The national crime statistics published on Tuesday indicated a dramatic drop in crime levels. At the same time, the general public think that Germany is becoming less safe. So where does the truth lie?

Reported crime has dropped drastically

Thanks to a leak of the National Crime Statistics (PKS) back in April we already knew what the headline number from the crime statistics would be: reported crime dropped by 10 percent last year. That was the biggest decrease in overall crime in a quarter century, quite a spectacular turnaround after the statistics showed an increase in crime in recent years.

While overall crime sank to the lowest level since 1992, if you take population growth into account, it is actually the lowest crime rate in 30 years.

If you take the statistics at face value, for every 100,000 German citizens, less than 7,000 crimes were reported last year. By way of comparison, in 2005 some 7,622 crimes were reported for every 100,000 people in Germany.

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