Luxembourg records few intentional homicides, but the way its residents perceive crime varies considerably depending on their surroundings. Eurostat’s tables bring these two realities together: a very low national indicator for the most serious violence, and marked differences between towns and rural areas in residents’ responses.
The first step is to read the right years. The two intentional homicides recorded by the police relate to 2024. The figure of 7.4% of the population reporting crime, violence or vandalism in their neighbourhood relates to 2023. This latter figure therefore does not describe the current situation in November 2026, even though these statistics have returned to the debate following an article published by RTL on 13 November.
Two recorded homicides, not a ranking of all crime
In Eurostat’s database of offences recorded by the police, Luxembourg had two intentional homicides in 2024, or 0.30 per 100,000 inhabitants. The European overview places this rate at the lowest level in the EU that year.
The figure measures a specific category of offences. It sums up neither thefts, nor burglaries, nor violence that does not result in death. Saying that the country has the lowest homicide rate therefore does not mean claiming that it ranks first on every safety measure.
The absolute number also helps put the rate in perspective. With two recorded incidents, a change of just a few cases can have a considerable effect on the annual result. A single year provides a reference point; to discuss a lasting trend, a series needs to be followed using the same definition throughout. The rate per 100,000 inhabitants makes countries comparable in terms of size, without removing the need for caution when numbers are small.
What the 7.4% figure actually means
The other indicator comes from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey, EU-SILC. It concerns the population reporting crime, violence or vandalism in the area where they live. For Luxembourg, the figure was 7.4% in 2023, compared with 16.8% in 2014.
The decrease between these two observations is therefore 9.4 percentage points. It does not mean that the number of offences fell by 9.4%, since the measure is based on residents’ reports, not a police count. Nor does it make it possible to calculate how many people were personally victims of an offence.
The scope of the question matters: it brings together crime, violence and vandalism in the area where people live. It does not ask respondents to provide an account of all offences committed in the Grand Duchy. A favourable national result can therefore coexist with local difficulties reported by residents. These responses tell us about their perceived surroundings; they should neither be turned into imaginary complaints nor dismissed because the homicide rate is low.
A marked difference depending on where people live
The breakdown by degree of urbanisation makes this diversity visible. In Luxembourg in 2023, the proportion reporting these problems was:
- 19.5% in cities;
- 5.7% in towns and suburbs;
- 2.9% in rural areas.
The figures come from Eurostat’s series on degree of urbanisation. The gap between cities and rural areas is 16.6 percentage points. The national average of 7.4% therefore conceals significantly different situations.
These statistical categories are not a league table of municipalities or neighbourhoods. The figure of 19.5% cannot automatically be attributed to Luxembourg City, still less to a particular neighbourhood: it refers to the population classified in the ‘cities’ category in this series. To establish a picture of a specific address, observations at that scale would be needed.
The value of this breakdown lies elsewhere: it avoids treating residents as a group who all experience the same things wherever they live. It shows where responses differ, without explaining the causes of those differences on its own.
Why reports, offences and perceptions are not interchangeable
Eurostat notes that police statistics depend, among other things, on laws, recording practices and people’s propensity to report incidents. Comparing countries therefore requires looking at what is counted, not just at their position in a table.
The survey of residents offers a different perspective. It can be considered alongside police data to better understand safety, but the two sources answer different questions. In the case of Luxembourg, they also relate to different years.
Three reference points are useful for following the subject without confusing trends: the nature of the offence or question asked, the period observed and the territory covered. A new statistic on thefts does not replace a neighbourhood survey; a national survey does not describe every street.
The available data thus paint a picture of Luxembourg where recorded homicides are rare, while perceptions of problems in the local area remain highly varied. It is this difference in scale that deserves attention: the low level of extreme violence and the quality of everyday living conditions are complementary pieces of information, each to be considered in terms of what it measures.
Sources
- Eurostat — offences recorded by the police, series crim_off_cat
- Eurostat — crime, violence or vandalism reported in the neighbourhood, series ilc_mddw03
- Eurostat — breakdown by degree of urbanisation, series ilc_mddw06
- Eurostat — Luxembourg reference value in 2014
- Eurostat — physical safety and quality of life
- Eurostat — crime statistics: methodology and data
- RTL — residents’ perception of crime, 13 November 2026
Illustrative and archive photograph: the Grund and the Chemin de la Corniche in Luxembourg, on 27 April 2018.
Credit: Paul Braun — Wikimedia Commons — CC0 1.0.
