Overall crime in Italy rose by 1.7 percent in 2024, continuing the post-pandemic trend seen for four years - though the rate remained 15 percent below 2014 levels.
Most of the increase involved street crime in big cities. According to the annual crime index from newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, which analyses data from Italy's Department of Public Security, Milan again had the highest crime rate last year.
The northern metropolis registered 6,952 reported crimes for every 100,000 residents, though this was actually down two percent from 2023.
Some 2.38 million crimes were reported across Italy in total. Milan, Rome and Florence alone accounted for nearly a quarter of all reports, with one in five occurring in Milan and Rome.
Florence had 6,500 reports per 100,000 residents, up 7.4 percent from 2023. Rome placed third with 6,400, up 5.9 percent from 2023. The rest of the top ten were Bologna, Rimini, Turin, Prato, Venice, Livorno and Genova.
The 14 metropolitan cities accounted for almost half of all reported crimes in 2024, up from 44 percent between 2009 and 2019.
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Experts noted that, as well as reflecting higher crime rates in urban areas, the higher rate in cities was connected to the fact that their populations swell during the day with tourists, commuters and students.
"In Rome alone, between 30 and 50 million tourists arrive each year," said Francesco Greco, former Milan prosecutor now serving as Rome's security delegate. "During the day, metropolitan cities often double their population with people passing through for tourism, work or study."
At the other end of the scale, the small cities of Benevento, Potenza and Oristano had the lowest crime rates. Benevento recorded just 1,600 offences per 100,000 residents.
Theft and robbery on the rise
Thefts made up 44 percent of all reported crimes nationally, up three percent from 2023. Home burglaries and car thefts increased most sharply, the data showed.
Milan, Rome and Rimini had the highest theft rates, with Milan recording nearly 3,900 per 100,000 residents. Milan also saw the most pickpocketing, with over 900 reports per 100,000 residents.Bologna recorded a spike in public robberies, with 701 reports, up by 34 percent from 2023 and the highest since 2006.
Rome reported 2,008 street robberies, up 22 percent, reaching its highest level since 2014. Florence saw 11,051 thefts last year, up 48 percent year-on-year, while Rome recorded 33,431 thefts, up 4.8 percent.
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Outside the major metropolitan areas, some smaller cities showed distinct patterns. Foggia ranked third nationally for homicides and first for car theft. Livorno placed second for drug trafficking reports and third for assault.
Turin mayor Stefano Lo Russo told Il Sole 24 Ore that some increases would be partially explained by "more widespread checks, from cameras to citizen awareness [which] has likely led to greater emergence of previously undetected crimes and increased reporting."
He added that cities need "more patrols, more personnel and more resources."
Sexual violence reports increased 7.5 percent nationally. Drug offences rose 3.9 percent and assault rose by 5.8 percent. Cyber fraud dropped 6.5 percent and arson fell by 5.3 percent.
Police forces arrested or reported more than 828,000 people in 2024 overall. Among them were over 38,000 minors and 287,000 foreign nationals - both groups showing increases as a proportion of the total compared to previous years.
The figures include both people formally arrested and those reported to judicial authorities for alleged crimes.
Regional differences in reporting
The figures reflected not just crime levels but also regional variations in how likely people were to report crimes, Il Sole 24 Ore's analysis noted.
Northern cities generally showed higher reporting rates, which experts linked to greater trust in institutions and practical factors like insurance requirements.
This was demonstrated in the contrast between the data for Milan, with 6,952 crimes reported per 100,000 inhabitants, with the much lower figures for Naples (4,479) or Palermo (3,936).
Early data from the first half of 2025 showed a 4.9 percent drop in reported crimes compared to the same period in 2024, though these provisional figures may shift once finalised.
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