Almost 5000 victims of intentional homicide were recorded by the police in the European Union (EU) in 2015.
Among the EU Member States for which the data are available, police in France recorded the highest number of intentional homicide victims in 2015 in absolute terms (1017 people or 21% of all intentional homicide victims recorded in the EU), followed at a distance by Germany (682 or 14%), Poland (530 or 11%) and Italy (469 or 10%). However, relative to population size, these countries do not have the highest numbers in the EU.
Number of intentional homicide victims relative to population highest in Lithuania, lowest in Austria
Relative to its population, Lithuania recorded the highest number, with 5.89 intentional homicide victims per 100 000 inhabitants, ahead of Latvia (3.37), Estonia (3.19), Bulgaria (1.79) and Cyprus (1.77).
The lowest number of intentional homicide victims relative to population was recorded in Austria (0.51 intentional homicide victim per 100 000 inhabitants), the Netherlands (0.62), Spain (0.65), the Czech Republic (0.75) and Italy (0.77).
Source dataset is available here
The data come from the national records and may be affected by differences in national criminal justice systems and recording practices.
This news item marks the European Day for Victims of Crime (22 February).
More information on crime and criminal justice statistics in the Statistics Explained article here.
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