New crime figures reveal a striking contrast across the Canary Islands, with Adeje recording the second-highest rate of reported thefts in Spain, while Los Realejos has the lowest rate in the entire country.
Some of the Canary Islands’ busiest tourist destinations have among the highest rates of reported theft per resident in Spain, according to an analysis of official 2025 crime statistics and population data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The figures show that Adeje, in the south of Tenerife, recorded 67.9 reported thefts per 1,000 registered residents, placing it second nationally.
However, the statistics also reveal a very different picture elsewhere in the Archipelago. Los Realejos, in the north of Tenerife, recorded just 2.0 thefts per 1,000 residents, the lowest rate among all 427 Spanish municipalities included in the analysis.
The study, produced by the Estafa.info platform using official crime and population data, highlights the significant impact tourism and large numbers of temporary visitors can have on crime rates calculated against the registered resident population.
Tourist areas dominate the higher rankings
Several of the Canary Islands’ biggest holiday destinations appear towards the top of the national table.
After Adeje in second place, Mogán in Gran Canaria ranked fifth, recording 41.8 thefts per 1,000 residents.
San Bartolomé de Tirajana, home to major resorts including Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas, was seventh nationally with 36.9 cases per 1,000 residents.
Back in Tenerife, neighbouring Arona ranked tenth in Spain, with 36.0 reported thefts per 1,000 registered residents.
Meanwhile, La Oliva in Fuerteventura, which includes the popular resort of Corralejo, was 19th nationally with a rate of 28.8.
All five municipalities were well above the Spanish national average of 12.9 thefts per 1,000 residents.
Why Adeje’s and Mogan’s figures need some context
The statistics do not necessarily mean that a resident or tourist in Adeje is proportionally more likely to become a victim than the headline rate suggests.
Crime rates are calculated using the municipality's official registered population, while destinations such as Adeje and Mogan accommodate huge numbers of tourists throughout the year.
The actual number of people present in these municipalities at any given time can therefore be considerably higher than their registered populations.
Hotels, holiday apartments, shopping centres, beaches, nightlife areas and major attractions generate a large transient population which is not reflected in the resident figure used to calculate the rate.
This can make heavily visited tourist municipalities appear disproportionately high when crime statistics are expressed as incidents per 1,000 registered residents.
A similar effect can be seen in the municipality with Spain's highest rate, El Prat de Llobregat, in Catalonia, which recorded 91.9 thefts per 1,000 residents. Its figures are heavily influenced by the millions of passengers passing through Barcelona Airport.
Los Realejos records Spain’s lowest rate
At the opposite end of the rankings is Los Realejos, which recorded only 2.0 reported thefts per 1,000 residents.
According to the analysis, this was the lowest rate of all 427 municipalities studied in Spain, making the north Tenerife municipality stand out sharply against the island's southern tourist areas.
The Canary Islands also performed well when the analysis was restricted to larger cities with populations exceeding 100,000.
San Cristóbal de La Laguna recorded 7.2 thefts per 1,000 residents, while Telde in Gran Canaria recorded 7.5.
Both figures are significantly below the national average of 12.9.
Sharp rise recorded in Teguise
The study also compared the latest figures with those from 2024. One of the most notable changes in the Canary Islands was recorded in Teguise, Lanzarote, where reported thefts increased by 48.9%.
The analysis is based on information from Spain's official Crime Statistics Portal, compiled in July 2026, together with population data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
For tourists and residents, the figures highlight the significant differences between individual municipalities across the Canary Islands, but they should also be interpreted carefully.
In particular, comparisons based on registered population can produce unusually high rates in holiday destinations where hundreds of thousands or even millions of visitors pass through each year without being counted as residents.
