The general level of crime as estimated by the Victims of Crime Survey (VOCS) has been declining during the past five years, but increased in 2016/17 and 2017/18, Stats SA said in a statement on Thursday. 

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke released the annual survey in Pretoria on Thursday morning. 

According to the statement, household crimes increased by 5% - to a total of 1.5 million incidences - while individual crime also increased by 5% - to a total of 1.6 million incidences - affecting 1.4 million individuals aged 16 and above.

"Northern Cape had the highest increase in both household and individual crimes.

"Housebreaking or burglary was the most dominant (54%) crime category among crimes measured by the VOCS. An estimated total of 830 000 incidences of housebreaking occurred in 2017/18, affecting 4.25% of all South African households.

Here are the statistics broken up in numbers:

• 1 545 701 – the estimated number of household crime incidents, up by 5%;
• 7.5% – the estimated percentage of households that experienced crime, up by 0.3%;
• 1 682 624 – the estimated number of individual crime incidents;
• 54% – the dominant household crime: housebreaking or burglary;
• 832 122 – incidents of housebreaking/burglary, up by 7%;
• 31.6% – clothes were the top item stolen from homes, followed by cellphones (23.6%) and food (22.2%);
• 33% – households that reported housebreaking that were satisfied with the police's response;
• 3.7% –individuals aged 16 and above who experienced crime, up by 0.2%;
• 79% – personal crimes that involved theft, robbery and assault;
• 69% of items lost through theft were cellphones, followed by wallets (45%);
• 65.4% of victims were robbed in the streets of a residential area; 
• 25.8% of victims were injured during a robbery;
• 355 739 – the number of assaults, up by 12%. Men are more likely to be victims than women. Women are more likely to report assault. Most assaults occur at home; 
• 32% of those surveyed felt safe to walk in their neighbourhoods at night, down by 3%; and
• 54.2% of people are satisfied with the police, and 41.1% are satisfied with the courts. 

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