Every summer, before the holidays, the news and police forces rush to broadcast a reminder: July and August are favorite months for the home burglars. Families leave their homes for long periods, longer today thanks to teleworking, paving the way for organized criminals to access the homes and take the most valuable objects.
The alarm is always very well received by the media, always ready to draw an audience. Although the figures of the phenomenon are not always significant or vary enormously depending on the region or type of domicile. Be that as it may, theft of a house is one of the main concerns of any citizen, and also a good predictor of the general security level of any country. If they enter many homes, it should not be very safe.
This work by Budget Direct explores such disparities. Using official statistics for the main countries in the world, its authors drew up various maps through which to compare at a glance the volume of home robberies committed in each state. The results are in a way surprising. Countries to which we could attribute a level citizen security quite high, like Denmark or Sweden, they are at the top of Europe; while others supposedly more dangerous, such as Russia or Ukraine, on the decline.
There is another way of looking at it: there may be more items of value in the homes of rich nations than in those of poor nations. Be that as it may, there is no common pattern. In Luxembourg there are many burglaries at home, but not in Germany or Switzerland; in Estonia or Slovakia the volume of robberies is low, but not so in Bulgaria or Greece. For Europe, the most striking statistic is produced by the British Isles. While England reports about 617 robberies per 100,000 inhabitants, Scotland only registers 8, the lowest figure on the entire continent.
Great disparities also occur in America. The United States is a relatively unsafe country (527), while Mexico is a very safe one (65, but only in this respect). Canada is in the middle (429), above Guatemala but below Grenada. Something similar happens in the south: Peru declares some amazing 2,000 robberies for every 100,000 inhabitants, while Paraguay plunges the figure to 16. Uruguay is one of the countries with the most reported robberies; Argentina, poorest and most insecure in aggregate terms, one with the fewest.
Of course, these types of statistics depend a lot on the level of notification that each country has. Out of sight, out of mind. But they are indicative of the type of problem that each country faces. And in what position is Spain? In a not very prominent at the top. 304 per 100,000 inhabitants, somewhat less than France and Switzerland; something more than Italy or Slovenia.