11 percent of suspects are underage, the same as in 2014

© CBS / Nikki van Toorn
In 2024, the Dutch police registered 141 thousand criminal suspects, 11 percent of whom were minors. The percentage of juvenile suspects was the same as in 2014, when a total of 217 thousand people were suspected of committing a criminal offence. The average age of suspects in the previous ten years was 33. This is according to new figures released by Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
The total number of criminal suspects has been falling for years. Since 2014, this has decreased by 43 percent to 74 suspects per 10 thousand inhabitants in 2024. The proportion of suspects who were aged under 18 fell by one-third over ten years, to 129 suspects per 10 thousand underage residents in 2024. Young adults (aged 18 to 22) were relatively the most likely to be suspects in 2024, with 166 suspects for every 10 thousand young adult inhabitants.


Majority of suspects are residents in Amsterdam, but in relative terms, most live in Heerlen

In 2024, the largest number of suspects were residents in Amsterdam (9,280), but relative to the number of inhabitants in a city, most suspects were residents in Heerlen (149 per 10 thousand inhabitants). The cities of Rotterdam (130), The Hague (126) and Vlissingen (120) also had more suspects per 10 thousand residents than Amsterdam (110).


Fewer suspects across all ethnic groups

The number of suspects has declined over the past decade, regardless of where the suspect or the suspect's parents were born. The decline was sharpest among people of Dutch origin, where the number of suspects has halved. They were the least likely of all ethnic groups suspected of committing a criminal offence (51 per 10 thousand inhabitants). Just over 4 in 10 suspects were of Dutch origin.

The decrease in the number of suspects was sharpest among people born abroad - down by 19 percent relative to 2014. The number of suspects fell by 27 percent among those born in the Netherlands, both of whose parents were born abroad. People in this group were the most likely to be registered as criminal suspects.

Age, level of education and income are a factor in the likelihood of being suspected of committing a criminal offence. Ethnic groups with a higher share of suspects are, on average, younger in age, have a lower level of education and are on lower incomes. The differences between ethnic groups are smaller when these factors are taken into account.

1 in 6 suspects is not an official resident of the Netherlands

A total of 17 percent of all suspect registrations involved people who were not registered in the Personal Records Database of a Dutch municipality in 2024. In 2014, that share was 14 percent. The majority of non-Dutch suspects were of Polish (5.1 percent) or Romanian (2.3 percent) origin. 8 in 10 Romanian suspects were not legally resident at an address in the Netherlands.

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