The number of crimes registered with the German police dropped significantly in 2018. However, officials warn that this drop could also reflect the fact that many crimes go unreported.

Sharp fall in crime rate in Germany

According to new figures from Police Crime Statistics (Polizeilichen Kriminalstatistik - PKS), the number of crimes in Germany has fallen to the lowest level since reunification. PKS reports that a total of 5,55 million offences were recorded last year, representing a decrease of 3,6 percent when compared with 2017. Presenting the report in Berlin, the German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer proclaimed Germany “one of the safest countries in the world”.

According to criminologists, there are several reasons why the crime rate in Germany has gone down: firstly, police have become more adept at tackling large-scale offences like theft. Secondly, the rate of immigration into Germany went down in 2018, resulting in fewer cases of illegal entry and residence.

Fewer crimes in all federal states apart from Bavaria

The federal state which recorded the biggest drop in crime was Saxony, where cases fell by 13,7 percent. The next biggest drop was in Bremen, where the crime rate fell by 8,2 percent. In big cities such as Hamburg and Berlin, the decrease was more modest, falling by 3,3 and 1,7 percent, respectively.

Bavaria was the only federal state in the whole country where an increase in criminal activity was recorded. Here, 74.524 crimes were reported, an increase of 0,9 percent. The highest number of crimes - 1.282.441 - was recorded in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most densely-populated state.  

Most common criminal offences in Germany  

Reflecting the trend of previous years, around one-third of all crimes recorded in 2018 were theft offences. Nonetheless, there was a marked decrease in this type of offence, with thefts of bicycles and motor vehicles, pickpocketing and shoplifting cases all down by between 2,7 and 18,2 percent. The number of burglaries also dropped 16,3 percent to a historic low of 97.504 incidents.

There were, however, increases in certain types of offences: the distribution of pornographic content, including child pornography, and drug offences both rose significantly. Most marked was the 39,9 percent increase in cases of “resistance against state power”, including crimes against police officers. However, this increase may partly be due to the fact that new criminal offences were created in May 2017, preventing statistics from being directly comparable.