Which European countries had the biggest year-on-year change in reported rapes since 2023 and by how much?
Executive summary
Eurostat reports that police-recorded rape offences in the European Union rose 7% in 2023 compared with 2022, part of a 5.5% rise in sexual violence overall, but the sources supplied do not include a country-by-country ranking of year‑on‑year changes that would allow identifying which individual European countries had the largest increases or decreases since 2023 [1] [2]. Available reporting provides snapshots—national totals, rates for some UK jurisdictions and historical trends for a few countries—but not the comprehensive per‑country year‑on‑year change data the question requires, so any claim about “which countries had the biggest change” would exceed what these sources substantiate [3] [4] [5].
1. EU‑wide headline: a 7% rise in recorded rape in 2023
Eurostat’s compilation of police‑recorded offences states that in 2023 Europe registered 243,715 sexual‑violence offences, including 91,370 rape offences, and that rape offences increased by 7% compared with 2022—a clear aggregate signal of rising recorded rape cases across the reporting area, though aggregated figures obscure national variability [1] [2].
2. What the supplied data can show: selected national snapshots, not comparative year‑on‑year deltas
The provided sources give specific national snapshots—World Population Review cites 2023 rates for Northern Ireland (1,210 reports; 63.008 per 100,000) and Scotland (2,395 reports; 43.624 per 100,000) but does not offer the preceding‑year totals needed to compute year‑on‑year change [3]; Statista/EUROSTAT figures highlight absolute counts in earlier years (for example France reported the highest number among selected countries in 2021) without 2022→2023 deltas in the supplied snippets [4]; and other pieces sketch long‑term trends (England and Wales rose dramatically since 2000) but do not deliver a validated 2022→2023 country ranking [5].
3. Why a country‑by‑country year‑on‑year comparison is fraught and absent here
Experts and fact checks emphasize that international comparisons of rape statistics are inherently difficult because legal definitions, recording practices, and reporting behaviour differ between countries; DW’s fact check warns against using raw cross‑country rape rates without contextual metadata and notes revisions and definitional changes that alter apparent trends [6]. Eurostat itself cautions that police‑recorded crime figures vary due to different laws and recording practices, which complicates direct national comparisons even when numbers are available [1] [2].
4. What can responsibly be concluded from the supplied reporting
From the material provided, the only defensible, directly supported statements are that the EU aggregate saw a 7% increase in rape offences in 2023 versus 2022 and that there are high‑level national data points and longer historical trends in specific countries (e.g., England & Wales’ large long‑term rise and France’s high absolute counts in 2021), but the sources do not supply a validated list of which individual European countries experienced the largest year‑on‑year increases or decreases since 2023, so the exact answer requested cannot be produced from these sources alone [1] [4] [5].
5. Paths to the precise answer and caveats readers should expect
To answer “which countries had the biggest year‑on‑year change since 2023” requires country‑level police‑recorded rape counts for 2022 and 2023 (or rates standardized per 100,000) plus metadata on legal definitions and recording changes; those data exist in Eurostat’s detailed databases but were not included in the supplied excerpts, and any final ranking must be accompanied by caveats about definitional shifts and reporting behavior identified by DW and Eurostat [1] [6] [2]. Until those country‑level deltas and their metadata are analyzed, the only justified numerical finding from the supplied reporting is the EU‑wide 7% rise in recorded rapes in 2023 [1].