Did you know that America has more burglaries than any other country in the world?
Before you are thinking of leaving America to go live in Oman, take a look at the per capita stats.
| Country | Per 1,000 people | ||
| Australia | 21.7454 | ||
| Dominica | 18.7892 | ||
| Denmark | 18.3299 | ||
| Estonia | 17.4576 | ||
| Finland | 16.7697 | ||
| New Zealand | 16.2763 | ||
| United Kingdom | 13.8321 | ||
| Poland | 9.46071 | ||
| Canada | 8.94425 | ||
| South Africa | 8.89764 | ||
| Montserrat | 8.24323 | ||
| Iceland | 8.11156 | ||
| Switzerland | 8.06303 | ||
| Slovenia | 7.93734 | ||
| Czech Republic | 7.24841 | ||
| Hungary | 7.15849 | ||
| United States | 7.09996 | ||
| France | 6.11634 | ||
| Ireland | 5.73755 | ||
| Netherlands | 5.55531 | ||
| Bulgaria | 5.29597 | ||
| Slovakia | 4.6984 | ||
| Zimbabwe | 4.54568 | ||
| Portugal | 4.47927 | ||
| Latvia | 4.31048 | ||
| Belarus | 3.13718 | ||
| Seychelles | 2.79598 | ||
| Lithuania | 2.55852 | ||
| Japan | 2.3269 | ||
| Uruguay | 1.63554 | ||
| Greece | 1.49035 | ||
| Chile | 1.44328 | ||
| Malaysia | 1.37407 | ||
| Mexico | 1.31521 | ||
| Hong Kong | 1.30004 | ||
| Mauritius | 1.28676 | ||
| Norway | 1.15328 | ||
| Romania | 0.954859 | ||
| Moldova | 0.894276 | ||
| Jamaica | 0.886696 | ||
| Zambia | 0.876043 | ||
| Tunisia | 0.762283 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 0.631248 | ||
| Spain | 0.591359 | ||
| Papua New Guinea | 0.472137 | ||
| Georgia | 0.403036 | ||
| Qatar | 0.347604 | ||
| Colombia | 0.31138 | ||
| Thailand | 0.205995 | ||
| India | 0.103027 | ||
| Korea, South | 0.0622315 | ||
| Armenia | 0.0308414 | ||
| Yemen | 0.00530709 | ||
| Saudi Arabia | 0.000416383 |
Looking at the stats by per capita, Australians are more like to be burgled than anyone else, although you are least likely to be burgled in Saudi Arabia. Not much need of a home security specialist there.
Obviously there are a few factors to consider when looking at the chart such as whether or not the country is a police state and everyone is already locked up, or if it can even feed its people. Illegal drug use would also be a factor, in the USA a junkie needs money to feed their habit and burglary is an easy way to do it.
Reporting of crime may also be a factor, if the ability to gather crime stats is difficult then it will effect the figures.
I doubt this will make anyone leave the USA, but it may make people think more seriously about their home security.
For those of you who like numbers.
Burglaries by Country: The Numbers
| United States | 2151875 | ||
| Germany | 1055812 | ||
| United Kingdom | 951418 | ||
| Australia | 436865 | ||
| South Africa | 393959 | ||
| France | 370993 | ||
| Poland | 304625 | ||
| Japan | 296486 | ||
| Canada | 274894 | ||
| Italy | 169430 | ||
| Mexico | 139679 | ||
| Sweden | 120735 | ||
| India | 111296 | ||
| Netherlands | 103244 | ||
| Denmark | 103215 | ||
| Austria | 91897 | ||
| Belgium | 82516 | ||
| Finland | 72817 | ||
| Czech Republic | 72040 | ||
| Switzerland | 60822 | ||
| New Zealand | 59531 | ||
| Hungary | 58740 | ||
| Zimbabwe | 55280 | ||
| Chile | 51459 | ||
| Bulgaria | 39455 | ||
| Malaysia | 32913 | ||
| Belarus | 25828 | ||
| Spain | 23856 | ||
| Estonia | 23271 | ||
| Ireland | 23042 | ||
| Croatia | 22238 | ||
| Slovakia | 22036 | ||
| Portugal | 21408 | ||
| Greece | 15899 | ||
| Slovenia | 15725 | ||
| Colombia | 13375 | ||
| Thailand | 13222 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 12666 | ||
| Latvia | 12312 | ||
| Romania | 12013 | ||
| Uruguay | 11184 | ||
| Zambia | 9866 | ||
| Hong Kong | 8969 | ||
| Tunisia | 7680 | ||
| Peru | 7198 | ||
| Lithuania | 6989 | ||
| Norway | 5297 | ||
| Iceland | 3208 | ||
| Korea South | 3027 | ||
| Luxembourg | 2952 | ||
| Papua New Guinea | 2618 | ||
| Jamaica | 2426 | ||
| Georgia | 1885 | ||
| Mauritius | 1584 | ||
| Moldova | 1548 | ||
| Dominica | 1297 | ||
| Cyprus | 1228 | ||
| Bolivia | 905 | ||
| El Salvador | 496 | ||
| Qatar | 300 | ||
| Seychelles | 227 | ||
| Yemen | 110 | ||
| Armenia | 92 | ||
| Montserrat | 77 | ||
| Maldives | 68 | ||
| Saudi Arabia | 14 | ||
| Burma | 4 | ||
| Oman | 0 |
30 responses so far ↓
1 Gab Goldenberg // Apr 6, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Maybe Saudi Arabia is so low cuz they CUT OFF BURGLARS’ HANDS?!
Separately, I’m dubious about the reporting methodology, which isn’t even listed. But in any case, wouldn’t this rely on self-reporting, which is likely to be worse in developing countries with ineffective/corrupt cops?
2 Yura // Apr 6, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Exactly my thoughts, Gab. Same thing about other countries with sharia law.
As much as I consider the sharia law to be rather strict, I also consider it to be a bit effective, compared to laws that are written, but not enforced.
Strangely enough, Russia isn’t listed: I bet they didn’t get the statistics for it, I am sure we aren’t as perfect as Saudi Arabia.
Btw, I didn’t see when the stats were gathered, but here the so-called crisis-related crimes (including burglaries, but mostly finance related) have increased by 30%.
3 Home Security Consultant // Apr 6, 2009 at 10:38 pm
The methodology is listed in the source link.
The self reporting issue is raised in the text, maybe you missed it.
4 MI5 // Apr 7, 2009 at 4:24 am
This is just useless statistics. In africa no one goes about counting burglaries. Its part of everyday life, hence the near zero values. Developed nations have the patience to waste some more dollar actually keeping tabs on the number of people who break the law, hence the higher values. Hence my answer to the question “Did you know that America has more burglaries than any other country in the world?” is No America does not have the most burglaries in the world. I will bet on india or china not america!
5 Jorge // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:02 am
Where did they get those numbers? According to the above Chile has only 1.4 per 1,000 - in reality it’s more like 1 in 4 (I know, I live there)
6 John Davis // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:52 am
Wow, that is truly amazing. I had no idea!
RT
http://www.anon-tools.cz.tc
7 Expat // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:56 am
South Africa is probably the worst place on earth when it comes to crime. I have to call foul when you say that it has less burglaries per capita than Canada. This article is BS.
8 Dave // Apr 7, 2009 at 6:10 am
Gab Goldenberg is not pleased.
9 Seb // Apr 7, 2009 at 6:19 am
It would be more interesting to see burglaries as a percentage of the county’s population.
10 lou // Apr 7, 2009 at 6:34 am
Where’s China?
11 Jets Fan // Apr 7, 2009 at 6:46 am
I find it hard to believe that Mexico has fewer robberies per capita than the US. Having sent a lot of time there, crime is a lot more prevalent. These numbers look a little skewed…
12 Josh // Apr 7, 2009 at 6:49 am
Germany (and maybe others) are in the per capita statistics. Any reason why?
13 Tom // Apr 7, 2009 at 7:17 am
Some pretty big countries are missing from the list, such as Brazil and China.
14 Billy // Apr 7, 2009 at 7:32 am
China’s in east Asia lou.
15 Tongboy // Apr 7, 2009 at 7:49 am
By your stats Germany should be listed higher then the US in per capita crimes but isn’t even listed in the first table. (~82.3 million pop)
bad data/skewed results
16 ASimpleDad // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:01 am
As with most these world statistics you have to wonder, is the USA the worst, or are we the most honest in reporting? Do Police agencies in the USA face repercussions for reporting crimes? Do Police agencies and citizens in foreign countries? I honestly don’t trust these numbers unless they were assembled by teams sampling people in each country. Official numbers are often wrong. But who cares about being critical of the numbers and having valid comparisons, when the numbers can be used to bash the USA, right?
17 Hop // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:10 am
The U.S. has better stuff to steal than most other countries on this list!
18 Pylocke // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:21 am
United States is not America, please correct that in the beginning of the article
19 Goobernutz // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:42 am
I left the us because of this chart. I hope I don’t read a chart 3 months from now that has contradictory evidence. But luckily we don’t get many charts here in Burma. Go Burma Tigers!! Now where did I put my fish? Unga bunga bababooey.
20 Fascist Nation // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:56 am
You want to cut the burglary rate in the USA by 90%?
Re-legalize drugs.
21 goso // Apr 7, 2009 at 9:26 am
Crazy stats , ive wrk in the police sector and many many crimes of this nature just dont get reported. I live in SA and theft is like a common day occurance we have just adapted to life like this. One of the biggest issues is that these crimes happen many time among family members thus the lack of reporting! PLUR to all !
22 NY // Apr 7, 2009 at 9:55 am
Articles like this are actually damaging to the domain of internet reporting. If you know data is erroneous, you should not be reporting it, caveats irrespective. Saudi Arabia, a country of 27 million people, had 14 burglaries? Absolutely not.
23 inboulder // Apr 7, 2009 at 10:11 am
This post is entirely worthless. These statistics are so far off they’re not even wrong, they’re complete nonsense.
24 Bob // Apr 7, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Rubbish, Pure rubbish, everyone know South Africa has the highest crime rate in the world…
25 Bob // Apr 7, 2009 at 4:49 pm
p.s Australia is one of the safest countries in the world and has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. This is garbage…
26 joy // Apr 7, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I’d imagine this is more a list of people who could be bothered to report their burglary.
27 Lee // Apr 7, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Here is the data as of 2007: http://www.aic.gov.au/topics/property/stats/uewi.html
28 slade88green // Apr 7, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I hear Australia’s armed robbery rate went up 40% after the took the guns away.
29 Lee // Apr 7, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Who edited my post? As I was saying that data being used is from 2001/2002, old data
30 robobobo // Apr 8, 2009 at 9:47 am
Why was Italy removed from the per capita data, rough calculations place it at around 26. Just saying it’s weird to just delete/not show data.
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