Catalonia has the highest number of police officers in its history. It currently has almost 30,000 agents, 379 per 100,000 inhabitants. These are data that take into account the 18,355 Mossos de Esquadra agents and the 11,572 local police officers that were included in the 2022 Annual Local Policies Report but, on the other hand, exclude the Civil Guard and National Police officers deployed in the territory.
Even so, the Catalan ratio is slightly above the figure for the rest of Spain and Europe. In the State as a whole, the number of security forces in Spain is around 367 per 100,000 inhabitants, and in Europe it is 314 according to Eurostat data from 2022.
On the map, the nuances are painted from north to south. The southern European countries maintain a higher number of agents per person, while those in the north tend to decrease. The Spanish figure is well above the 196 agents in Iceland, the safest country in the world according to the World Peace Index.
What is happening in Iceland can be extended throughout northern Europe: the Nordic welfare states are those with the lowest ratio of police per person on the entire continent.
On the other hand, Cyprus or Greece – which occupy much lower positions in terms of security – have respectively 562 and 507 police officers per 100,000 citizens.
As is the case in Catalonia, the size of security forces in Europe has been gradually increasing. The number of police officers on European streets has increased in recent years. In 2008, there were altogether 1.4 million police officers, while now there are more than 1.5 million across the continent.
