Population of the UK and sexual offences by ethnicity

FOI reference: FOI-2025-3197

You asked

I write to request the statistics for the past 10 years and as close to current date as possible.

1. Sexual assaults total reported figures for the past 10 years within the UK.

2. The total numbers of sexual assaults where no offender was identified.

3. An ethnicity based break down of the offenders of all sexual assaults where the offenders have been identified.  

4. All reported rape incidents over the same 10 year period.

5. Total number of reported rapes where no offender was identified.

6. An ethnicity based break down of all rapes where the offenders have been identified. 

7. Total up to date figures of each ethnicity currently residing within the UK.

We said

Thank you for your request.

The latest population figures broken down by ethnicity currently residing within the UK can be found in Table 06 in the associated download.

We produce data on sexual assault and rape using two main sources of data, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime. Our publications and data concern crime as it is experienced by victims, or as it is recorded by police.

The latest police recorded sexual offences and rape figures for England and Wales, for year ending March 2003 to year ending June 2025, are available in Table A5a (rows 67 to 104) of the Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables dataset.  

We produce CSEW estimates for the proportion of people who were victims of sexual assault and rape in the previous 12 months. These are available for people aged 16 to 59 years for the year ending March 2005 to year ending March 2025 in Table A11c of our Crime in England and Wales: Annual supplementary tables dataset. These estimates include experiences that were reported and unreported to the police. However, we do not hold a breakdown of whether an offender was identified or not.  

These statistics refer to England and Wales only. If you require data for Scotland, please contact them directly at Justice_Analysts@gov.scot. Similarly, if you require data for Northern Ireland, please contact them directly at statistics.research@justice-ni.x.gsi.gov.uk.

We do not hold the data on offenders that you have requested. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are primarily responsible for data on offenders. They publish quarterly statistics , which may be of help. You may also find the MoJ's outcomes by offence data tool: June 2024 useful. It allows you to filter by various categories including offence group, ethnicity, and other breakdowns to find the convictions and sentenced numbers. 

If you have any questions, the Ministry of Justice may be able to help you further and can be contacted at CJS_Statistics@justice.gov.uk  

If you have any other questions in relation to crime, please email us at  crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.