Three complete years of figures show progress against murder and aggravated robbery, but the improvement does not extend to every crime category.

South Africa’s crime statistics tell more than one story. Looking at complete financial years provides a stronger basis for judging the trend than relying on a single quarter.

Recorded murders and aggravated robberies have fallen across two successive annual comparisons. However, the remaining levels are severe, and recent increases in attempted murder and assault complicate the picture.

South Africa crime statistics over three complete years

The following series comes from James Myburgh’s June 2026 analysis of SAPS releases. Each financial year runs from April to March.

Financial year Recorded murders Robbery with aggravating circumstances
2023/24 27,419 150,187
2024/25 25,423 137,306
2025/26 23,096 121,099

On this series, murders declined by approximately 15.8% between 2023/24 and 2025/26. Aggravated robberies fell by about 19.4%. These calculations compare complete years.

Source and methodology: Myburgh’s analysis of SAPS releases. This table preserves the series used in that analysis. Other SAPS publications contain different annual totals, so figures from different releases should not be substituted without reconciling them. Counts measure recorded offences, rather than all crime experienced.

Falling murders still leave a severe burden

The 2025/26 murder total works out to roughly 63 killings a day.

Using that count and Stats SA’s mid-2025 population estimate of 63,100,945 gives an indicative annual murder rate of 36.6 per 100,000 people. This is our calculation using a mid-year population denominator, rather than a separately published SAPS rate.

A falling total deserves recognition without being mistaken for a low level of violence. South Africa can improve relative to previous years while many communities continue to face serious danger.

Robbery and kidnapping tell different stories

Myburgh’s compilation reports 17,464 carjackings, 20,420 residential robberies and 11,656 business robberies in 2025/26. Kidnapping moved in the opposite direction, increasing from 18,151 to 18,491 year on year.

This is why an assessment of South Africa crime statistics needs to identify the offences being measured. A decline in robbery cannot establish that every threat facing households or businesses has diminished.

What the latest quarter adds

The latest national quarterly release reviewed for this article covers April–June 2026, with the figures published on 28 August 2026.

Compared with the same three months in 2025, murder fell 5.9%, carjacking declined 18.2%, residential robbery fell 17.6%, and business robbery declined 11.8%, according to SAnews reporting on the SAPS release.

However, attempted murder increased 8.7%. Assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm rose 2.5%, while common assault increased 2%, according to Business Day’s detailed account. The quarterly update therefore does not support a claim that all violence is falling.

Why police statistics cannot tell the whole story

Stats SA’s 2025/26 household survey estimated that housebreaking affected 1.08 million households. Only 48.2% of affected households reported some or all incidents to police. For theft of personal property, the reporting proportion among affected individuals was 37.3%.

Underreporting limits what police totals can tell us. It does not automatically establish that recorded declines are caused by fewer people reporting crime. The annual household survey and quarterly police release also cover different periods.

Location matters too. The police ministry’s August briefing said violent crime was concentrated in a relatively small number of precincts and identified 140 high-crime police stations for targeted interventions.

Are South Africans feeling safer?

Stats SA found that 37.9% of people aged 16 and older felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark in 2025/26, compared with 36.1% a year earlier.

That is an improvement, but it still leaves fewer than four in ten feeling safe. The survey also estimated that the number of individuals experiencing assault increased from 363,000 to 408,000.

Is crime in South Africa getting better?

The full-year evidence supports recognising progress against murder and aggravated robbery. A blanket statement that every major crime is getting worse would overlook those gains.

But declaring South Africa broadly safe would go beyond the evidence. Other threats persist, some violence indicators have risen, and improvements remain uneven.

For businesses and households, national statistics provide context. Local incidents and conditions around homes and workplaces remain essential to understanding actual exposure.

Has crime improved or worsened where you live or work? Tell us your town or area and what has changed.

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