The State Security Forces learned during 2022 of a total of 11,797 criminal offenses in La Rioja, a figure that places the crime rate at 36.9 known criminal events per thousand inhabitants, according to the Crime Balance for the fourth quarter of 2022, published today on the website of the Ministry of the Interior.
La Rioja therefore maintains a low crime rate and is the sixth safest autonomous community, with 12 points below the national average, which was 49.
This Crime Balance shows the evolution of criminal offenses registered throughout the past year by the National Police and Civil Guard in La Rioja. As a statistical novelty, and to have a better X-ray to deal with this phenomenon, it includes a specific breakdown on cybercrime. This statistical effort provides more complete information in line with the real evolution of criminality in Spain, affected by the growing penetration and use of the Internet for some years now, which has caused a strong transition of criminal reality between conventional or traditional criminality.
Thus, the total number of criminal offenses registered in La Rioja in the period January to December 2022 adds a total of 11,797 crimes, of which 9,332 (79.1 percent of the total) correspond to the category of conventional criminality, which includes all forms of crime not committed in cyberspace and which increase by 22.3 percent over 2019, the reference year being the last one not affected by the restrictions imposed to face the Covid-19 pandemic.
In terms of cybercrime, the autonomous community registers a total of 2,465 criminal offenses accounted for (20.9 percent of the total), an increase of 120 percent over 2019. Therefore, in 2022, compared to 2019, the total crime recorded by the State Security Forces and Corps in La Rioja has grown by 34.8 percent.
Increase in strength
At the end of 2022, the National Police and Civil Guard personnel in La Rioja numbered 1,604, reaching, in this way, the highest number of national police and civil guards in the autonomous community since 2015, which was 1,510.
Likewise, from 2018 to 2022, they have seen their staffing levels grow by 141 more personnel than in December 2017. This strong recovery of police forces corresponds to the reinforcement of 32 national police and 109 civil guards in La Rioja.
Clarified criminal offenses and arrests
With regard to clarified criminal offenses, 2022 ended with a positive variation of 16.6 percent compared to the previous year. In this way, the National Police and Civil Guard clarified 4,722 infractions in La Rioja, up from 4,051 in 2021.
In addition, last year the arrests and investigations by the State Security Forces in La Rioja increased by 13.1 percent, going from 3,135 in 2021 to 3,546 and 2022.
Safety indicators in municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants
The Crime Balance of 2022 includes data on the evolution of the registered criminal offenses of Logroño and Calahorsa, municipalities in Rioja that exceed 20,000 inhabitants.
Thus, the Rioja capital has a crime rate of 35.1 with a total of 5,271 known crimes, 4,350 corresponding to conventional crime and 921 to cybercrime.
This crime rate is higher than that recorded in 2021, where it reached 31.8, and in 2019, it was 31.5.
It is significant that cybercrime increased by 34.3 percent compared to 2019, but decreased by 16.2 percent compared to 2021.
For its part, Calsalvo records a significant increase in its crime rate and rises to 51.1, well above that corresponding to 2019, 17.3, and 2022, 20.9.
Both conventional criminality and cybercrime are increasing considerably in Calahorsa. In total, in 2022, the 1,260 known criminal offenses were reached, much more than the previous years (2019: 650 and 2021: 514).
As for cybercrime, in 2022 218 criminal offenses were committed in/through cybercrime, which is 890.9 percent more than in 2019, which was 22, and 344.9 percent more than in 2021, with 49 criminal offenses committed through cybercrime.