Latvia continues to have a high rate of homicides when compared with its European Union peers, according to Eurostat data published April 23.
In 2023, there were 3 930 intentional homicides in the EU recorded by the police. It was an increase of 1.5% compared with 2022. However, there has been a slightly downward trend in the past decade and the number fell by 15.2% compared with 2013 (4 635).
Among the EU countries, the highest absolute numbers of intentional homicides were recorded in France (887), followed by Germany (661) and Italy (338), while the lowest numbers were found in Malta (2), Luxembourg (4) and Cyprus (10).
Latvia recorded 79 intentional homicides in 2023 – up on 2022’s figure of 76 but mercifully not back at the level recorded during the period 2016-2018 inclusive when there were more than 100 homicides per year.
However, Latvia’s figure continues to be higher than both Lithuania (69 homicides) and Estonia (18 homicides). Indeed, Latvia’s total is higher than those of many much more populous countries including Czechia (68), Greece (76), Hungary (69), Portugal (74), Slovakia (62), Finland (64) and Croatia (26).
The chart below shows the homicide rate per 100,000 population, and underlines Latvia’s position as having the EU’s highest homicide rate by some distance by this measure. Indeed it is the only country with more than 4 homicides per 100,000 population annually.
It should be noted that Eurostat says “The number of police-recorded crimes varies widely across the EU, even relative to population size. This can be due to different laws, different police recording practices and different reporting rates to the police, which can affect comparison.”
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