Finland sees assault reports rise by more than 10% — YLE News

In Finland, police received more than 36,000 reports of suspected assaults from January to September 2026. This is more than 10% higher than during the same period in 2025, reports YLE News, citing data from Statistics Finland.

Possible new record

Since the beginning of the year, police have received an average of around 4,000 reports of assaults per month. Kimmo Haapakangas, a senior statistician at Statistics Finland, noted that at this pace, the total number of assaults reported to police could set a new record in the country’s crime statistics by the end of the year.

The previous record was registered in 2025, when police received 44,600 assault reports.

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Increase in all regions

The number of reports of suspected assaults increased in all of Finland’s regional police departments. The most notable trend was observed in Western and Eastern Uusimaa, where the figures doubled compared with 2015 levels.

During the first nine months of 2026, the statistics also recorded 56 cases of suspected homicide — the same number as from January to September 2025. The number of attempted murders changed little: 306 in 2026, compared with 305 a year earlier.