Is Georgia safe? What the crime data shows

Homicide rate

The World Bank publishes the intentional homicide rate as indicator VC.IHR.PSRC.P5. Its source is UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The dataset was last updated on 8 October 2026.

Source: World Bank, intentional homicides (per 100,000 people).

The rate fell in each of the three years shown. It does not tell us what happened after 2019. There is no figure for 2020 or any year since.

How to read a rate per 100,000

A rate of 2.03 per 100,000 means about 2 recorded intentional homicides for every 100,000 people in Georgia in 2019. Put another way, that is roughly one for every 49,000 people in that year. From 2017 to 2019 the rate fell from 2.40 to 2.03, a drop of about 15%. These two calculations are ours, from the World Bank figures above.

A rate lets you compare years even if the population changes. It does not show where in the country the deaths happened, who was involved, or whether the victims were residents, visitors or people known to the offender.

Recorded crime in 2025

Georgia Today, a Georgian English-language news site, reported Geostat figures for January to September 2025. Geostat is Georgia's national statistics office.

Property crime was the largest single group in that period, about a third of the total. We read these figures in the news report, not in the Geostat release itself.

What these numbers cannot tell you

Read both sources with their limits in mind.

• The homicide figure is seven years old at the time of writing. It is the latest the World Bank series holds.
• A homicide rate says little about theft, fraud or road safety.
• Recorded crime counts what the police record. It depends on how often people report crimes and how the police log them. A change in the count can reflect a change in reporting, not only in crime.
• The 2025 figures are counts, not rates. Without the population figure for the same period, they cannot be compared directly with other countries.
• National figures hide differences between cities and between districts.

For these reasons, this page does not rank Georgia against other countries. Our research does not include comparable figures for other countries, and we would rather give you the Georgian numbers with their dates than a ranking we cannot check.

Using the data when you decide

If safety weighs heavily in your decision, the national data is a starting point only. Spend time in the area where you plan to live before you sign a long lease. Ask people who live there about the streets you will use at night. Check your own government's travel advice for Georgia as well.

Your legal status matters too. Under the Aliens Law (Article 21), any criminal offence is a ground to end a residence permit, and an appeal against termination does not stop expulsion. Keep your status in order. See Georgian residency for the permit types and the visa-free stay rules for short stays.

Where newer figures will appear

We check this page every six months. When the World Bank adds a homicide value for 2020 or later, or when we can read Geostat's own crime release, we will update the tables and the date at the top. If you find a newer official figure before then, the World Bank indicator page and the Geostat website are the places to look.

For banking, costs and healthcare, go back to living in Georgia.