Comparing European Rape Statistics Proves Challenging, DW Reports

In a stark visual making the rounds on social media, the United Kingdom appears to stand alone atop a disturbing ranking: “RAPES IN EUROPE.” The viral bar chart shows the UK’s rate of reported rapes towering dramatically above every other European nation, with a blood-red bar extending far beyond its neighbors.

But this apparently straightforward data visualization masks a complex and nuanced reality, according to a DW Fact Check investigation.

The chart, which has received over a million views on X (formerly Twitter), claims to show the UK reporting 109 rapes per 100,000 people in 2022, far outpacing countries like Spain, Greece, and Germany. British MP Rupert Lowe, leader of the anti-migration group Restore Britain, attributed this apparent crisis to “uncontrolled mass immigration.”

The figures themselves come from World Population Review, which draws data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). But what the viral posts omit is crucial context: World Population Review itself explicitly warns readers about the “apples-to-oranges nature of international rape statistics.”

“It’s taken from a source and used in a way that the source literally says, ‘don’t do this because it’s not accurate,'” explained Tanya Serisier, a criminology lecturer at Birkbeck University of London and author of “Speaking Out: Feminism, Rape and Narrative Politics.”

Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, echoed this concern, telling DW that “focusing solely on the number of crime offenses can be misleading and insufficient.” The UK’s seemingly high rate reflects its reporting practices and legal definitions rather than actual prevalence of sexual assault.

Several key factors render cross-national comparisons of rape statistics deeply problematic. Countries define rape differently—the UK overhauled its sexual offenses law in 2003 to be consent-based, adopting a broader definition than many European counterparts. Nations also vary in how they count incidents; in the UK, a series of assaults between the same perpetrator and victim can be recorded as multiple offenses, while other countries might count this as a single crime.

The UK employs “input statistics,” counting cases when a police report is filed, while other countries might count only after an investigation concludes. Cultural differences—including trust in law enforcement, prevalence of rape myths, and societal attitudes toward sexual violence—further complicate comparisons.

Criminologists point to victim surveys as a more reliable alternative to police statistics. According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales, about 1.9 million adults experienced rape or attempted rape in 2022. Yet the percentage of adults reporting having been raped has remained relatively stable since 2005, fluctuating between 0.4% and 0.7% annually—contradicting the dramatic increase suggested by police reports.

“Crime statistics are only showing us—and people often use the metaphor of an iceberg—the things above the sea level. Those are things that get reported, that get counted by official agencies,” Serisier noted. “But for nearly all crimes, there’s another layer of things that don’t ever come to the attention of authorities.”

University of Lausanne comparative criminologist Marcelo Aebi emphasized that “a Europe-wide survey with standardized questions would be the only way to know which is the real rate of rape.” Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention reached a similar conclusion in 2020, stating that “a well-executed European victims of crime survey is a better source of knowledge.”

The claim connecting immigration to sexual violence rates falls particularly flat under scrutiny. The UK and the Netherlands have nearly identical proportions of foreign-born residents—approximately 16% as of 2022—yet according to the chart, the Dutch rape rate is less than one-sixth of the UK’s.

“The claim that’s often made essentially is, we are letting in more immigrants and particularly more immigrants from certain areas and that’s increasing our rates of sexual assault,” Serisier said. “There is no evidence to suggest that’s the case at all.”

The UK does not publish data on the nationality or ethnicity of perpetrators. However, national data reveals that 85% of victims knew their offender, according to government surveys conducted between 2014 and 2017.

Other factors likely contributed to the rise in reported rapes in the UK. After a Metropolitan Police whistleblower revealed in 2014 that sexual offenses were being under-recorded by roughly 25%, police reformed their crime recording practices. Cultural shifts like the #MeToo movement and high-profile sexual assault cases have also encouraged more victims to come forward.

Lowe, who recently launched Restore Britain after leaving Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, has advocated for abolishing the asylum system and conducting “mass deportations.”

“I want to see the data, because facts come first,” Aebi stated. “In these issues, there is a lot of advocacy, people that from the beginning know what they want to say and how to explain it. Rhetoric is very easy.”

While the UK’s rape statistics may appear alarming at first glance, the reality is far more nuanced. International comparisons remain fundamentally misleading due to differences in legal frameworks, reporting mechanisms, and cultural contexts—and claims connecting immigration to sexual violence rates are unsupported by evidence.