What is the average rape conviction rate across the European Union?

1. Bold claim: “No EU average exists in comparable form” — why statistics don’t add up

The core finding across sources is that an EU-wide average conviction rate for rape cannot be computed from available published statistics in any straightforward, reliable way because definitions, measurement units and reporting completeness vary by country. Eurostat and related EU reporting underline that police-recorded offence counts, prosecution data and conviction figures are gathered under different legal definitions—some countries define rape by lack of consent while others require force or coercion—and many member states do not publish prosecution-to-conviction pipelines in a harmonized format ^{[2] [3]}. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe database can produce country-level conviction counts but requires careful variable selection and harmonisation; researchers must decide whether to compare convictions as a share of reported offences, arrests, prosecutions or charges, each yielding different “rates” ^[2].

2. Spotlight on extremes: Why a single percentage would mislead

Country-level evidence and older comparative research demonstrate very wide variation that would make any simple mean misleading. A 2012 European study found conviction ratios ranging from about 15% in Germany to 71% in Poland, and sexual assault conviction ratios similarly ranged from very low to very high, illustrating large cross‑national dispersion and methodological sensitivity ^[1]. National reporting from England and Wales shows yet another profile: the Crown Prosecution Service reported a 53.4% conviction rate for adult rape cases in 2023/24, with volume increases and year-to-year shifts that reflect prosecutorial practice and victim attrition rather than a continental pattern ^[4]. These examples show that an “EU average” would obscure meaningful differences in law, practice and data quality.

3. Why trends and recent data still don’t give a single answer

Recent Eurostat reporting and Amnesty analysis indicate rising recorded sexual violence in some datasets and persistent low prosecution/conviction yields in others, but both emphasise limitations to comparability. Eurostat noted a 141% increase in recorded rape offences between 2013 and 2023, reporting 91,370 offences in 2023, yet this is police-recorded incidence, not convictions—so rising reporting can depress conviction shares even as justice responses improve ^{[5] [6]}. Amnesty’s review highlights that only a minority of jurisdictions use a consent-based rape definition, and many exhibit static or falling prosecution/conviction rates, underscoring legal and procedural factors that affect headline rates across Europe ^[7].

4. The data sources you’d need — and what they currently offer

Researchers seeking an EU aggregate must combine multiple datasets and harmonise definitions: national court conviction counts, prosecution case volumes, police-recorded offences, and standardized population denominators. The UN/ECE convictions database allows disaggregation by conviction type, sex and country but requires deliberate selection and comparability checks; Eurostat publishes police-recorded offence trends but not harmonized conviction rates; NGO reports document legal frameworks and attrition patterns ^{[2] [6] [7]}. The House of Lords Library and Crown Prosecution Service provide granular national prosecution/conviction statistics for England and Wales, showing how national detail helps interpret trends but cannot be extrapolated to the EU without harmonisation ^[4].

5. Multiple interpretations: what evidence supports which narratives

Two plausible narratives emerge from the same evidence: one emphasises improving justice activity—rising conviction numbers in particular jurisdictions such as the UK where convictions increased in volume—and the other emphasises systemic under-prosecution across many states, documented by Amnesty and historical research that found low conviction ratios and high attrition in numerous jurisdictions ^{[4] [7] [1]}. Both narratives are factual: national systems can show improvement in convictions while the broader EU picture remains patchy, and rising reporting rates can simultaneously reflect both greater victim willingness to report and measurement artifacts that make conviction rates appear lower.

6. Bottom line and practical guidance for users seeking a figure

There is no single, defensible EU-wide rape conviction rate in the sources reviewed; producing one would require choices about definitions, denominators and which countries’ data to include, choices that materially change results ^{[2] [3]}. For robust comparison, analysts must use harmonised datasets, document whether rates are convictions per reported offence, per prosecution, or per population, and highlight legal-definition differences. For country-level context, consult national prosecution/conviction reports (e.g., England & Wales CPS/House of Lords data) alongside UN/ECE and Eurostat datasets and NGO analyses to understand why rates diverge ^{[4] [2] [7]}.