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Global losses from cybercriminal activity amount to trillions of dollars each year, and a recent report indicates that each attack costs victims an average of nearly $10,000. The situation is rapidly escalating and growing in scale worldwide.
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A new study estimates the average loss per victim at $9,468, bringing the total annual global losses to over $1.24 trillion among 130.9 million victims. The global scale of cybercrime continues to be significantly underreported by both victims and law enforcement agencies, so official figures may be considerably lower than the actual situation. Some countries publish extremely limited financial information regarding digital crimes or do not provide it at all, which means that loss calculations are merely rough estimates.
According to a Comparitech report, 130.9 million people fall victim to cybercriminals each year, and the total financial losses worldwide amount to just over $1.24 trillion. In December 2023, the same research firm reported an average loss of $8,069 per victim, 88.5 million victims, and $714 billion in total losses, which clearly confirms the negative trend driven by the active growth of various illegal activities.
The United States remains the most popular target for hackers, topping the list with 6.7 million victims and $138.9 billion in losses, which amounts to approximately $20,731 per person β more than double the global average. This contrasts sharply with the figures for the next four countries (Spain, France, Sweden, and Turkey), each of which recorded average losses of approximately $10,000 per person.
Russia, which ranks sixth, recorded a significantly higher number of victims than the four countries ahead of it, but shows a substantially lower level of losses per person β $3,659. Interestingly, the total number of cybercrimes in this country in 2025 decreased to 663,000 compared to 775,000 in 2024, despite the ongoing war against Ukraine, which is accompanied by constant cyberattacks from both sides at both the industrial and local levels. However, the weakening economic situation, as well as the localization of many communication software tools and restrictions in the banking sector, may indicate that the countryβs digital metrics are being artificially suppressed by government decisions themselves.
With 18.8 million victims, India became the absolute leader in the number of fraud victims worldwide, although its relative loss per victim was significantly lower than the average, at about $835 per person, which is explained by its lower GDP per capita. In contrast, China, with 1.2 million victims β a mere fraction of its neighborβs total β suffered losses of about $11.5 billion. This amounts to an average of approximately $9,583 per person, which aligns with Comparitechβs overall estimates and may be the result of the countryβs tough stance on cybercriminals β a policy that was accompanied by increased pressure on neighboring Myanmar and culminated in the sentencing and execution of fraudsters detained abroad.
Comparitechβs estimate of $1.24 trillion is conservative, and the authors of the analysis acknowledge this, noting that it takes into account only the direct financial losses of citizens. The report emphasizes that industry experts have projected global losses to rise to $10.5 trillion by 2025, which is why Comparitech describes its own figure of $1.24 trillion as merely a drop in the bucket. The $10.5 trillion figure comes from a 2016 study by Cybersecurity Ventures, in which 2015 losses were estimated at $3 trillion, with an assumed annual compound growth rate of 15%, a trend described as the largest redistribution of wealth in history.
At a time when automation and AI are providing better protection β allowing us to filter out calls or use security applications that adapt to specific situations β the flip side is that cybercriminals are also significantly stepping up their game to completely bypass security systems. Comparitechβs calculations reveal a stark reality: if industry expertsβ estimates were equivalent to the GDP of individual countries, this sector would rank 20th in the world based on this metric alone.