Almost half of burgled homes were occupied

Nearly half of burglaries occur while the victim is in the home, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office.

Collected for the first time since 2010, the Crime and Victimisation National Household Survey found that 8% of households experienced crime in the 12 months up to September 2015, the lowest level since the survey began in 1998, when it was 12%.

The percentage of households experiencing vandalism in 2015 was 2% compared with 3% in 2010 and 5% in 2006, and the number of households experiencing a burglary was unchanged at 3%.