South Korea’s crime rate fell to the lowest level in a decade in 2021, data showed, although offenses in the cyber domain shot up amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asia’s No. 4 economy reported 1,774 cases of criminal violations per 100,000 people in 2021, down 12 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.

The number of murders reached 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2021, down 18 percent on-year. The figures for acts of violence and theft fell 16 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively, to 231 and 322 per 100,000, the data also showed.

In contrast, the figure for rapes came to 63.6 in 2021, up 9.4 percent over the period.

The total number of crimes in the cyber domain came to 217,807 in 2021, down 6.9 percent on-year. The figure, however, marked a 20 percent rise from 2019, before the pandemic began. (Yonhap)