Historical trend
Trend summary
The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 4,424,000 total incidents of crime (excluding fraud) in the year ending December 2025, down 7% from 4,757,000 the previous year.
Trend
- CSEW total crime (excluding fraud) has fallen from a peak of around 19 million in 1995 to 4.4 million in 2025, a decline of approximately 77%.
- Most traditional crime types — burglary, vehicle theft, violent crime — have fallen substantially over the long run.
- The long-run fall accelerated after 1995; the rate of decline has slowed since around 2015.
Context
- The CSEW measures crime experienced by adults aged 16 and over in private households; it excludes crimes against businesses and public institutions.
- CSEW is considered more reliable than police-recorded data for trend analysis as it is not affected by changes in reporting or recording practice.
- Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales Appendix Tables, year ending December 2025 (Table A1a).
Commentary contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
About this indicator
- Source
- ONS/ Home Office
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Last updated
- 19 June 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↑ Rising
Statistics
- Latest
- 4.6k incidents
- Period high
- 4.6k incidents
- Period low
- 4.6k incidents
- Period average
- 4.6k incidents