - all these crimes represent 43.2% of conventional crime. The total number of criminal offences recorded in the period from January to September 2024 totals 1,854,283 incidents, of which 1,506,876 (81.3% of the total) correspond to the category of conventional crime, which presents a variation of 0.9% over 2023.