From January to March, just over 15,500 criminal offenses were recorded; computer theft and scams and other cybercrimes are the most numerous, while homicides continue to decrease and crimes related to drug trafficking also decrease.

The crime rate in the Balearic Islands stood at 65.8 crimes per thousand inhabitants, according to the Ministry of the Interior’s balance sheet for the first quarter of the year. The indicator is below the average values that were recorded before the years of the pandemic; in 2020 and 2021 crime was reduced to rates of 51 and 52 crimes per thousand inhabitants, due to the effect of confinements and mobility restrictions, while in 2019 this rate rose to 67.6 crimes per thousand inhabitants.

From January to March there were 15,545 criminal offences in the archipelago, and 4 out of 10 cases were cleared up. In addition, for every thousand crimes, 248 people were arrested and investigated, a rate that remains in terms very similar to those of the previous year.

By typology, theft is the most numerous type of crime in the islands, with 3,673 cases in the first three months of 2023, followed by computer scams and other crimes, totaling 2,451 cases from January to March. Cybercrime increases by more than 10% in this period, over crimes typified as conventional crime, which together grow by 6%. The statistics show a further decline in wilful homicides (61% less) and drug trafficking, which decreased by almost 7% in the first quarter, compared to the same period in 2022. On the contrary, subtractions on agricultural or livestock farms are increased by 25%. The rest of the criminal typologies record different levels of increase, especially vehicle theft and crimes against sexual freedom. In general terms, the volume of criminal offenses in the archipelago rises by 10%, compared to the first three months of last year.

In the whole of Spain, the crime rate stands at 49.8 crimes per thousand inhabitants. Balears heads, together with Catalonia (62.5) and Madrid (59.8), the communities with the highest incidence. They are followed by the Valencian Community (53) and Navarre (51.1). The archipelago has historically led this indicator, since the rate is calculated on the registered population, without taking into account the existence of a large floating population due to the condition of tourist destination.

By islands, this cumulative rate of the last twelve months is 65.7 criminal acts per thousand inhabitants in Mallorca; 81.3 in Ibiza; 43.2 in Menorca and 56 in Formentera.

In Palma the crime rate is 85.1 cases per thousand inhabitants and, as a whole, the number of infractions increases by 10.5% compared to the first quarter of last year. Among the municipalities of more than 20,000 inhabitants, Marratxí, Llucmajor, Calvià experience decreases in crime compared to the first three months of 2022. In the rest – Alcúdia, Ciutadella, Ibiza, Inca, Maó, Manacor, Sant Antoni de Portmany, Sant Josep de sa Talaia and Santa Eulària des Riu – this rate increases.

The data published by the Ministry of the Interior can be consulted in the Statistical Portal of Criminality, in the following link: Quarterly Crime Balance (mir.es)