Home burglary rates around the world

Finally, the burglars are going back to work.

A study of crime rates in 27 international cities showed that burglaries fell by 28% under lockdown conditions.

But homeowners should not breathe easy.

As lockdown eases, the conditions for housebreaking improve.

And summer is peak business for burglars: windows are left open, families are on holiday, and everyone has their guard down.

To uncover the global state of burglaries, Budget Direct sourced national burglary rates from countries around the world and calculated the figure per 100,000 people for every country with available data.

Peru has the highest burglary rate in the world, with 2,086 per 100,000 people per year.

The world’s lowest burglary rate is in Bangladesh: 1 per 100,000.

Australia’s burglary rate is 911 per 100,000 – the third highest in the world.

The US burglary rate is 527 per 100,000 – number 15 out of the 85 countries with available data.

England & Wales have the 10th highest burglary rate in the world; neighboring Scotland has the fourth-lowest.

In Bangladesh, we see the least amount of intrusions with only 1.3 home thefts per 100k people recorded in 2018, while Peru reported 2,086 burglaries per 100k people in 2017.

Bangladesh had 2,137 burglaries in 2018; compared to their 136 million population, this meant there were only 1.3 burglaries per 100k people.

Greece has the highest burglary rate in Europe.

According to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, there were 762 burglaries per 100k people in 2019, with high volumes of these crimes happening in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Data from the Government in Scotland reveals they have the least amount of home thefts with only eight per 100k people happening in 2017.

This amounted to 29% of all thefts in that year.

In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, there were 765 burglaries happening per 100k people in 2018 according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council.

With only 16 burglaries per 100k people in 2018, Trinidad and Tobago has the lowest burglary rate in North America, as shown by data from the Government's Central Statistical Office.

In 2015, Paraguay only had 16 burglaries per 100k people, according to data retrieved from Paraguay’s police website.

The United Arab Emirates has the least burglaries in the Middle East, where there were 63 burglaries per capita in 2014, according to data taken from a press conference with the Ministry of Interior.

In Australia, there were 911 home thefts per 100k people in 2018, on a whole, accounting for 2.4% of the population, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

In the same year, Nigeria only had three reported break-ins per 100k people, recorded by the Bureau of Statistics.

Most of these cases happened in Lagos.

Although it has a relatively low population, Seychelles recorded the highest rate of burglaries, with 1,454 per 100k people.

About Brett Warren Brett Warren is National Director of Metropole Properties and uses his two decades of property investment experience to advise clients how to grow, protect and pass on their wealth through strategic property advice.