The CSO in December 2024 and March 2025 provided updates to users on the impact on Fraud crime statistics of the backlog in the recording of potential fraud related crime incidents reported to An Garda Síochána (AGS) by Financial Institutions under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2011 on the PULSE system.
The CSO is advised by AGS that it continues to work on the backlog of Section 19 referrals from Financial Institutions and is making progress on this issue. In addition, work is ongoing by AGS to extend an existing reporting portal to handle Section 19 referrals. This system will improve the consistency and efficiency of the reporting process for Financial Institutions.
In view of this ongoing work, the CSO will continue to publish statistics on recorded crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences based only on those directly reported to AGS by members of the public and recorded on the Garda PULSE system. The CSO will continue to exclude incidents of Fraud that have arisen from Section 19 referrals until this data can be coherently included in official crime statistics.
Therefore, users should continue to exercise caution in the interpretation of published statistics on recorded crime incidents of this offence type.
The number of recorded crime incidents fell across most offence groups in 2025 compared with 2024. The most significant of these were Homicide & Related offences (-25%), Kidnapping & Related offences (-21%), Burglary & Related offences (-13%), and Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (-11%).
Recorded crime incidents rose for some offence groups in 2025 with the largest rate of increase being for Weapons & Explosives offences (+6%).
The number of recorded crime incidents fell across all Garda Regions for 5 of the 16 offence groups between 2024 and 2025. These were Homicide & Related offences, Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences, Sexual offences, Theft & Related offences, and Damage to Property & to the Environment.
The number of victims of crime incidents of Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences fell by 2% to 5,872 in Q4 2025 compared with Q4 2024. The number of male victims fell by 1% to 3,543 while the number of female victims fell by 4% to 2,329 in Q4 2025.
Users should note that the Recorded Crime release refers to the number of recorded crime incidents rather than offences.
An offence is a breach of a law or rule, an illegal act.
A crime incident can be described as an event where one or more offences are committed by the same offender, or group of offenders acting in concert, at the same time and place.
Example:
A singular crime incident takes place and is classified as relating to Public Order. The Gardaí establish that one person is responsible for this crime and that person is charged with three separate offences relating to this crime incident, namely,
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 March 2026) published Recorded Crime Quarter 4 (Q4) 2025.
Commenting on the release, Jim Dalton, Statistician in the Crime & Criminal Justice Section, said: “Recorded Crime statistics published today for October, November, and December (Q4) 2025 showed that recorded crime incidents fell for most offence groups between 2024 and 2025.
The most significant of these were incidents of Homicide & Related offences, Kidnapping & Related offences, Burglary & Related offences, and Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences.
Crime Trends in 2025
The number of recorded crime incidents fell across most offence groups in 2025 compared with 2024.
The most significant decreases were recorded in Homicide & Related offences (-25%), Kidnapping & Related offences (-21%), Burglary & Related offences (-13%), and Robbery, Extortion & Hijacking offences (-11%). The rates of decrease from 2024 among all other offence groups were in the single digit range with the largest rate of decrease at 9% for crime incidents of Sexual offences.
The number of crime incidents however increased for some offence groups with the largest rate of increase in Weapons & Explosives offences (+6%).
It should be noted that crime incidents of Fraud, Deception & Related offences continue to relate only to those reported directly to An Garda Síochána by members of the Public and do not include those reported by Financial Institutions as required under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2011 (See advisory note on Fraud Crime Statistics at the top of this page).
Crime Trends Among Garda Regions in 2025
The number of recorded crime incidents fell across all Garda Regions for 5 of the 16 offence groups between 2024 and 2025. The most significant of these were as follows:
For most other offence groups, the experience across Garda regions was mixed.
Victims of Assault & Related Offences
Assault & Related offences refer to the offence group Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments & Related offences.
The overall number of people recorded as victims of this offence type fell by 2% to 5,872 in Q4 2025 compared with Q4 2024. Those victims who were under 18 years of age when the incident took place fell by 17% and this accounted for most of the overall decrease in the number of victims.
The number of male victims fell by 1% to 3,543 over the period. Male victims who were under 18 years of age when the incident took place fell by 14% while those aged 60 years and over rose by 13%. In the other age groups, victims aged 30-44 years rose by 4% while there were falls in the number of victims aged between 18-29 years (-2%) and 45-59 years (-3%) in Q4 2025.
The number of female victims fell by 4% to 2,329 between both Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, with the highest percentage decreases in the under 18 (-21%) and 60 years and over (-16%) age categories. Victims aged 45-59 years rose by 9% while there was a fall for those in the 18–44-year age group.
However, the age breakdown of male and female victims has remained relatively stable in Q4 of each year since 2022.
Analysis of Changing Crime Trends Since 2022
Over the 4-year period (2022-2025), the number of recorded crime incidents for 10 out of 15 offence groups was down (the change for Fraud, Deception & Related offences is not available). Among the more significant decreases were:
However, crime incidents of Weapons & Explosives offences rose by 19% to 3,125 from 2022 to 2025 as did those of Theft & Related offences which were up by 11% to 73,335 crime incidents.”