Technical article

Theft and Burglary in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Ireland: What the Police Figures Show

They would like a number for how often things get stolen in each place.

By Neil Solomon · 4 min read

Picture a couple named Frank and Diane. Both are 61. They are looking at a coastal town in Greece and a small city in Ireland. They would like a number for how often things get stolen in each place. They also wonder about noise and neighbors. I looked for official figures on both.

Theft first. Noise and neighbors come at the end, because no official page covers them.

What the police recorded

Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union, collects the offences that national police forces record each year. The latest year on its table is 2024. The figures below are offences per 100,000 inhabitants.

Eurostat defines burglary as "gaining unauthorised access to a part of building/dwelling or other premises, including by use of force, with the intent to steal goods". It defines theft as "depriving a person or organisation of property without force with the intent to keep it."

Some things the table shows. Bulgaria has the lowest recorded numbers of the four. Ireland has the highest. Greece fell between 2022 and 2024. Hungary went up. For Hungary, the table gave no burglary figure.

Why I would not rank countries by these numbers

Eurostat itself warns about this. It says "as countries records information primarily for their own administrative purposes, the data and methods they use may vary." It lists differences in legal definitions, in when an offence is counted, and in counting methods.

A country where people report every stolen phone may look worse than a country where people stop reporting. The figures tell us what police recorded. They do not tell us what happened on a given street. A town of 20,000 can differ a lot from the national number. So can one side of a big city.

What the UK government says to watch for

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office publishes travel advice for each country. It is written for visitors, but it names the everyday risks it sees. The pages carry 2026 update dates in their data.

• Bulgaria: "Watch out for pickpockets and bag thefts in tourist areas, on buses and trains." It also says "Buyers have been defrauded while buying property. Be cautious and get legal advice before you buy."
• Greece: "Thefts of passports, wallets and handbags are common on the metro."
• Hungary: "Bag-snatching and pickpocketing are common, especially in Budapest and other cities." It adds that theft from parked vehicles is common.
• Ireland: "Take precautions to reduce the risk of bag-snatching or pickpocketing." It adds "Most incidents occur in the larger cities."

The pattern is the same in all four. Bag theft in crowded places comes up each time.

What is left open

• A burglary figure for Hungary. The Eurostat table has none, and the national statistics office's table of registered offences lists "larceny" (50,063 in 2025) without a separate burglary line (KSH, read 11 October 2026). The police may publish one on request.
• Noise or neighbors. None of the four UK pages covers it, and no official national page that does is among the sources. Bulgaria's page says police can arrest or fine anyone for "loud and boisterous behaviour" in public places, which is about the street and not the apartment next door.
• Foreign residents on their own. The tables count everyone.
• Local police figures for any town. A national police or statistics office page may have them. Ask the town hall.