National Crime Overview
South Africa crime statistics — 2023/24 annual year, with 2024/25 quarterly updates. Anchored to official SAPS published figures.
Station Lookup
Search any of South Africa's 1,163 police stations by name or province. View crime totals, 5-year trend, and your Community Safety Score.
Provincial Overview
All 9 provinces ranked by crime rate per 100,000 population with year-on-year change indicators.
Crime Categories
Breakdown by the 6 SAPS crime classification categories.
Trend Analysis
Quarterly crime trends 2019/20–2023/24, showing the COVID-19 lockdown impact and recovery. Q3 2024/25 anchor: 411,600 community crimes (−5.0% YoY), murder 6,953 (−9.8% YoY).
Crime Heat Map
Station-level crime intensity across South Africa. Click any marker to drill into station details. Heat intensity reflects total annual crimes reported.
About & Methodology
What is PoliceData ZA?
PoliceData ZA is an open civic technology tool designed to make South African crime statistics accessible to ordinary citizens. SAPS publishes quarterly crime data as PDFs and Excel files — formats that are difficult to navigate without specialist knowledge. This dashboard transforms that data into searchable, visual, and comparable formats for use by journalists, community safety forums, ward councillors, neighbourhood watches, and researchers.
Primary Data Sources Used
- SAPS Q3 2024/25 Quarterly Presentation (October–December 2024) — source for all top-30 station rankings, provincial contributions, and per-category crime counts
- SAPS 2023/24 Annual Crime Report — source for full-year murder total (27,621), annual category breakdowns, and 5-year trend baselines
- SAPS Historical Annual Reports 2016–2023 — sourced via policedata.online for trend modelling
- Stats SA mid-year population estimates (2021 series) — used for all per-100,000 crime rate calculations, per SAPS methodology
Key Verified Figures — 2023/24 Annual (SAPS Official)
- Murder: 27,621 (rate: 44.9 per 100,000)
- Attempted Murder: 35,977 (rate: 58.4 per 100,000)
- Rape: 42,569 (rate: 69.1 per 100,000)
- Sexual Assault: 7,418
- Assault GBH: 229,735 (rate: 373.0 per 100,000)
- Common Assault: 184,003 (rate: 298.9 per 100,000)
- Robbery with Aggravating Circumstances: 147,245
- Carjacking: 22,735 (63 per day — 78% increase over past decade)
- Truck Hijacking: 1,976 (54.5% increase over past decade)
- Kidnapping: 17,061 (264% increase over past decade; 51% in Gauteng)
- Common Robbery: 47,057
- Malicious Damage to Property: ~120,400
- Residential Burglary: ~152,006 (10-year downward trend)
- Non-Residential Burglary: ~61,800
- Vehicle Theft: ~38,020
- Theft from Vehicle: ~88,300
- Commercial Crime: ~117,200 (rising rapidly)
- Drug-Related Crime: ~163,000
- Murder 2024/25 annual: 24,692 (−10.6% vs 2023/24)
Key Verified Figures — 2024/25 Q3 (Oct–Dec 2024, SAPS Quarterly)
- 17-community-reported serious crimes: 411,600 (−5.0% YoY)
- Murder: 6,953 (−9.8% YoY)
- Attempted Murder: 7,666 (−3.3% YoY)
- Assault GBH: 54,337 (+1.5% YoY)
- Common Assault: 56,486 (+6.6% YoY)
- Robbery (aggravating): 35,030 (−13.1% YoY)
- Carjacking: 4,807 (−19.5% YoY)
- Residential Burglary: 35,754 (−12.3% YoY)
- Non-Residential Burglary: 12,412 (−19.0% YoY)
- Vehicle Theft: 7,791 (−18.3% YoY)
- Commercial Crime: 36,446 (+8.9% YoY)
- Drug-Related Crime: 49,015 (+13.3% YoY)
- Provincial contributions: GP 26.5%, WC 18.3%, KZN 16.9%, EC 10.2%
- Top station overall: Cape Town Central (3,207) · Durban Central (2,185) · Mitchells Plain (1,948)
- Top contact crime station: Mfuleni (1,151) · Tembisa (1,096) · Delft (1,055) · Inanda (1,052)
Community Safety Score Methodology
The Community Safety Score (0–100) is a composite indicator generated per station using three weighted components:
| Component | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Crime Volume Score | 50% | Station's total crimes relative to national average for all 1,163 stations |
| Trend Direction Score | 30% | 5-year directional trajectory — improving scores earn higher points |
| Crime Mix Score | 20% | Proportion of serious contact crimes (murder, robbery, assault) relative to total |
A score of 75–100 indicates a relatively safe station profile (Green). 40–74 indicates moderate concern (Amber). 0–39 indicates elevated risk relative to national peers (Red).
SAPS Crime Classification Note
SAPS tracks 21 priority crimes grouped into: 17 community-reported serious crimes (contact, contact-related, property-related, other serious) and 4 crimes detected as a result of police action (drugs, DUI, illegal firearms, police-detected sexual offences). Commercial crime is a sub-category within Other Serious Crimes. This dashboard presents both groupings.
Limitations
- Reported crime ≠ actual crime — dark figures (unreported crime) are substantial in South Africa
- Station boundaries and names change over time, making multi-year comparisons imperfect
- Some station-level annual totals are extrapolated from quarterly data, not sourced from station-level Excel files
- Commercial crime data may underrepresent corporate fraud due to reporting patterns
- Population estimates use Stats SA 2021 series mid-year data, per SAPS official methodology
Data Integration Roadmap
Future versions of this tool will integrate directly with SAPS published station-level Excel files (released alongside quarterly PDF presentations) and the DataFirst UCT cleaned historical SAPS dataset for robust multi-year station comparisons. If you are a SAPS data officer, journalist, or researcher interested in collaboration, please get in touch via businesshustle.co.za.
Key Source URLs
- SAPS Crime Stats Portal: saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php
- Stats SA Governance Survey: statssa.gov.za/?cat=26
- DataFirst (UCT cleaned data): datafirst.uct.ac.za
- PoliceData Online aggregator: policedata.online
Built By
This tool is built by Business Hustle as part of its civic technology portfolio. Cape Town, South Africa.