Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2025

Crime against individuals and households has generally decreased over the last 10 years with some notable exceptions, such as sexual assault. However, there have been increases across some crime types in the latest reporting period. Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) March 2025 showed:

• around 9.4 million incidents of CSEW headline crime, a 7% increase compared with YE March 2024 survey (8.8 million incidents); CSEW headline crime includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury

• the latest rise in CSEW headline crime was because of a 31% increase in fraud (to around 4.2 million incidents); this is the highest estimated number of incidents since fraud was first collected on the CSEW in YE March 2017

• CSEW computer misuse decreased by 32% (to around 692,000 incidents) compared with last year's survey because of a 36% fall in incidents of unauthorised access to personal information

Experiences of domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and harassment are presented separately as prevalence estimates (the proportion of all people who were victims in the previous 12 months) in our statistics. Data from the YE March 2025 CSEW showed no statistically significant change in these estimates compared with the YE March 2024 survey. In YE March 2025:

• 7.8% of people aged 16 years and over (around 3.8 million people) had experienced domestic abuse in the last year

• 2.9% (around 1.4 million people) had experienced stalking

• 1.9% (around 900,000 people) had experienced sexual assault

• 8.6% (around 4.2 million people) had experienced some form of harassment

Police recorded crime does not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime. However, it can give more insight into lower-volume, higher-harm offences that are reported to the police, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well. Data for YE March 2025 showed that:

• the number of homicides decreased by 6% (to 535 offences) compared with YE March 2024 (567 offences); this was the lowest since YE March 2014 (533 offences)

• offences involving knives or sharp instruments decreased by 1% (to 53,047 offences) compared with YE March 2024 (53,685 offences); with some police forces seeing increases and some seeing decreases

• offences involving firearms decreased by 21% (to 5,103 offences) compared with YE March 2024 (6,449 offences); this was mainly because of a 30% fall (to 1,907 offences) in imitation firearms, such as replica weapons and BB guns

• there was a 3% decrease in robbery (78,804 offences) compared with YE March 2024 (81,022 offences); a 50% increase (to 15,520 offences) in robbery of business property was offset by a 10% decrease (to 63,284 offences) in robbery of personal property

• shoplifting offences rose by 20% (to 530,643 offences) compared with the previous year (444,022 offences); this is the highest figure since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is an interviewer-administered face-to-face survey asking people (aged 16 years and over) resident in households about their experiences of crime in the past year. It provides a reliable measure of crime trends for the population and offence types it covers. This is because it is unaffected by police reporting or recording changes.

The survey excludes crimes against commercial or public sector bodies, tourists, or those living in communal establishments like care homes, student halls of residence and prisons. The survey does not cover crimes where there is not a specific victim, such as drug possession, and other crimes against the state.

The CSEW captures a broad range of victim-based crimes with the interviewer-administered questions. It gives headline estimates of CSEW crime, which includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. Estimates are reported as both incidents (the estimated number of crimes) and prevalence (the estimated proportion of the population that were victims).

Domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment are not included in the CSEW headline crime figures. Instead, they are covered in a self-completion section (except harassment) to ensure privacy, with prevalence estimates reported separately in Section 8: Domestic abuse, Section 9: Sexual offences and Section 10: Stalking and harassment.

In this bulletin, domestic abuse estimates for year ending (YE) March 2024 and YE March 2025 are derived from a new set of CSEW questions to provide a better measure of domestic abuse (see Table A9a and A9b in our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables). It is not possible to compare these estimates with previously published estimates or to adjust the new estimates to enable direct comparisons to be made. For further information, see our Redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics: research update May 2025.

For the first time, we have produced a new estimate combining the prevalence measures of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking from the CSEW (see Table A8 in our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables). This will become the main measure for monitoring the Government's ambition to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade within the Safer Streets Mission. Additional background, methodology and caveats for the estimate can be found in our Developing a combined measure of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking, England and Wales: July 2025 report.

Additional data on victimisation, antisocial behaviour and perceptions of crime are published alongside our YE March bulletins. These can be found in our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables. This dataset also presents data on likelihood of victimisation by demographic characteristics, which were previously published in our discontinued Crime in England and Wales: annual demographic tables. Additional data on perceptions of the police and criminal justice system will be published on 19 August 2025 alongside our Perceptions of police and the criminal justice system: year ending March 2025 bulletin.

Further information on planned improvements to crime statistics is available in our Improving crime statistics for England and Wales - progress update: July 2025 article, published on 28 July 2025. An update to our Consultation on the Redesign of the Crime Survey for England and Wales was published on 8 August 2025.

Police recorded crime figures cover a wider range of offences and populations, but do not capture all crimes. For example, they include residents of institutions, tourists, and crimes against commercial bodies. Figures are restricted to a subset of notifiable offences that have been reported to and recorded by the police, as described in the Home Office's Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers and staff guidance. Changes in recording practices have affected the reliability of these figures, particularly for violent crime. This makes them better indicators of police activity than crime trends. For further information, see Section 19: Data sources and quality.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime data together give a fuller picture of crimes experienced by individuals and households (Table 1). The CSEW is better for tracking long-term trends in violence with or without injury, theft offences, criminal damage, fraud, and computer misuse. Police data are preferred for homicide, offences involving weapons, and robbery.

Table 1: Number of crime incidents by main crime types, to year ending March 2025

Notes:

1. Police recorded crime are not designated as accredited official statistics.

2. CSEW data cover people aged 16 years and over. PRC data include crimes against individuals (including children), households, businesses, and society.

3. Changes in CSEW fraud and computer misuse were statistically significant (S) at the 5% level. PRC figures are actual counts, not estimates, so they are not tested for significance.

Since the mid-1990s, the CSEW has shown long-term decreases in the number of incidents of theft, criminal damage and violence with or without injury. Fraud and computer misuse estimates are only available from year ending (YE) March 2017 onwards. While the number of fraud incidents has fluctuated over this time-period, there has been a decrease in computer misuse incidents. For more information, see Table A1 in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables dataset.

Our headline CSEW crime measure captures incidents of theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. There were an estimated 9.4 million incidents of CSEW headline crime in the YE March 2025 survey. This was a 7% increase compared with YE March 2024 survey (8.8 million incidents). This was mainly because of a 31% rise in fraud (to around 4.2 million incidents).

Providing context from a longer time period, CSEW headline crime remains 16% lower than in the YE March 2017 survey (11.2 million incidents), when fraud and computer misuse were first included.

Prevalence of crime and crime-related experiences

The CSEW also presents prevalence estimates (the proportion of people who were a victim in the last 12 months) for a wider set of crimes and crime-related experiences. This includes domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment (Table 2). Harassment was the most common (8.6%), followed by domestic abuse (7.8%) and fraud (7.1%). For more information, see Table A3 in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables and Table A9a, A10a and A12 in our Crime in England and Wales: Annual supplementary tables.

There has been a gradual decrease in the proportion of people experiencing violence with or without injury, theft and criminal damage over the past 10 years. However, the prevalence of stalking has remained relatively flat and sexual assault has increased compared with the YE March 2015 survey, after previously decreasing from the YE March 2005 survey to the YE March 2014 survey.

There was an increase in the prevalence of fraud to 7.1% in the YE March 2025 survey, compared with 5.7% in the YE March 2024 survey. Conversely, there was a decrease in the prevalence of computer misuse to 1.3%, compared with 1.7% in the previous year.

Table 2: Proportion of people experiencing a crime or crime-related experience, to year ending March 2025

Notes:

1. Changes in fraud and computer misuse were statistically significant (S) at the 5% level.

2. The category "sexual assault" includes attempts.

3. Timeline data for sexual assault and stalking use the 16 to 59 years age range for comparability up to YE March 2025; data for all people aged 16 years and over are only available from YE March 2022 onwards.

4. Data for harassment and our new measure of domestic abuse are only available for YE March 2024 and YE March 2025.

Insights from police recorded crime

Police recorded crime covers a broader set of offences and victims than the CSEW. It includes crimes that come to the attention of the police against:

• all people, including those aged under 16 years and those not permanently resident in households

• businesses and organisations

• society, such as drug and weapons possession

In YE March 2025, the police recorded 6.6 million crimes. This was similar to the previous year (6.7 million crimes) and up from 4.2 million in YE March 2015. Increases since YE March 2015 may include some genuine changes in trends in crimes that are reported to, and recorded by, the police. However, it will also be because of changes in police activity and recording practices. Therefore, police recorded crime does not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime.

Police recorded crime data can give more insight into lower-volume, higher-harm offences reported to the police, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well. This includes homicide, offences involving weapons, and robbery. These figures are reported in Section 4: Homicide, Section 5: Knife and sharp instrument offences, Section 6: Offences involving firearms and Section 11: Robbery.

Information on the investigative outcomes of crimes recorded by the police can be found in the Home Office's Crime outcomes in England and Wales publication.

The police recorded 535 homicide offences in year ending (YE) March 2025. This was a 6% decrease from 567 offences in the previous year and was at a similar level to a decade ago (539 offences in YE March 2015). The homicide rate was 8.8 per one million people, down from 9.4 in YE March 2024. Knives or sharp instruments were used in 40% of homicides, which is a drop from 46% in the previous year.

For the latest analysis on homicide offences held within the Home Office Homicide Index, see our Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2024 article.

Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument (knife-enabled crime) includes offences where a knife or sharp instrument has been used to injure a victim or used as a threat. This will include offences where the weapon may not have been seen but is believed to be present at the time of the offence by the victim or another witness.

Knife-enabled crime recorded by the police decreased by 1% in the year ending (YE) March 2025 (to 53,047 offences), compared with YE March 2024 (53,685 offences). This was 4% lower than YE March 2020 (55,170 offences).

Most knife-enabled crimes were assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm (43%) and robbery (42%) offences. Fewer than 1% of knife-enabled crimes were homicide offences (0.4%). Knife-enabled homicide fell by 23% (to 204 offences) compared with the previous year (265 offences).

Most knife-enabled crime takes place in metropolitan areas across England and Wales. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) recorded 31% of all offences, the West Midlands Police recorded 8%, and Greater Manchester Police recorded 6%. The MPS recorded a 9% increase (to 16,297 offences) and Greater Manchester Police recorded a 2% increase (to 3,398 offences) in YE March 2025, compared with the previous year. The West Midlands Police saw a 15% decrease (to 4,469 offences).

Police recorded "possession of article with a blade or point" offences increased by 2% in YE March 2025 (28,314 offences), compared with YE March 2024 (27,646 offences). Trends in possession offences are likely to be influenced by police activity and operations, particularly stop and search.

The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a 10% decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in YE March 2025 (to 3,508 admissions). This was 26% below YE March 2020 (4,769 admissions).

Data related to stop and searches can be found in the Home Office's Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics publication.

Offences involving firearms cover various weapon types, from imitation firearms to handguns and shotguns. Police recorded offences decreased by 21% (to 5,103 offences) in year ending (YE) March 2025, compared with YE March 2024 (6,449 offences).

The largest fall was in offences involving imitation firearms, which decreased by 30% (to 1,907 offences). Firearm offence levels were at their lowest levels since YE March 2015 (4,911 offences) and were much lower than at the peak in YE March 2006 (11,088 offences).

Imitation firearms like replica weapons and BB guns are the most used, closely followed by handguns. Around 37% of these offences involved imitation firearms, while handguns were involved in 33%.

More detailed data on offences involving firearms are available for YE March 2024 in our Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables.

The interviewer-administered parts of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) give the best picture of trends in violence with or without injury for the household population. It provides a good indication of the prevalence of violence, with or without injury, where the perpetrator is an acquaintance or a stranger (non-domestic violence). However, it underestimates domestic violence because victims may not disclose it to interviewers. Please see Section 8: Domestic abuse for our preferred prevalence estimate. For information on sexual offences, stalking and harassment, see Section 9: Sexual offences and Section 10: Stalking and harassment.

In the year ending (YE) March 2025 CSEW, people aged 16 years and over experienced an estimated 1.1 million incidents of violence with or without injury. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year. However, this was 36% lower than a decade ago (1.7 million incidents in YE March 2015) and 75% lower than its peak in YE December 1995 (4.5 million incidents).

In the YE March 2025, around 0.8% of people aged 16 and over were a victim of violence with or without injury where the perpetrator was a stranger. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year's survey. The proportion of people who were a victim of violence with or without injury where the perpetrator was an acquaintance was 0.4%. This was a decrease compared with the YE March 2024 survey (0.5%).

While there was no change in police recorded violence without injury (817,525 offences) in YE March 2025 compared with YE March 2024, there was a 7% decrease in police recorded violence with injury (to 520,071 offences). This follows large increases in these offences since 2015 largely because of improvements to recording practices over this period. While this year's decrease may reflect some genuine falls in these offences, it may also be partly because of changes in the recording of conduct crimes (for definition, see Section 18: Glossary). For further information, see Section 19: Data sources and quality.

Latest data from the National Violence Surveillance Network (NVSN) help to provide further insight into violence with injury. An estimated 145,271 people attended emergency units in England and Wales for treatment of violence-related injury in YE December 2024 (the estimate of emergency unit attendance in England and Wales is based on 69,727 people who were treated for violence-related injuries at 189 hospital sites). This was 2.4% higher than YE December 2023, when there were an estimated 141,804 attendees. However, this was 31% lower than in YE December 2014. This downward trend over the last decade was similar to the trend in CSEW violence with and without injury.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module is more reliable for measuring domestic abuse than police recorded crime data. Estimates from the CSEW year ending (YE) March 2025 showed that 7.8% of people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the last year (around 3.8 million people). This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

Estimates for year ending (YE) March 2024 and YE March 2025 are derived from a new set of CSEW questions to provide a better measure of domestic abuse. Latest estimates with more detailed breakdowns by type of abuse and sex can be found in Tables A9a and A9b of our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables. It is not possible to compare these estimates with previously published estimates or to adjust the new estimates to enable direct comparisons to be made. For further information, see our Redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics: research update May 2025.

The police flagged 815,941 offences as domestic abuse related in YE March 2025, including 634,912 violence against the person offences. This was a 4% decrease from the previous year (851,062 offences), mainly because of fewer violence against the person offences (down from 670,168 offences). While this decrease may reflect some genuine falls in these offences, it could also reflect changes in the recording of conduct crimes (for definition, see Section 18: Glossary). The proportion of violence against the person offences flagged as domestic abuse-related was 33%, the same as the previous year.

Further information and data related to domestic abuse can be found in our Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2024 bulletin.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module provides a more reliable measure of trends in sexual offences than police recorded crime data. In the CSEW year ending (YE) March 2025, 1.9% of people aged 16 years and over had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) (around 900,000 people). This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

When analysing long-term trends, we use the 16 to 59 years age range to give a comparable data time series. Although there is year-to-year volatility in these estimates, over the last 10 years there has been an increase in sexual assault, after previously decreasing from YE March 2005 to YE March 2014. In the YE March 2025 survey, 2.4% of people aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault, compared with 1.7% in the YE March 2015 survey.

There have been general increases in police recorded sexual offences over the last decade, largely because of improvements in police recording practices. There was an 11% increase in YE March 2025 (to 209,556 offences), compared with the previous year (188,627 offences).

Around 34% (71,667 offences) of all sexual offences recorded by the police in YE March 2025 were rape offences. This was a 6% increase, compared with YE March 2024 (67,818 offences).

There was a small decrease in the proportion of police recorded sexual offences that had taken place over a year before the crime was recorded (20%), compared with the previous year (21%).

Further data related to sexual offences can be found in our Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2022 bulletin.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) self-completion module provides a more reliable measure of stalking than police recorded crime data. However, the CSEW does not capture all aspects of stalking. Future research will aim to improve the data collected on stalking in the self-completion section of the CSEW.

The CSEW year ending (YE) March 2025 estimated that 2.9% of people aged 16 years and over had experienced stalking in the last year (around 1.4 million people). This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

When analysing long-term trends, we use the 16 to 59 years age range to give a comparable data time series. The CSEW for YE March 2025 estimated that 3.5% of people aged 16 to 59 years had experienced stalking in the last year. The trend has been relatively flat over the last 10 years.

The CSEW also measures experiences of harassment, including one-off incidents. This is different from how the police define harassment where the behaviour must occur on more than one occasion. This is explained in the Home Office's Crime Recording Rules for frontline officers and staff guidance. In the CSEW YE March 2025, 8.6% (around 4.2 million people) had experienced some form of harassment. This represents no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey.

Changes in recording rules in May 2023 removed the requirement to record two crimes reported at the same time involving the same perpetrator, when one of them was a conduct crime (for definition, see Section 18: Glossary). This led to fewer crimes often associated with conduct crimes, such as malicious communications offences, which decreased by 42%, compared with the previous year (to 98,805 offences). However, police recorded stalking increased by 6% to 136,022 offences, and harassment rose by 7% to 305,037 offences. This may suggest that the changes are leading to a greater focus on identifying these more affecting crimes.

Robbery involves the use of force or threat of force to attempt or complete a theft (see Section 18: Glossary for definition). Police recorded 78,804 robbery offences in year ending (YE) March 2025, a 3% decrease compared with the previous year (81,022 offences). However, there was a 50% increase in robbery of business property (to 15,520 offences). This was offset by a 10% decrease in robbery of personal property (to 63,284 offences). Overall robbery offences were still 13% lower than YE March 2020.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated 83,000 robbery incidents in YE March 2025, which was no statistically significant change, compared with the previous year's survey. Police data are preferred for robbery offences. This is because the CSEW estimates are subject to year-to-year volatility because of the small number of victims found in the sample.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is the best way to track long-term trends in common crimes like theft. Police data, however, can show trends in specific theft offences that are well reported and well recorded, such as burglary, and can highlight emerging trends.

The CSEW for year ending (YE) March 2025 estimated 2.8 million theft incidents. There was no statistically significant change compared with the previous year's survey (2.7 million incidents). However, this was 30% lower compared with the YE March 2015 survey (4.0 million incidents) and 76% lower than the peak in the YE December 1995 survey (11.6 million incidents).

There were no statistically significant changes in any of the main categories of theft; theft from the person, other theft of personal property, domestic burglary, vehicle-related theft, or bicycle theft. However, there was a 20% increase in theft from outside a dwelling (a sub-category of other household theft) compared with the previous year's survey (to around 622,000 incidents).

The police recorded 1.8 million theft offences in YE March 2025, no change compared with the previous year. However, there was a 20% increase in shoplifting (to 530,643 offences) and a 15% increase in theft from the person (to 151,220 offences). There have been sharp rises in these offences since the pandemic. Both shoplifting and theft from the person offences are at their highest level since current police recording practices began in YE March 2003.

Police recorded vehicle offences decreased by 8% (to 350,070 offences) during the same period. Police recorded burglary, which includes both residential and non-residential burglaries, also fell by 8% to 245,284 offences.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) March 2025 estimated around 608,000 incidents of criminal damage. This showed no statistically significant change compared with the YE March 2024 survey. However, this was 55% lower compared with the YE March 2015 survey (1.3 million incidents) and 82% lower than the peak in the YE December 1995 survey (3.4 million incidents).

Police recorded 440,389 criminal damage offences in YE March 2025, a 7% fall compared with the previous year.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) year ending (YE) March 2025 estimated 4.2 million fraud incidents. This was a 31% increase, compared with the YE March 2024 survey (3.2 million incidents) and was mainly because of a 30% increase in bank and credit account fraud (to about 2.4 million incidents) and a 23% increase in consumer and retail fraud (to about 1.1 million incidents). Out of the estimated 4.2 million incidents of fraud, around three million incidents involved a loss. Victims were fully reimbursed in 2.1 million of these cases.

This was the highest estimated number of CSEW fraud incidents since fraud was first collected on the survey in YE March 2017. While levels of bank and credit account fraud have remained relatively flat since YE March 2017, there have been increases across the other categories of fraud. There were an estimated 1.7 million incidents of consumer and retail fraud, advance fee fraud and other fraud combined in YE March 2025, an 88% increase compared with the YE March 2017 survey. For definitions of the different types of fraud, see Section 18: Glossary)

The CSEW also helps provide context for police data. For example, the latest estimates from our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables showed that only one in eight fraud offences were reported to the police or Action Fraud (the public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre).

The recorded crime series incorporates fraud offences collated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) from three reporting bodies. These are Action Fraud and two industry bodies – Cifas and UK Finance – who report instances of fraud where their member organisations have been a victim. The recorded crime series showed a 1% increase in fraud offences in YE March 2025 (to 1.2 million offences), compared with the previous year. This was because of a 10% increase in cases (to 381,709 offences) referred by Cifas.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimated around 692,000 incidents of computer misuse in year ending (YE) March 2025. This was a 32% decrease compared with the previous year's survey. This was because of a 36% fall in incidents of unauthorised access to personal information (to 564,000 incidents). CSEW computer misuse was 61% lower than the YE March 2017 survey (1.8 million incidents), which is the earliest comparable year.

The latest CSEW estimates, from our Crime in England and Wales: annual supplementary tables, showed that approximately 1 in 25 computer misuse offences were reported to the police or Action Fraud.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) records computer misuse offences and refers those with good investigative leads to the police. The NFIB reported a 36% increase in offences referred by Action Fraud for YE March 2025 (to 55,576 offences) compared with YE March 2024 (40,832 offences). This was because of increases in social media and email hacking offences, personal hacking offences, and computer virus or malware offences.

Computer misuse is also a concern for businesses and organisations. Findings from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 showed that 20% of businesses and 14% of charities had been victims of at least one cybercrime in the past year. This was similar to the previous year's survey.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for year ending (YE) March 2025 showed that 35% of people experienced or witnessed anti-social behaviour (ASB). There was no statistically significant change from the previous year (35%).

The number of police-recorded ASB incidents, including those by the British Transport Police, remained similar at one million incidents.

Computer misuse

Computer misuse is when fraudsters hack or use computer viruses or malware to disrupt services, obtain information illegally or extort individuals or organisations.

Conduct crime

Conduct crime is defined as stalking, harassment, or controlling and coercive behaviour, which are offences where there has been unwanted or unwarranted behaviour which amounts to a course of conduct. The course of conduct or behaviour must comprise two or more occasions or events for an offence to be recorded by the police.

Criminal damage

Criminal damage results from any person who, without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another. This includes either intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged.

Fraud

Fraud involves a person dishonestly and deliberately deceiving a victim for personal gain of property or money, or causing loss or risk of loss to another. Most incidents fall under the legal definition of "fraud by false representation", where a person makes a representation that they know to be untrue or misleading (for example, banking and payment card frauds, and dating scams). The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates cover a broad range of fraud offences including:

• Bank and credit account fraud, which usually involve falsely obtaining or using personal bank or payment card details to carry out fraudulent transactions. This can involve using a false identity, deceitful credit application, credit or debit cards, cloned cards, cheque books, or online accounts.

• Consumer and retail fraud, which occur when goods or services were paid for but failed to materialise, were misrepresented at point of sale, or were faulty or stolen. This includes bogus callers, ticketing fraud, phone scams and computer software service fraud.

• Advance fee fraud, which occur when a payment is made to fraudsters, who claim to be in a position of authority, to transfer money or for a promise of employment, wealth, or gifts (including lottery scams and inheritance fraud).

Overall theft offences

CSEW theft offences include all personal and household crime where items are stolen, including theft from the person, other theft of personal property, domestic burglary and other household theft, vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft.

Robbery

Robbery is an offence in which force, or the threat of force, is used either during or immediately before a theft or attempted theft. Mugging is an informal term for robbery. In this bulletin, we use the term "robbery".

Violence with or without injury

Violent crime covers a range of offence types from minor assaults, such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm, to murder. This includes offences where the victim was intentionally stabbed, punched, kicked, pushed, or jostled, as well as offences where the victim was threatened with violence, regardless of injury.

More information and further definitions can be found in Section 5: Offence types of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2024.

Data sources

Crime statistics are based on the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime. CSEW estimates are accredited official statistics and were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2024. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Police recorded crime data are not designated as accredited official statistics.

Crime Survey for England and Wales

The CSEW is primarily an interviewer-administered face-to-face victimisation survey in which people (aged 16 years and over) resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of selected crimes in the 12 months before the interview. It tracks long-term crime trends from year ending (YE) December 1981 to YE March 2025.

The latest figures are based on interviews between April 2024 and March 2025, covering crimes that occurred between April 2023 and February 2025.

The interviewer-administered questions give headline estimates of CSEW crime and include theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury. They are reported as both incidents (the estimated number of crimes) and prevalence (the estimated proportion of the population that were victims).

Questions on domestic violence and sexual assault are included but may underestimate these crimes, as victims might not disclose them to an interviewer. Therefore, domestic abuse and sexual assault are better measured through a self-completion section of the survey and reported separately. While sexual assault estimates from the interviewer-administered questions are excluded from CSEW headline crime, domestic violence is included as it is a form of violence with or without injury.

Police recorded crime

The Home Office collects crime data from the 43 police forces in England and Wales, plus the British Transport Police. These data are sent monthly for each crime on their notifiable offence list. These figures are updated continuously and represent a snapshot taken on 16 June 2025, covering data up to March 2025.

The National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) tool is now in use for four police collections to automatically flag offences involving knives or sharp instruments, domestic abuse-related offences, child sexual abuse-related offences, and online crime, rather than relying solely on a manually added marker. There are 42 police forces that have NDQIS available to them and the use of NDQIS across police forces by collection can be seen in the relevant datasets. By March 2025, 41 police forces had switched to NDQIS for knife or sharp instrument offences, 35 forces for domestic abuse-related offences, 34 for child sexual abuse-related offences and 30 for identifying offences that have an online element.

For more information on NDQIS methodology, please see our Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments: methodology changes.

Strengths and limitations

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) includes crimes not reported to, or recorded by, the police, but only covers crimes against people resident in households and does not cover all crime types.

The CSEW is better for tracking long-term trends than police recorded crime because it is unaffected by changes in reporting or recording practices. The survey's methods have remained comparable since the CSEW began in 1981.

The CSEW uses a sample, not the whole population. The sample aims to be accurate within practical limits such as time and cost. Therefore, the estimates have some uncertainty and are not precise figures. This affects how changes in estimates should be interpreted. View more information on how we measure and communicate uncertainty for our surveys.

Police recorded crime has wider offence coverage and population coverage than the CSEW. It is the primary source of local crime statistics and is a good measure of offences that are well reported to, and well recorded by, the police, including lower-volume crimes (for example, homicide). In addition, the time lag between occurrence of crime and reporting results tends to be short, providing an indication of emerging trends.

However, it misses offences that are not reported to or recorded by the police. Trends can be affected by changes in how crimes are recorded, police activity, and public reporting, making long-term comparisons hard. There are also concerns about inconsistent recording quality across police forces and over time.

Changes in recording practices have led to discontinuity in police recorded crime figures, especially for violent crime over the last 10 years. Most recently, in May 2023, changes were made to the Home Office Counting Rules for conduct crimes (stalking, harassment, and coercive and controlling behaviour).

The requirement to record two crimes, reported at the same time by a victim involving the same perpetrator, when one of them was a conduct crime, was removed. However, the police continue to investigate all offences. This has led to a reduction in offences often associated with conduct crimes, such as malicious communications, and an increase in offences such as stalking and harassment. The impact of these changes on statistics is difficult to measure, as compliance in crime recording in this area has been inconsistent across policing.

Figures may differ slightly in later reports for the same period, but this does not mean that earlier figures were wrong at the time that they were reported.

Not all forces adopt the NDQIS methodology at the same time when NDQIS is applied to a new data collection, and it is normal for forces to go through a period of testing and often further development. During this phase, each force will be able to assess how NDQIS affects the flagging of crime records in their recording system. The NDQIS methodology will increase the number of offences identified as being domestic abuse related. Data from eight police forces showed a 3% rise in such offences for YE March 2024. Therefore, the latest year's data cannot be directly compared with previous years.

The NDQIS methodology may also lead to an increase in offences identified as having an online element. Since April 2024, online crime data include crimes using SMS and phone calls made over online platforms. Therefore, the latest year's data are not directly comparable with previous years. The proportion of offences flagged as online crime has very slightly increased over the YE March 2025, from 4% to 5%, but it is not possible to determine if this increase can be attributed to the NDQIS transition. This will become more evident over time once all forces have been using NDQIS for online crime for a sufficiently long period to analyse the trend.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) and our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2024.