Laurence Dollimore
THE ‘upmarket’ resort of Marbella has the highest number of criminal offences per person in Andalucia, new figures show.
The crime report for the last quarter of 2024 has been released by Spain’s Ministry of the Interior (the equivalent of the UK’s Home Office), giving a full picture of the year as a whole.
The data includes the latest records from the Policia Nacional, Guardia Civil, and both regional and local police, which are uploaded to the Statistical Crime System, according to Andalucia Informacion.
Throughout 2024, there were a total of 409,698 crimes committed in Andalucia, representing an overall reduction of 0.8% on the year before – however there are big discrepancies between cities.
As expected, the two largest cities in the region, Sevilla and Malaga, recorded the most crimes, with totals of 51,147 and 37,519 respectively.
However, while Sevilla saw crime rates drop by 4.9% year-on-year, Malaga city saw an 8.5% increase.
Meanwhile, only a handful of other cities exceeded 10,000 criminal offences; Cordoba (16,469), Marbella (13,803), Granada (13,480) and Jerez (11,211).
When the figures take into account population size, Marbella shoots to the top of list, with a crime rate of one offence per 0.087 inhabitant.
Other towns above the 0.07 mark include Almonte (Huelva), Sevilla capital and Torremolinos and Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.
Marbella also had the highest rate of conventional crime, standing at one per 0.076 inhabitant.
It also topped the list for kidnappings alongside Sevilla, counting four a piece.
Regarding ‘crimes causing injury’, the largest number of offences were recorded in Malaga (367), Sevilla (355), Cordoba (147), Marbella (135) and Almeria (133).
Again, owing to their size, Sevilla and Malaga had the highest number of murders, counting seven and six respectively, as well as the highest number of homicides and attempted murders, with 32 and 28 respectively.
Sex crimes were also included in the data, with Sevilla (315) and Malaga (311), again topping the charts, followed by Cordoba (135), Granada (97) and Marbella (95).
The cities with biggest crime rate increases were Tomares (35.3%), Moron (23.5%), Almuñecar (19.2%), San Juan de Aznalfarache (18.5%) and Ronda (17.5%).
