Cyprus’s serious crime index climbed for a third consecutive year in 2024, reaching 605 per 100,000 inhabitants from 588 in 2023 and 568 in 2022, according to the Cyprus Statistical Service.
Police received 5,942 serious crime reports in 2024, of which 5,900 were recorded as actual cases, compared with 5,653 reports and 5,630 actual cases in 2023. Property crimes led for another year at 31.8% of the total, down from 34.8% in 2023, whilst crimes against persons ranked second at 26.8%.
Juvenile crime showed a 29% jump, with 774 juveniles involved in offences in 2024 compared with 602 in 2023. Of these, 467 were involved in serious crimes and 307 in minor offences. Girls accounted for 4.4% of juvenile offenders, down from 8.6% in 2023. Property crimes were most frequent among juveniles both years.
The 5,900 actual serious crime cases involved 6,651 victims, comprising 5,128 natural persons and 1,523 legal entities. This marked a 20% increase from 2023’s 5,531 victims.
The majority of legal entities—53.4%—were victims of crimes harming the public generally. For natural persons, the largest share (39.8%) were victims of crimes against persons in 2024, a shift from 2023 when property crimes led at 45.0%.
A total of 7,470 offenders were involved in actual serious crime cases. Of the 7,433 natural persons, 820 were women, representing 11.0%, showing women’s participation in serious crime remains noticeably lower than men’s. Property crimes constituted the main offence category at 32.8%.
Court prosecutions dropped 12.5% to 62,066 from 70,941 in 2023. Despite the decrease, women’s proportion continued rising to 26.3% from 25.1%.
Convictions totalled 32,683, with men comprising 72.0% of the total. Traffic offences dominated for both sexes, whilst monetary fines remained the most common sentence, imposed on 90.4% of those convicted.
The prison population on 1 September stood at 995 persons, of whom 934 were men. Convicted admissions decreased to 917 from 1,027 in 2023. The median imposed prison sentence reached 10.6 months, though actual median stay was 4.9 months due to releases and pardons.
Prisoners aged 21 and over accounted for 95.1% of the population, whilst Cypriots comprised 43.3%. The convicted stood at 74.1% and those on remand at 25.9%.
Over 83% of convicted persons admitted to prison in 2024 had no previous imprisonment conviction. Of those who had served sentences previously, 38.0% returned within 12 months of release, whilst 60.7% were convicted for the same category of offence.