The National Statistical Institute

„Health Care and Justice Statistics“ Department

Diana Savcheva

State expert

2, P. Volov Str.; 1038 Sofia, Bulgaria

[email protected]

+359 2 9857 561

Statistics of Crimes, accused and convicted persons ensures data on:

• committed crimes by results of proceedings, by chapters of Criminal Code (CC) and some kind of crimes;
• crimes with penalties inflicted by chapters of CC, by sex and age of perpetrators, by place of commitment of crimes;
• accused persons by results of proceedings and some kind of crimes;
• persons convicted by sex and age, by chapters of CC, by some kind of crimes, by kind and size of penalties imposed, by place of commitment of crime and by number of committed crimes.

• Classification of territorial units for statistical purposes in Bulgaria (NUTS);
• Unified Classification of Administrative-Territorial and Territorial Units (UCATTU).

Covers the activity of regional and district courts within the territory of the country on penal trials of general, private and administrative nature. Since 1998 is included the information for the activity of military courts and form 2012 to 2022 - of the Specialized criminal court.

According to the Judiciary System Act (amended and supplemented by SG 32 of 26 April 2022), the Specialized Criminal Court is abolished. Criminal cases of first instance before the Specialised Criminal Court, in which a dispositional hearing has been held, become subject to the jurisdiction of the Sofia City Court and their examination continues by the panel of judges which held the hearing. The judges of the Trial Chambers who have not been reassigned to the Sofia City Court shall be seconded to take part in the examination of the cases until the conclusion of the proceedings on them.

Information on the activities of The Supreme Court of Cassation is not included.

The number of crimes, accused and persons convicted includes the information from penal trials with sentence that has come into force during the reference year.

Crimes with penalties inflicted include proceedings that finished with conditional or effective sentence irrespective of the number of perpetrators. A crime committed by more than one person (in complicity) is counted as crime with penalty inflicted when at least one of the accused persons is effective or conditional convicted. In case when all persons have been acquitted, a crime committed in complicity ends with acquittal. A crime is counted as suspended when proceeding against the perpetrator or all perpetrators ends with suspension. Crimes with penalty inflicted by place of commitment are distributed by districts and municipalities in accordance with the administrative-territorial division of the country. Crimes committed abroad which are under the jurisdiction of courts in the Republic of Bulgaria are included in the total number of crimes.

Accused persons include effective and conditionally sentenced persons, as well as acquitted persons, persons released from penalty, and persons against whom the proceedings have been suspended.

Persons convicted are those with effective or conditional sentence has come into force. The age of persons convicted is in completed years by the date of commitment of the crime. Persons who have completed 14 years of age, but not 18 years are considered as juveniles. When a crime is committed by several persons, the crime is counted only once, and each perpetrator - individually depending on the results of proceeding. In case there is convicted person for more than one committed crime in one proceeding, the most severe punishment is counted. If a person is convicted for several crimes, the person is counted as the most serious punishable offence and each crime separately according to the respective type of crime. When in one proceeding, a person is convicted for several crimes committed in different places in the country, the person is counted by the place of commitment for the most severe punishable crime by districts and municipalities in accordance with the administrative-territorial division of the country.

The number of accused and persons convicted does not coincide with the actual number, as during the calendar year, a person may be accused or convicted more than once.

The population estimate as of 31 December 2025 reflects the changes in population numbers and structure recorded in the Census 2021. In this regard, there is a break in the time series for all coefficients since 2022.

The object of the survey is the activity of the regional, district, military courts and the Specialized criminal court on penal trials of general, private and administrative nature.

Units of survey are crimes, accused and persons convicted with sentence that has come into force during the reference year.

Covers all courts within the territory of the country that are include in the coverage of the survey.

The Republic of Bulgaria's territory.

By 2003 - only published data are available.

2004 - 2025 - the data are available on the website www.nsi.bg, in the INFOSTAT Information System and on request.

Not applicable.

Number.

Year.

• Statistics Act;
• Crimianl Code;
• Judiciary System Act;
• Ordinance on The Unified Information System for Counteraction to Criminality (UISCC).

The united Eurostat and UNODC questionnaire on crime trends and the functioning of the criminal justice systems (UN-CTS).

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society;
• Statistics Act;
• Law on Personal Data Protection.

Individual data are not published in accordance with article 25 of the Law on Statistics. The publishing of individual data can be performed only in accordance with article 26 of the same law.

Statistical information publication date is indicated in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the NSI. Data are disseminated once in the year.

The Release Calendar is available on the NSI website: http://www.nsi.bg/en/node/480

Data on Crimes, accused and persons convicted is published on the NSI website, section Justice and crime in accordance with the Statistics Act and the European Statistics Code of Practice respecting the professional independence and aimed at objectivity, transparency and equal treatment of all consumers.

Annually.

Annually as the date is indicated in the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the NSI.

• Е-publication „Crimes and Persons Convicted“;
• “Statistical Yearbook”;
• “Statistical Reference Book”.

Data on Crimes, accused and persons convicted are available to all users of the NSI website under the section Justice and crime as well as in Informational System INFOSTAT.

Anonymised individual data can be provide for scientific and research purposes, and for individual request according to the Rules for the provision of anonymised individual data for scientific and research purposes.

Information service on request, according to the Rules for the dissemination of statistical products and services in NSI.

• Methodological notes;
• Definitions from the united Eurostat and UNODC questionnaire on crime trends and the functioning of the criminal justice systems (UN-CTS).

Not available.

The criteria for the quality of the statistical data are provided. There is a quality management system in the BNSI in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015. Since 2019, an extended scope of the system has been approved, including receiving, data collection, processing, storing, analysing, providing and dissemination of statistical information.

The main source of information is the Unified Information System for Counteraction to Criminality (UISCC). The other source is a statistical questionnaire form of the NSI „Card for accused person”, filled in by the pre-trial and trial proceedings. In recent years, the UISCC has been the source of about 90 - 94 % of primary data for the whole country, which is a significant guarantee of high data quality.

The quality management system certified in accordance with ISO 9001:2015,  application of the uniform methodological documents, rules and procedures at all stages of the study ensure high quality of the data.

The needs are determined by conducting a policy of prevention of criminality in the country and society` need of information on trends in the field of punished criminality.

Not applicable.

Full coverage of the statistical units.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

T+6 months.

Data are disseminated according to the Release Calendar presenting the results of the statistical surveys carried out by the NSI.

Data are comparable.

Information on the activities of military courts has been included since 1998, and from 2012 to 2022 - for the Specialized Criminal Court.

Since 2009, data from an administrative source - UISCC - have also been used.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Data source for on punished crime are:

• The Unified Information System for Counteraction to Criminality (UISCC) which provide about 90 - 94 % of primary data for the whole country;
• Statistical questionnaire „Card for accused person”, filled in by the pre-trial and trial proceedings.

Annually.

Monthly:

• primary processing of data from the administrative source (UISCC), including the events entered at the time of the report on the number of committed crimes, accused and convicted persons;
• control and validation of the data from the administrative source through received statistical questionnaires for the month, filled in by the pre-trial and trial proceedings.

Annually:

• validation of the characteristics of each individual record received from the administrative source;
• implementing missing data from the statistical questionnaires to the processed data from the administrative source;
• summarizing statistical information and preparing annual data on crimes, accused and convicted persons.

Data validation is performed:

• upon receipt of the data from the administrative source, a monthly check and processing of each record for the filled in information in terms of duplication, correctness, coding rules and logical control is performed;
• when processing the statistical questionnaires, a check and validation is performed for the presence of the information from the map in the core of the UISCC. In the absence of information, it is coded and entered;
• before data release - checking the frequencies of separate variables, consistency of table and cross-tabulations.

Data are processed centralized, at national level.

Not applicable.