According to the European Union (EU)'s official statistics agency Eurostat Tuesday, the Baltic state of Lithuania saw an average 8.76 murders per 100,000 people every year from 2002 to 2008, making it the EU country with most murders and the EU's murder capital。
Another Baltic state Estonia recorded the second with 6.6 murders per 100,000 residents. Complete data was not available for the third Baltic state Latvia, but incomplete figures suggested a similar rate to that of Estonia。
The only other countries reporting more than two cases a year per 100,000 people were Finland, Bulgaria, Scotland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Ireland, while the lowest murder rates were observed in Austria, Slovenia and Germany, all of which had less than one homicide per 100,000 of population, Eurostat reported。
However, on a more positive note, Lithuania was also amongst the EU states that saw one of the largest drops in levels of violent crime during the same period。