Murder and manslaughter cases in Belgium 2008-2022

In 2022, roughly 1,400 murders and manslaughters have been recorded by the Belgian police. Although Belgium in general is not considered a dangerous country, the number of murder and manslaughter cases has been on the rise for the last decade, peaking in the most recent time period. By comparison, ten years ago the number of victims was 400 lower, at 1,000. By comparison, the number of murders in neighboring country the Netherlands was around 2,675 in 2020.

 Pickpocketing 

Petty criminality is much more common than violent crime in Belgium. For example, in 2020 under 16.6 thousand cases of pickpocketing were registered. This was a considerable difference in comparison to some other years though. In 2012, nearly over 43 thousand of such cases were registered.  

Vandalism and property violation

Other types of common crimes, such as vandalism and property violation, saw significant declines as well. Whereas in 2008 there had been nearly 125 thousand registered cases of property violation in Belgium, by 2020 this had fallen to roughly 66.5 thousand. In the same period, the number of vandalism cases decreased by nearly half, from approximately 112 thousand cases to under 58 thousand cases.