Africa: organized crime index by region 2023

In 2023, East Africa had the highest levels of criminality in Africa according to the organized crime index. The region scored 5.88 points and was followed by West and Central Africa, respectively. As of the same year, the African countries with the highest criminality scores were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and South Africa. The source identified human trafficking and human smuggling as particularly widespread on the continent.

Criminality levels according to the organized crime index in Africa in 2023, by region

Characteristic	Index (1-10)
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Release date

November 2023

More information

Region

Africa

Survey time period

2021 and 2023

Supplementary notes

* 2023 score includes new criminality indicators. The criminality average of the original 10 criminal markets and 4 criminal actor types is 5.40 (Africa), 5.93 (East Africa), 5.64 (West Africa), 5.17 (North Africa), 5.23 (Central Africa), 5.01 (Southern Africa) .

The source adds the following information:
"The ENACT Organized Crime Index is an innovative tool designed to measure levels of organized crime in African countries and assess their resilience to organized-criminal activity. Comprising two composite metrics, the Index ranks countries both according to their levels of criminality on a score from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest crime levels) and according to resilience to organized crime from 1 to 10 (lowest to highest resilience levels)." Data shown here refer to the levels of criminality.

Organized crime is defined as "illegal activities, conducted by groups or networks acting in concert, by engaging in violence, corruption or related activities in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or material benefit. Such activities may be carried out both within a country and transnationally."

The figures were taken from several publications.

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