Crime Falls Across Most Categories in Ireland as Fraud Surges

New provisional statistics from An Garda Síochána show significant reductions across the majority of serious crime types in 2025, though a dramatic rise in fraud offences, particularly online, signals a clear shift in how criminals are operating.

The year-end figures, comparing 2025 with 2024, show some of the steepest falls recorded in crimes including robbery, theft, burglary, and sexual offences. However, fraud offences surged by 137% nationally, driven largely by a high volume of previously unprocessed referrals coming through the system, something Gardaí had flagged as likely at the end of 2024.

Property Crime

Theft from the person fell by 22%, with Dublin alone recording nearly 800 fewer incidents. Robbery from a person dropped 20%, and robbery from an establishment fell 23%. Residential burglaries declined by 16%, representing an average of fewer than 14 burglaries per day across the 26 counties, or less than one per county per day.

Operation THOR, the Garda initiative targeting organised burglary gangs, has now reduced the rate of winter burglaries by 75% since its introduction in 2015. Theft from vehicles fell 16%, with particularly sharp drops recorded in the Eastern and Southern regions.

One exception in the property crime category was theft from shops, which rose 2% nationally, with Dublin recording an 8% increase, amounting to nearly 1,000 additional incidents. Operation Táirge, introduced in December 2023 to target organised retail crime, continues to operate in response.

Crimes Against the Person

Murder and manslaughter offences remained low, with 40 incidents recorded nationally, the same figure as 2024. Sexual offences fell 12% overall, with rape down 11% and sexual assault down 16%. Affray, riot, and violent disorder dropped 18%.

Harmful communications offences increased by 27%, with nearly 750 incidents recorded compared to under 600 in 2024. The distribution of grossly offensive communications rose by 68%.

An Garda Síochána received nearly 67,000 domestic abuse related calls in 2025, a slight increase of approximately 2% on 2024, equating to nearly 1,300 contacts every week.

Fraud

The headline increase of 137% in fraud offences nationally reflects both a genuine rise in criminal activity and the processing of a large volume of Section 19 referrals. Notable increases include deception and other fraud offences up 273%, shopping and online auction fraud up 183%, card not present fraud up 95%, and money laundering up 164%. Bogus tradesman offences rose 43%.

Reductions were recorded in phishing, vishing, and smishing offences, down 11%, as well as counterfeit notes and coins, down 77%, and insurance fraud, down 43%.

Road Traffic

There were nearly 54,000 road traffic collisions reported in 2025, an overall increase of 4%, representing approximately 150 collisions every day. There were 188 fatal collisions recorded during the year. Over 169,000 fixed charge notices were issued for speeding offences. Mobile phone use while driving attracted nearly 24,500 penalty notices, an increase of 11.5%.

Proactive Policing

Gardaí made over 74,000 arrests during 2025, more than 200 every day. Over 134,000 criminal charges were created, and nearly 190,000 criminal summonses issued. More than 13,000 referrals were made to the Juvenile Diversion Programme.

Gardaí also seized illicit drugs with an estimated value of over €126 million through the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, along with €2.8 million in cash. The Dublin Crime Response Team separately seized drugs valued at over €21 million and nearly €2.9 million in cash and gold.

Wider Context

CSO figures show Ireland recorded a 7% reduction in crime between 2019 and 2024, during a period in which the population grew by 9.3%. Since 2002, the population has grown by 37%, while crime has fallen significantly from its 2008 peak. The 2025 Global Peace Index ranks Ireland as the second most peaceful country in the world, behind Iceland, and places it in the top ten for societal safety and security.

All figures are provisional, operational, and subject to change. Official crime statistics are published quarterly by the Central Statistics Office.