Crime in Denmark - statistics & facts

Increasing number of violent crimes, falling number of robberies

Property crime makes up the most reported crime in Denmark, accounting for around 240,000 of all reported crime cases in 2021. This includes cases of burglaries, thefts, and robberies. However, criminal complaints concerning these types of crime decreased considerably over the past decade. For instance, the number of reported robberies more than halved from 2011 to 2021, as did the number of both burglaries and thefts. On the other hand, the number of violent crimes increased over the past 10 years.

Considering sexual offences, the number of reported rape cases tripled in recent years, from 382 reports in 2014 to more than 2,000 reported cases in 2021. This does not necessarily mean that the actual number of rapes increased, but is probably also down to an increased awareness around reporting. Moreover, the Danish government passed a new law based on sexual consent in September 2020, meaning that more cases now are classified as rapes.

Offenders and victims

The total number of people found guilty of a crime increased in 2019 and 2020 after having fallen from 2014 to 2018. In 2020, nearly 177,000 people were charged with a crime in Denmark. Moreover, a significant majority of the convicts were men, whereas the most common age of the people found guilty was 30 to 49 years. While there were more men than women among the perpetrators, there were annually more women than men among the victims between 2011 and 2021. In 2021, nearly 32,000 of the 60,000 crime victims in the Scandinavian country were women. However, there were more male victims of violent crimes, whereas there were more female victims of both property crimes, sexual offences, and other types of offences.

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