🇹🇷 Turkey — Crime Statistics

National Overview

Turkey has a population of approximately 85,279,553 residents, making it one of the countries in our database with comprehensive crime statistics. In the latest reporting period (2023), a total of 655,733 crimes were recorded across the country's 26 administrative regions, resulting in an overall national crime rate of 768.9 per 100,000 residents. This figure represents the aggregate of all tracked crime categories across all regions and provides a baseline for understanding the country's crime landscape. This page provides a detailed analysis of crime statistics in Turkey, including a safety assessment, crime category breakdowns, regional comparisons, and methodology notes to help contextualize the data.

Safety Assessment

Compared to the 31 countries currently tracked by Map of Crimes, Turkey has a relatively low overall crime rate. Its reported rate of 768.9 per 100K places it in the bottom third of all countries monitored, well below the cross-country median of 1,346.1 per 100K. While a lower overall rate suggests comparatively fewer reported crimes per capita, it is important to consider that reporting practices, policing intensity, and legal definitions of what constitutes a crime vary significantly between jurisdictions. A lower rate may also reflect lower reporting rather than lower actual crime incidence. Nonetheless, within the scope of our data, Turkey's figures indicate a comparatively low level of recorded criminal activity.

Understanding the Numbers

Crime statistics are shaped by many factors beyond the actual incidence of criminal behavior. Reporting rates vary depending on public trust in law enforcement, the accessibility of reporting mechanisms, and cultural attitudes toward involving authorities. Countries with higher policing coverage and stronger institutional frameworks may paradoxically record higher crime rates simply because more incidents are detected and documented. Conversely, countries or regions with weaker reporting infrastructure may show lower rates that do not reflect the true scope of criminal activity. When interpreting the data for Turkey, it is important to consider these systemic factors alongside the raw numbers presented on this page.

Crime Landscape

The crime data for Turkey covers 4 standardized crime categories. Understanding which categories dominate the overall statistics helps provide context about the types of crime most commonly reported in the country. Here is an overview of the crime landscape based on the latest available data.

The most commonly reported crime category in Turkey is assault, with a rate of 429.1 per 100K (365,905 total reported). This category alone accounts for a significant share of all recorded crimes in the country. This is followed by theft at 319.9 per 100K (272,787 reported), which represents the second most frequently recorded type of crime. The least frequently reported tracked category is homicide, at 2.5 per 100K (2,163 reported). While this category has the lowest rate, it often represents some of the most serious offenses and may be subject to different reporting dynamics.

Regions with Highest Crime Rates

Crime is not evenly distributed across Turkey. Among the country's 26 regions, substantial variation exists. The following areas have the highest overall crime rates, combining all tracked categories:

• Bursa Subregion: 1,181.5 per 100K
• Gaziantep Subregion: 1,110.6 per 100K
• Antalya Subregion: 1,109.8 per 100K
• Aydın Subregion: 1,014.8 per 100K
• Balıkesir Subregion: 927.6 per 100K

Regions with Lowest Crime Rates

At the other end of the spectrum, the following regions in Turkey report the lowest overall crime rates:

• Van Subregion: 393.9 per 100K
• Ankara: 512.3 per 100K
• Mardin Subregion: 517.8 per 100K
• Erzurum Subregion: 531.2 per 100K
• Trabzon Subregion: 542.6 per 100K

The gap between the highest and lowest-rate regions is substantial — Bursa Subregion has a crime rate approximately 3.0× higher than Van Subregion, illustrating significant regional variation within Turkey. This variation may reflect differences in urbanization, population density, economic conditions, and policing practices across regions.

Detailed Category Breakdown

The following summarizes the crime breakdown by category for Turkey in the latest reporting period (2023). Each category is listed with its count and rate per 100,000 residents:

• Assault: 365,905 reported (incidents), at a rate of 429.1 per 100,000 residents.
• Theft: 272,787 reported (incidents), at a rate of 319.9 per 100,000 residents.
• Robbery: 14,878 reported (incidents), at a rate of 17.4 per 100,000 residents.
• Homicide: 2,163 reported (incidents), at a rate of 2.5 per 100,000 residents.

Data Sources & Methodology

Crime statistics for Turkey are sourced from Eurostat crim_gen_reg + crim_off_cat + demo_r_pjangrp3 (Turkey). This is an official government data source that publishes crime data at the sub-national level. The primary counting unit for this dataset is incidents. The data covers the period ending 2023. The counting unit is important context: countries that count victims may show different figures than those counting incidents or investigations for the same underlying events. Cross-country comparisons should be made with caution, as different countries use fundamentally different counting methods — some count victims, others count incidents, cases, or police investigations. Legal definitions of crime categories also vary. The numbers on this page reflect only crimes reported to and recorded by authorities; the actual incidence of crime may be higher due to underreporting, which varies by crime type and jurisdiction.

Population figures are based on 2023 data from official statistical sources. Crime rates are calculated using the formula: (crime count ÷ population) × 100,000. Rates provide a more meaningful basis for comparison than raw counts, as they normalize for differences in population size. However, rates can be volatile for areas with very small populations, where a few additional crimes can cause large percentage changes.