You asked

​I would like data on crime rates, more precisely property and violent crime over a 20-year period. I want this data to be based on different counties in the UK. Also, I will have variables such as the prison sentencing, probability of conviction and the average sentence.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We publish figures on the trends of crime in England and Wales, including property and violent crime, primarily based on two sets of crime statistics: The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime data.

We publish crime statistics alongside our quarterly Crime in England and Wales statistical bulletin in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables. Appendix table A2 provides incidence rates per 1,000 adults, as estimated by the CSEW.  Data is available from the year ending December 1981 to the year ending March 2020 (please see year ending March 2020 data on this page for the latest CSEW estimate). Due to the sample size of the survey, analysis of this data is not held at county level.

Due to the suspension of the face-to-face Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on 17 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic a telephone-operated version of the CSEW (TCSEW) has specifically been designed to allow us to continue measuring crime during this period whilst face-to-face interviewing is not possible. Due to the change in survey mode TCSEW tables from the year ending June 2020 are not comparable with the time series data from the CSEW.

Table A4 in the Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables: year ending September 2020 shows the number of police recorded crimes by offence type for England and Wales, from the year ending March 2003 until the year ending September 2020.

We also publish police recorded crime data by police force area, rather than by counties, in Table P1 in our Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables. Table P1 shows the number of police recorded crimes by offence group and Table P3 provides the rate of these offences per 1,000 population.

For time series data the Home Office publish these data as open data tables on the Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables webpage.  

Population estimates to calculate the rates from the open data tables can also be found in Table P3. To calculate the rates for earlier years we have published a back series of population estimates in Tables P9 and P10 of our Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables: year ending March 2018.

The data we publish are only for England and Wales. Crime data for Scotland and Northern Ireland are collected and published separately and you may be able to find what you need by using the links below.

Scottish Law and Order Statistics

Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency