80% of Swiss Theft Convictions in 2025 Went to Foreign Nationals, Federal Data Show
October 9, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Switzerland's Federal Statistical Office recorded 7,956 theft convictions in 2025. More than four in five of those convicted held a foreign passport, with Algerian and Romanian nationals appearing most frequently.
More than 80 percent of people convicted of theft in Switzerland in 2025 held a foreign passport, according to federal criminal-judgment statistics published on October 8 by the Federal Statistical Office.
The office recorded 7,956 theft convictions in total. About 1,500 went to Swiss citizens. The remaining four in five held foreign passports. Algerian and Romanian nationals appeared most frequently. About two-thirds of all foreign nationals convicted were not part of Switzerland's permanent resident population.
The theft category is broad. It covers bicycle theft, pickpocketing, shoplifting, vehicle theft, and attacks on cash machines. Nationality has only been broken down by specific offence type since 2024. Across all 111,962 adult convictions recorded in 2025, Swiss nationals remained the single largest group at 12,819. Algerian nationals followed at 1,962. Of the 38,406 convictions handed down under the Criminal Code, approximately 48 percent involved property offences.
The Aargauer Zeitung reported that when the Federal Statistical Office calculates conviction rates against each nationality's share of the permanent population, the highest rates fall on nationals from Congo, Angola, Somalia, and Algeria. French and Italian nationals feature heavily in serious traffic offences.
Dirk Baier, a criminologist at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), told Swiss public broadcaster SRF that the theft figures divide into two groups. The first is asylum seekers "in a situation in which they have no prospects and little money." The second is what he called "criminal tourists," who come "because they know things are not well secured and people are not careful." Baier added that theft is routinely underestimated as a crime type, yet property offences account for roughly two-thirds of all crimes recorded in Swiss police statistics.
The State Secretariat for Migration said only a small minority of asylum seekers commit offences. The Federal Council has announced plans to tighten asylum procedures further. The Confederation and the cantons have set up a task force on repeat offenders, with the stated aim of using all legal options to detain them until they leave. In the municipality of Porrentruy in the Swiss Jura, local authorities took their own step: foreign nationals are no longer admitted to the outdoor pool after a series of incidents.
The data are federal.
Published October 9, 2026 · Frisian News