Guide to finding crime statistics

Crime statistics for England and Wales are produced by multiple departments across government. The aim of this guide is to introduce the main sources of Office for National Statistics (ONS) crime statistics, broken down by potential areas of interest, to provide a more efficient way to find the crime statistics you might need.

We currently publish four quarterly bulletins, presenting the latest findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), the new Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) developed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and other sources. We also publish topic-based articles and compendiums on specific crime types. The crime statistics we publish are for England and Wales only and are taken from several sources:

• the CSEW and the TCSEW include crimes not reported to the police but do not include some offences (for example, possession of drugs, homicide) and some victims (for example, businesses, visitors and the population resident in institutions, such as old people's homes)

• Home Office police recorded crime; this has a wider coverage of offences but does not include crimes that have not been reported to the police or less serious crimes dealt with by magistrates' courts (for example, "summary offences" such as speeding)

• National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB); the NFIB collates fraud data from Action Fraud (the national fraud reporting centre that records incidents of fraud directly from the public and organisations), Cifas (a UK-wide fraud and financial crime prevention service) and UK Finance (which collects information on fraud from the card payments industry in the UK)

Information on further sources of crime statistics published by departments other than the ONS can be found in Section 8: Other sources of crime and justice statistics of this guide.

Violent crime, sexual offences and intimate personal violence and robbery

Statistics on these crime types can be found in the following publications.

Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2020
This includes commentary split into separate articles that cover prevalence and trends, victim characteristics and nature of sexual assault.

Sexual offending: victimisation and the path through the criminal justice system
This is a joint publication by statisticians in the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and the Office for National Statistics.

Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2021
Includes an overview article and separate articles covering prevalence and trends; victim characteristics; domestic abuse and the criminal justice system; domestic abuse victim services; how domestic abuse data are captured through the criminal justice system and a research article on the redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics (includes appendix tables and a data tool).

The lasting impact of violence against women and girls – VAWG publication
Survivor-led article including a data landscape tool.

The nature of violent crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2020
Updated dataset published in November 2021 for year ending March 2021.

Nature of crime tables, children aged 10 to 15 years violence
Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). Data include when and where incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim’s perception of the incident, and who they reported the incident to.

Nature of crime tables: violence

Perceptions of personal safety and experiences of harassment, Great Britain: 16 February to 13 March 2022
Bulletin and appendix tables covering perceptions of safety and experiences of harassment, by personal characteristics, based on the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN).

Homicide in England and Wales

Offences involving the use of firearms

Offences involving the use of weapons tables

Modern slavery in the UK
This article explores the issue and brings together data sources linked to modern slavery from a range of organisations.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin 
Crime against households and adults using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), the new Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) and police recorded crime.

Appendix tables
These tables contain trends of headline figures of crime (number of incidents, incidence rates, prevalence rates, percentages, and percentage changes) broken down by crime type, for both police recorded, CSEW and TCSEW crime.

Other related tables 
Contain a more detailed look at the headline figures of crime, broken down by crime type.

Definitions of violent crime can be found in Section 4.1 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Definitions of sexual offences and intimate personal violence can be found in Section 4.1 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Definitions of robbery can be found in Section 4.1 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Abuse during childhood

Statistics on these crime types can be found in the following publications.

Child victims of modern slavery in the UK: March 2022
Bulletin exploring the hidden nature of child victims of modern slavery including a progress report article on sourcing the data.

Child abuse in England and Wales: March 2020
This release brings together our analysis and research on child abuse in England and Wales. The analysis includes a range of indicators from different data sources and organisations.

Childhood vulnerability to victimisation in England and Wales: year ending March 2017 to year ending March 2019
This release explores victimisation and negative behaviours of children aged 10 to 15 years living in a household with an adult who reported experiencing domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental ill-health and includes appendix tables.

Definitions of abuse during childhood can be found in Section 4.1 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Theft offences (including robbery, burglary, vehicle-related thefts) and criminal damage and arson

Statistics on these crime types can be found in the following publications.

Nature of crime tables
These tables are based on findings from CSEW interviews and give a picture of the nature of burglary, theft, criminal damage, violence, and crimes against children aged 10 to 15 years. Nature of crime tables include data on the timing and location of incidents, what was stolen or damaged, and the associated costs, injuries sustained, and weapons used in violent incidents, the emotional impact on the victim and information about contact with offenders. These tables include trends over time.

Property crime tables
Annual data from the TCSEW and metal theft offences recorded by the police, including demographic and offence type breakdowns and time series data.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
Crime against households and adults using data from the CSEW, the TCSEW and police recorded crime.

Appendix tables
These tables contain trends of headline figures of crime (number of incidents, incidence rates, prevalence rates, percentages, and percentage changes) broken down by crime type, for both police recorded, CSEW and TCSEW crime.

Other related tables
Contain a more detailed look at the headline figures of crime, broken down by crime type.

Definitions of theft offences can be found in Section 4.2 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Definitions of criminal damage and arson can be found in Section 4.3 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Hate crime

Statistics on hate crime can be found in the following publications.

Hate crime in England and Wales
This publication, produced by the Home Office and the Office for National Statistics provides information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales and the number of hate crimes reported by respondents in three combined years of the CSEW.

Definitions of hate crime can be found in Section 4.6 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Fraud

Statistics on fraud and further information on how measures of fraud are being developed can be found in the following publications.

Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales
A summary of the various sources of data for fraud and computer misuse and what these tell us about victims, circumstances, and long-term trends.

Nature of fraud and computer misuse appendix tables
Taken from the CSEW and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). Data includes numbers of incidents and characteristics of victims.

Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse tables
Annual data from the CSEW. Data includes the impact on the victim, contact with offenders, financial loss and experiences with computer viruses.

Definitions of fraud can be found in Section 4.4 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Anti-social behaviour

Statistics on anti-social behaviour can be found in the following publications.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
Crime against households and adults using data from the CSEW, the TCSEW and police recorded crime.

Crime in England and Wales: coronavirus (COVID-19) and crime tables
Information from a new module of questions included in the TCSEW around perceptions of crime, the police, and anti-social behaviour during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Data on children’s online activity are also presented.

Other related tables 
Contain a more detailed look at the headline figures of crime, broken down by crime type.

Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area tables (year ending March editions only)
Additional data tables including trends over time and experiences of anti-social behaviour by personal and household characteristics.

Coronavirus and crime in England and Wales: August 2020
This publication explores crime in England and Wales during April and May 2020 when the first national lockdown restrictions were at their strictest and includes appendix tables.

Definitions of anti-social behaviour can be found in Section 4.7 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Impact of crime

Victimisation and its relationship to drug misuse, common mental health disorder and well-being in England and Wales, year ending March 2021 An overview of drug misuse, symptoms of common mental disorder and personal well-being in adults who reported being a victim of crime in the last year. Data from the TCSEW. Includes accompanying dataset.

The impact of crime on victims and society: March 2022 This article summarises the crime harm framework that has been used to categorise existing related data in the new crime harm interactive database. It also includes information on how to use the recently updated Crime Severity Score data tool.

Other crimes against society

This high-level category separates out crimes that do not normally have a specific identifiable victim. “Other crimes against society” comprises categories of “drug offences”, “possession of weapons”, “public order”, and “miscellaneous crimes against society”.

Statistics on “Other crimes against society” can be found in the following publications.

Drug misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2020
This is an overview of the extent and trends of illicit drug use for the year ending March 2020. Data are from the CSEW and include appendix tables.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
Crime against households and adults using data from the CSEW, the TCSEW and police recorded crime.

Appendix tables
These tables contain trends of headline figures of crime (number of incidents, incidence rates, prevalence rates, percentages, and percentage changes) broken down by crime type, for both police recorded, CSEW and TCSEW crime.

Other related tables
Contain a more detailed look at the headline figures of crime, broken down by crime type.

Definitions of other crimes against society can be found in Section 4.5 of the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: Measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Crime and the coronavirus pandemic

Statistics covering the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on crime and people’s perceptions of crime.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
Crime against households and adults using data from the CSEW, the TCSEW and police recorded crime.

Appendix tables
These tables contain trends of headline figures of crime (number of incidents, incidence rates, prevalence rates, percentages, and percentage changes) broken down by crime type, for both police recorded, CSEW and TCSEW crime.

Crime in England and Wales: coronavirus (COVID-19) and crime tables
Information from a new module of questions included in TCSEW around perceptions of crime, the police and anti-social behaviour during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Data on children's online activity are also presented.

Coronavirus and crime in England and Wales: August 2020
This publication explores crime in England and Wales during April and May 2020 when the first national lockdown restrictions were at their strictest and includes appendix tables.

Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2020
Figures on domestic abuse from CSEW, police recorded crime and several different organisations.

Domestic abuse during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, England and Wales: November 2020
Indicators from a range of sources to assess the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on domestic abuse in England and Wales and includes appendix tables.

Since January 2009, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has asked children aged 10 to 15 years resident in households in England and Wales, about their experience of crime in the previous 12 months. The Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) does not collect data directly from children aged 10 to 15 years. Therefore, crime survey data on crimes against children are only available to year ending March 2020.

Statistics on crime experienced by children aged 10 to 15 years can be found in the following publications using survey data up to year ending March 2020 only.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
This bulletin contains the latest figures from the CSEW and police recorded crime.

Appendix tables
These tables contain trends of headline figures of crime (number of incidents, incidence rates, prevalence rates, percentages, and percentage changes) broken down by crime type, for both police recorded and CSEW crime.

Crime in England and Wales: coronavirus (COVID-19) and crime tables
Information from a new module of questions included in the TCSEW. Data on children’s online activity based on responses provided by parent or guardian.

Other related tables 
Contain a more detailed look at the headline figures of crime, broken down by crime type. Child sexual abuse and child exploitation data tables up to year ending March 2020 only.

Annual trend and demographic tables
Additional data tables on crimes experienced by children by personal and household characteristics.

The nature of violent crime in England and Wales
A summary of violent crime from CSEW and police recorded crime.

Nature of crime tables, children aged 10 to 15 years violence
Annual data from the CSEW. Data include when and where incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim's perception of the incident, and who they reported the incident to.

Nature of crime tables, children aged 10 to 15 years theft
Annual data from the CSEW. Data include when and where incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim's perception of the incident, and who they reported the incident to.

Nature of crime tables, children aged 10 to 15 years criminal damage
Annual data from CSEW. Data include when and where incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim's perception of the incident, and who they reported the incident to.

Children's online behaviour in England and Wales: year ending March 2020
The prevalence and nature of online activity among children, using data from the 10- to 15-year-olds' CSEW.

Online bullying in England and Wales: year ending March 2020
Estimates of the prevalence and nature of online bullying among children, using data from the 10- to 15-year-olds' CSEW.

Coronavirus and crime in England and Wales: August 2020
This publication explores crime in England and Wales during April and May 2020 when the first national lockdown restrictions were at their strictest and includes an appendix table that presents online activity of children based on responses provided by parent or guardian.

Child victims of modern slavery in the UK: March 2022
Bulletin exploring the hidden nature of child victims of modern slavery including a progress report article on sourcing the data.

The following tables contain longer-term trends data and are published alongside each quarterly crime statistics bulletin, with the exception of the "Annual trend and demographic tables", which are published annually alongside the year-ending March quarterly bulletin and "Nature of crime tables".

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin appendix tables
Trends in Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) crime experienced by adults and children aged 10 to 15 years, and Home Office police recorded crime, by offence type. Also includes trends in offender relationship of CSEW violence. Following the suspension of the face-to-face CSEW on 17 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, from the year ending June 2020, data tables shown in this workbook also include data from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) but do not contain data on crimes experienced by children aged 10 to 15 years.

Quarterly data tables
Data from CSEW and Home Office police recorded crime broken down into quarterly time periods. Following the suspension of the face-to-face CSEW on 17 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, from the year ending June 2020, these tables only contain Home Office police recorded crime data.

Annual trend and demographic tables
These tables are mainly based on CSEW and TCSEW data and show breakdowns of victimisation over time and by various demographic characteristics.

Nature of crime tables
These tables are based on findings from CSEW interviews and give a picture of the nature of burglary, theft, criminal damage, violence, and crimes against children aged 10 to 15 years. Nature of crime tables include data on the timing and location of incidents, what was stolen or damaged, and the associated costs, injuries sustained, and weapons used in violent incidents, the emotional impact on the victim and information about contact with offenders. These tables include trends over time.

Historical crime data
Historical crime data is published by the Home Office. These datasets give individual offence data from the year ending December 1898 to the year ending March 2015 and individual offence data by police force area from the year ending December 1990 to the year ending March 2015.

Questions in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) ask respondents about their perception of change in national and local crime as well as their perceived likelihood of being a victim of burglary, vehicle crime or violent crime. Questions also ask respondents about their confidence in the police and the criminal justice system (CJS) and perceptions of anti-social behaviour.

Statistics on perceptions and worry about crime, perceptions of anti-social behaviour and confidence in the police and CJS can be found in the following publications.

Public perceptions of crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2016
An article covering public perceptions of crime and worry about crime at both the national and local level, using data from CSEW.

Latest crime statistics quarterly bulletin
Crime against households and adults using data from the CSEW, the TCSEW and police recorded crime.

Crime in England and Wales: coronavirus (COVID-19) and crime tables
Information from a new module of questions included in TCSEW around perceptions of crime, the police and anti-social behaviour during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Data on children's online activity are also presented.

Crime in England and Wales: Annual supplementary tables
Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on perceptions of the police, criminal justice system, crime, and anti-social behaviour. Also contains data on prevalence of intimate personal violence.

Police force area

Police recorded crime is available for each police force area. There are 44 police forces within England and Wales (including the British Transport Police).

Police Force Area data tables
The number of police recorded crimes, percentage change from previous year and rate per 1,000 population by offence group, firearms, knife and sharp instrument, fraud, and anti-social behaviour offences by police force area.

Community Safety Partnership and local authority

Recorded crime data by Community Safety Partnership area
Recorded crime figures for Community Safety Partnership areas, which equate in most cases to local authorities. Contains the number of offences for the last two years, percentage change between these two time periods and rates per 1,000 population for the latest year.

Other breakdowns

CSEW open data tables
This comprises a set of six data tables, which include personal and household crime incidence and prevalence, and perceptions broken down by region and other demographic characteristics.

Home Office police recorded crime open data tables
These tables, published by the Home Office, contain police recorded crime figures broken down by Community Safety Partnership, quarterly period, and individual offence code.

Crime Severity Score

Crime Severity Score (CSS) data for police force areas and community safety partnerships. Includes a data tool to enable production of summary charts on trends and comparisons between areas.

CSS (Experimental Statistics)
The CSS has been developed as an additional measure to supplement existing Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics on crime. This new measure weights different types of crime according to severity, with more serious crimes carrying a higher weight to better reflect the level of harm to society and demand on the police caused by crime. The data tool enables production of summary charts on trends and comparisons between areas.

Many of our tables contain data broken down by both personal and household characteristics. Personal characteristics include age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, and employment. Household characteristics include household structure, tenure, household income and accommodation type.

The following datasets contain data with these specific demographic breakdowns:

Annual trend and demographic tables
These tables are mainly based on Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) data and show breakdowns of victimisation over time and by various demographic characteristics.

Crime in England and Wales: Annual supplementary tables
Data from the CSEW on perceptions of the police, criminal justice system, crime, and anti-social behaviour. Also contains data on prevalence of intimate personal violence.

Home Office
Statistics on crime outcomes, arrests made by the police and other powers, number of police officers and other aspects of police personnel; the Home Office also publish police recorded crime by Community Safety Partnership (CSP) area within their police recorded crime open data tables.

Ministry of Justice
Statistics for England and Wales on the courts, prison population, perpetrators, and reoffending.

Police.UK
The Police.uk website includes police recorded crime data for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It provides street-level recorded crime counts presented using a crime mapping tool. This allows you to view crime maps for a specific area (for example, your own neighbourhood) and gives a count of crimes in that area as well as an indication of the street location where the crime occurred.

Crime statistics for Scotland are collected and published separately. The latest police recorded crime data for Scotland can be downloaded from Scottish Law and Order Statistics. The latest police recorded crime data for Northern Ireland can be downloaded from Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) Crime and Justice Statistics.