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Request Number: FOI/16401

Category: Incident and Crime Statistics - Missing Person

Subject: Missing Person Reports

Request and Answer: 

Your request for information has now been considered. In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Act we can confirm that the Police Service of Northern Ireland does hold information to which your request relates. The decision has been taken to disclose the following.

Question 1
How many missing person reports have the PSNI received from January 1, 2025 to December 1, 2025?

Answer
A total of 5297 missing person reports.

Question 2
What was the average time of solving these missing person cases?

Answer
22 hours 28 minutes, however the median time is 5 hours 37 minutes.

However the average is not a true method of determining such a high amount of data, this is why the median (all missing person times and the middle time is selected as the median) was used.’ The data also relies on the times missing from and to being entered correctly as with all data there is a margin of error. 

To further assist the data presented in the table below is based on recorded information from the database.

Row LabelsCount of Occurrence Number
< 1 Hour509
1 - 8 Hours2652
16 - 24 hours422
2 - 7 days269
24 - 48 hours446
8 - 16 hours883
over 7 days87
(blank) 
Grand Total5268

Question 3
How many of these missing person reports were a person under 18?

Answer
A total of 2785 missing reports relating to juveniles.