The Crime and Victimisation Survey is a household survey about crime in Ireland carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The purpose of the survey is to provide a measure of the prevalence of specified types of crime in Ireland and complements data on the number of crime incidents recorded by An Garda Síochána (AGS). The survey also measures people’s perceptions about and reactions to crime.
The 2025 survey was carried out during Quarters 2 (Q2) and 3 of 2025 and using both Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Previous Crime and Victimisation surveys have been carried out by the CSO in 1998, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2019.
Respondents aged 18 years and over were asked to consider the period of 12 months prior to interview and to rate their response to a series of questions relating to the impact that crime has on their lives and their opinions on how effectively crime is dealt with in Ireland.
The survey did not ask directly about sexual crimes as these were the focus of a comprehensive, dedicated national survey on Sexual Violence which was carried out by the CSO in 2023. However, it could be the case that victims of sexual assault may have reported on this as a physical assault in response to this survey.
A new data collection model for the Crime & Victimisation Survey was employed in 2025. The data collection model was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved the issuing of letters of invitation to a representative sample of approximately 112,900 people aged 16 years or over, asking if they would be willing to participate in CSO surveys. The source for this sample was the Census of Population 2022. The second phase involved the issuing of emails to 15,000 of these people with a link to the online questionnaire for this survey. Participants were prompted to enter a unique identifier and access key to start the survey (CAWI data collection mode). Respondents could opt for a telephone interview (CATI data collection mode) instead.
The achieved valid sample size for the Crime & Victimisation Survey was 7,654 respondents.
To provide national population results, the survey results were weighted to represent the entire population of persons aged 18 years and over. The survey results were weighted to agree with Labour Force Survey Quarter 3 (Q3) 2025 population estimates broken down by age group, sex and region.
Design weights from the sample were adjusted for non-response. This eliminated the bias introduced by discrepancies caused by non-response, particularly critical when the non-responding individuals are different from the responding ones in respect to some survey variables as this may create substantial bias in the estimates. Design weights are adjusted for non-response by dividing the design weights of each responding unit in the final / achieved sample by the (weighted) response probability of the corresponding group or strata.
To obtain the household weights for the results, after the previous steps were carried out, the distribution of respondents (each respondents represented a household) by NUTS3 region was calibrated to the household population based on the Labour Force Survey for Q3 2025.
Out of a selected sample of 15,000 households 7,654 valid responses were collected, giving a general response rate of 51%. See Table 8.1 for a detailed breakdown of the achieved sample for the module on Crime and Victimisation.
The section on farm crime was an additional section asked of farming households only. Responses were collected from 773 farming households.
All estimates based on sample surveys are subject to error, some of which is measurable. Where an estimate is statistically significantly different from another estimate it means that we can be 95% confident that differences between those two estimates are not due to sampling error.
Estimates for the percentage of people where the denominator used in generating the rate is less than 50 persons in a cell is too small to be considered reliable. These estimates are presented with (..) in the relevant tables.
The sum of row or column percentages in the tables in this report may not add to 100% due to rounding. Percentage breakdowns exclude cases where the interviewee did not respond.
The Crime and Victimisation questionnaire consisted of 4 sections relating to:
For the purpose of the survey, the following nomenclature is used in relation to crime types:
Please visit the following link to view the questionnaire used in the survey: Crime and Victimisation
The descriptions provided to respondents were as follows:
Theft with violence: “Did anyone steal, or attempt to steal, an item from you, using force or violence, or a threat of force or violence over the last 12 months?”
Theft without violence: “Did anyone steal, or attempt to steal, an item from you, without using force or violence, over the last 12 months?”
Physical Assault: “Did anyone physically, or attempt to, physically attack you in the last 12 months?”
Fraud: “In the past 12 months, have you personally been a victim of Fraud? (Note: For the purposes of this survey, fraud could include bank debit or credit card fraud, internet fraud, or deception involving an attempt to defraud.)”
Burglary: “Did anyone enter this home or an outbuilding without permission and steal, or attempt to steal, anything from it in the last 12 months?”
Vandalism: “Did anyone vandalise, or attempt to vandalise this property in the last 12 months?”
The survey was only asked of persons aged 18 or over. Age groups were classified as follows:
The regional classifications in this release is based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. Until Quarter 4 (Q4) 2017, the NUTS3 regions corresponded to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994 while the NUTS2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed by Eurostat in 1999, were groupings of those historic NUTS3 regions.
However, the NUTS3 boundaries were amended on 21st of November 2016 under Regulation (EC) No. 2066/2016 and have come into force from Q1 2018. The changes resulting from the amendment are that County Louth has moved from the Border to the Mid-East and what was formerly South Tipperary has moved from the South-East to the Mid-West, resulting in the new NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions:
| Northern & Western NUTS2 Region | Southern NUTS2 Region | Eastern & Midland NUTS2 Region | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Border | Cavan Donegal Leitrim Monaghan Sligo |
Mid-West | Clare Limerick Tipperary |
Dublin | Dublin City Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Fingal South Dublin |
| South-East | Carlow Kilkenny Waterford Wexford |
Mid-East | Kildare Louth Meath Wicklow |
||
| West | Galway Mayo Roscommon |
South-West | Cork Kerry |
Midland | Laois Longford Offaly Westmeath |
The results from this survey are not directly comparable with administrative crime statistics such as the Recorded Crime release which relate only to crime incidents that have been reported to An Garda Síochána (AGS) and recorded on their PULSE system. There are also fundamental differences in sources, definitions, and classification methodology.
While Recorded Crime statistics provide data on the reported level of crime by offence groups, it does not provide an indicator of the overall prevalence of crime, given there is likely to be an element of under reporting in many crime types, such as Fraud crime for example. The Crime & Victimisation survey results provide a more aggregated view of the level of crime, including unreported incidents, together with details of the demographic characteristics of victims.
The CSO wishes to thank the participating persons for their co-operation in agreeing to take part in the survey and for facilitating the collection of the relevant data.
The 2025 questionnaire was designed in consultation with a number of key users which included An Garda Síochána, Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform, Probation office, Courts Service, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Prison Service. The CSO is grateful for the contribution of these organisations.
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