What are Madrid's crime rates in 2024 and 2025 by category?

1. Big-picture totals: Madrid’s headline crime change in 2024

Madrid’s official picture for 2024 is one of modest improvement: the city registered 237,573 penal infractions in 2024 — roughly 10,000 fewer than in 2023, a 3.3% fall according to El País summarising Ministry of Interior statistics ^[1]. Independent summaries of the same ministry dataset report a slightly different percentage decline — Euro Weekly News says Madrid’s reported crimes fell 2.2% and Europa Press coverage (quoted by Tenerife Weekly) describes a 2.9% drop for the Community of Madrid — reflecting different aggregations (city vs. community and inclusion of cyber offences) ^{[2] [3]}.

2. Violent crime: sharp falls in homicide and attempted homicide

The ministry data emphasised large percentage drops in the most serious categories: completed homicides dropped from 20 to 12 (−40%), and attempted homicides fell from 118 to 83 (−29.7%) between 2023 and 2024 — figures highlighted in El País’ reportage of the ministry’s Balance de Criminalidad ^[1]. These are discrete counts that drive much of the positive framing by officials that “Madrid is not a good place to commit crime” ^[1].

3. Property and public‑order offences: general declines with nuances

Robberies with violence and intimidation and robberies with force (in homes, shops and other facilities) both fell in 2024 (robos con violencia −5.9%; robos con fuerza −6.4% per El País’ summary), and cybercrime reports decreased by about 8.7% year‑on‑year ^[1]. Yet different media summaries show small differences in overall percentages because some reports aggregate the autonomous community rather than the municipality and some include or exclude cyber categories ^{[2] [3]}.

4. Rising categories: sexual offences and lingering local concerns

Not all trends moved downward: crimes against sexual freedom rose from 2,827 to 2,985 (+5.6%) in 2024, a point El País highlighted as a worrying uptick within the broader decline ^[1]. Local police tallies and press pieces also flagged increased arrests for certain misdemeanours and public‑order incidents in early and mid‑2024 — for example, municipal police reported 4,743 arrests in the first half of 2024, up 539 from the same period in 2023, and local outlets described spikes in road-safety related arrests and isolated shootings ^[4].

5. Conflicting sources and methodology caveats

Different outlets cite slightly different totals and percentage changes because they rely on different geographies (City of Madrid vs. Community of Madrid), different timeframes, or different crime groupings (conventional vs. conventional+cyber). Euro Weekly News reported 178,131 crimes in one comparison and a 2.2% fall for Madrid in 2024 ^[2]; Tenerife Weekly/Europa Press cited a 2.9% Community‑level decline and gave Spain’s national total as 2,456,413 registered offences for 2024 ^[3]. Readers must note these methodological choices when comparing numbers ^{[2] [3]}.

6. What about 2025 so far — available reporting and limits

Available sources in this set provide detailed 2024 finalised ministry figures and media summaries; they do not publish a full, comparable 2025 category breakdown. Reporting in early‑to‑mid 2025 reiterates 2024 declines but does not supply a complete 2025-by-category official table in these excerpts, so “2025 by category” is not found in current reporting among the provided sources ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

7. Alternative data and noisy third-party indexes — treat with caution

User‑submitted or commercial indices (e.g., Numbeo, CrimeGrade and other city rating sites) are present in the search results but carry explicit reliability caveats and local skepticism — Numbeo pages for Madrid include a comment thread claiming manipulation and warning against taking that city score seriously ^[5]. CrimeGrade entries shown apply to U.S. towns named Madrid (CO, NE) and are irrelevant to Madrid, Spain; these highlight the risk of mixing sources ^{[6] [7]}. Official Ministry and national press summaries remain the most robust available here ^{[1] [3]}.

8. Bottom line and how to get the exact 2025 breakdown

The authoritative dataset is the Ministerio del Interior’s Estadísticas de Criminalidad portal; El País and other outlets have already extracted the 2024 category counts (237,573 total; homicides 12; attempted homicides 83; sexual offences 2,985, etc.) ^{[1] [8]}. For a full 2025-by-category table, consult the ministry’s public portal directly ^[8] — provided sources here do not contain a completed 2025 category breakdown ^[8].