Around 16 serious offences were committed in Cyprus every day on average throughout last year, according to Cystat, the government’s statistical service, which stated that 5,942 serious offences were reported to the police throughout 2024, of which 5,900 were recorded as “actual cases”.

That figure is an increase on the number of serious offences recorded in 2023, when 5,653 such offences were recorded, with that figure, too, having been a slight increase on the 5,630 recorded in 2022.

Of those crimes, 31.8 per cent were committed against property, while 26.8 per cent were committed against an individual, and a further 17.7 per cent “harmed the public in general”.

Exactly 4.6 per cent of serious offences concerned forgery and counterfeiting, while 4.3 per cent involved malicious damage to property, and 2.3 per cent were committed “against public order”.

The 5,900 “actual” serious offences had between them a total of 6,651 victims, of which 5,128 were people and 1,523 were legal entities, with Cystat saying that 53.4 per cent of legal entities recorded as victims of serious offences having been victims of offences which “harmed the public in general”.

Additionally, a total of 7,470 offenders were recorded, of which 7,433 were natural persons.

Of those 7,433 natural persons, 820 were women – a fact which Cystat says “demonstrates that the participation of women in serious crime remains comparatively low”.

Cystat also reported that 774 minors were involved in the commission of offences throughout last year, of whom 34 were girls.

Exactly 307 of those 774 were involved in serious offences.