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Crime · Norway · Updated 2026-10-26

Is youth crime rising in Norway?

Statistics Norway's records show the number of 15-17-year-olds charged with an offence per 1,000 of that age fell by 6.6% between 2014 and 2024, while in the Ungdata school survey the share of boys in upper secondary school who said they had taken goods from a shop without paying in the past year rose by 100% between 2014-2016 and 2023-2025, from 8% to 16%.

Every figure in this summary is calculated from the sources listed on this page.

People aged 15-17 charged, per 1,000 of that age, 10-year direction

Change in the number of people aged 15-17 charged with any offence, per 1,000 residents aged 15-17. Norway, 2014 to 2024. Unit: % change.

Falling −6.6%% change, 2024

63Trust scoreModerate certainty

Only one source – not confirmed by others. Agreement can't be measured, so the score can't reach High.

Score breakdown

Quality32 / 40

How well the sources are made

Agreement15 / 30

Unknown with one source, so set to half

Independence6 / 20

How many separate ways the number was measured

Freshness10 / 10

How recent the newest data is

How much each source counts

  • SSB charged100%

Sources

SourceValueDefinitionQualityWeight
Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated)Statistics Norway (SSB) · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26Falling −6.6%2024
People aged 15-17 charged with any offence (siktede, all groups of offences, both sexes), per 1,000 residents aged 15-17, as calculated by SSB: 22.52 in 2014 (4,352 people) and 21.03 in 2024 (4,324 people).

SSB counts a person once a year, when a final police or prosecution decision names them as the offender, so only solved offences are included. StatBank table 09415.

In the same table, people aged 15 or older charged per 1,000 went from 18.68 in 2014 to 11.85 in 2024. Boys were 77.3% of the 15-17-year-olds charged in 2024; for boys alone the rate went from 33.66 to 31.43 per 1,000. SSB says figures for children aged 5-14 cannot be compared with other age groups, so they are not used here.

4 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Definitions and method are published under About the statistics for Offences investigated.
  • Yes: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Official statistics from Statistics Norway.
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Full count of people with a final decision in the police criminal case register (Strasak); it covers only offences that were reported and solved.
  • Yes: Raw data downloadable. Table 09415 is downloadable from StatBank and the SSB API.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. The Penal Code of 2005 took effect on 1 October 2015 and replaced the offence codes; SSB says the size of the break varies by offence type and advises aggregated figures, such as this all-offence total.
100%
People aged 15-17 charged, per 1,000 of that age, 10-year direction, by source · persons charged per 1,000 aged 15-17
0102030201420162018202020222024Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2014: 22.52Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2015: 20.67Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2016: 20.86Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2017: 22.79Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2018: 23.79Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2019: 23.89Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2020: 22.94Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2021: 22.81Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2022: 20.32Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2023: 21.15Persons charged (statistics on offences investigated), 2024: 21.03
Show the data as a table
YearPersons charged (statistics on offences investigated)
201422.52
201520.67
201620.86
201722.79
201823.79
201923.89
202022.94
202122.81
202220.32
202321.15
202421.03

Upper secondary boys who say they shoplifted in the past year (Ungdata), 10-year direction

Change in the share of boys in upper secondary school who say they took goods from a shop without paying in the last 12 months. Norway, boys in upper secondary school (Vg1-Vg3), 2014-2016 to 2023-2025 (three-year survey periods). Unit: % change.

Rising +100%% change, 2025

47Trust scoreLow certainty

Only one source – not confirmed by others. Agreement can't be measured, so the score can't reach High.

Score breakdown

Quality16 / 40

How well the sources are made

Agreement15 / 30

Unknown with one source, so set to half

Independence6 / 20

How many separate ways the number was measured

Freshness10 / 10

How recent the newest data is

How much each source counts

  • Ungdata100%

Sources

SourceValueDefinitionQualityWeight
Ungdata, national resultsNOVA, OsloMet, with the regional KORUS centres · Victim surveyRetrieved 2026-10-26Rising +100%2025
A self-report survey of offending, not a victim survey: pupils answer at school whether they have taken goods from a shop without paying in the last 12 months.

NOVA publishes no share for all pupils, only for boys and girls in lower and upper secondary school. This line uses one of those published groups, boys in upper secondary school (Vg1-Vg3), the school level closest to the SSB age group: 8% in 2014-2016 and 16% in 2023-2025 (three-year survey periods). Ungdata 2025, NOVA Rapport 4/2025, page 49.

Shoplifting is one offence, and the line covers one published group. For the same group, the share who deliberately damaged things (vandalism) went from 9% to 11% between 2014-2016 and 2023-2025 (+22.2%), and the share who had been in a fight went from 23% to 22% between 2017-2019, when that question starts, and 2023-2025 (-4.3%). Chart points are dated by the last year of each three-year period.

2 of 5 checks
  • Yes: Method and definitions published. Method, questions and indicator definitions are published in the national report and on ungdata.no.
  • No: Official statistics or peer-reviewed. Research report from NOVA (OsloMet), funded by the Directorate of Health; not official statistics.
  • Yes: Full count or representative sample. Pupils in almost every municipality over each three-year period answer in class (77% response in 2023-2025); NOVA describes the data as nationally representative. Apprentices and young people not in school are not covered.
  • No: Raw data downloadable. Only aggregated shares are published; individual-level files are released by Sikt or NOVA on application.
  • No: No known break or quality problem. The pandemic broke the three-year cycle (2021 is reported as a single year), the questionnaire was revised in 2024, and upper secondary data are nationally representative only from 2014-2016.
100%
Upper secondary boys who say they shoplifted in the past year (Ungdata), 10-year direction, by source · % of upper secondary boys
0510152020162018202020222025Ungdata, national results, 2016: 8Ungdata, national results, 2017: 10Ungdata, national results, 2018: 12Ungdata, national results, 2019: 14Ungdata, national results, 2020: 13Ungdata, national results, 2021: 12Ungdata, national results, 2024: 16Ungdata, national results, 2025: 16
Show the data as a table
YearUngdata, national results
20168
201710
201812
201914
202013
202112
202416
202516

Why the numbers differ

  • Registered crime depends on what is reported and how the police work. Politidirektoratet says long-term comparisons can be affected by changes in law, police organisation, the public's and public agencies' willingness to report, and recording routines, and names the new Penal Code (2015) and the police reform (2016). (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • SSB counts only solved offences. Politidirektoratet notes that about 30-40% of offences by 15-17-year-olds are not solved and so are left out of SSB's figures, while almost all offences by children under 15 are recorded as solved. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Self-reports have their own limits: Ungdata asks only pupils, so apprentices and young people who have left school are not covered, and answers depend on what pupils choose to tell in a school survey. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • The groups differ: the SSB line covers 15-17-year-olds of both sexes, the Ungdata line covers boys in upper secondary school (Vg1-Vg3), and Politidirektoratet's own youth figures cover everyone under 18. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • Ungdata publishes shoplifting shares only by sex and school level, and the other groups moved by different amounts between 2014-2016 and 2023-2025: lower secondary boys 10% to 12%; lower secondary girls 5% to 8%; upper secondary girls 5% to 9%. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
  • The SSB line counts people charged with any offence, while the Ungdata line covers a single offence, shoplifting, so the two can move in different directions.

Common mistakes

  • Comparing police counts for all under-18s with SSB figures for 15-17-year-olds. Children under 15 are below the age of criminal responsibility, and almost every reported case against them is recorded as solved, so counts that include them grow or shrink for different reasons. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)