Historical trend
Trend summary
England and Wales recorded 486 homicides in the year ending March 2025, a rate of 0.86 per 100,000 population — the lowest since records began in their current form.
Trend
- The homicide rate peaked at 1.79 per 100,000 in year ending March 2003 (influenced by the Shipman inquiry reclassifications) and has broadly declined since.
- Excluding the Shipman-affected years, the long-run trend has been downward from around 1.3 per 100,000 in the early 1990s.
- Knife-related homicides account for around 40% of all homicides recorded by police; this share has been broadly stable.
Context
- ONS publishes homicide statistics annually based on the year ending March; figures are 'currently recorded as homicide' and are subject to revision as inquests conclude.
- Rates are per 100,000 population of England and Wales; the ONS appendix tables publish rates per million, divided by 10 here.
Commentary contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
G7 comparison
UK ranks #4 of 7 in the G7 (lower is better)
🇯🇵 Japan
0.2 per 100,000
🇮🇹 Italy
0.5 per 100,000
🇩🇪 Germany
0.8 per 100,000
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
0.9 per 100,000
🇫🇷 France
1.4 per 100,000
🇨🇦 Canada
2.1 per 100,000
🇺🇸 United States
6.3 per 100,000
About this indicator
- Source
- ONS/ Home Office
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Last updated
- 22 June 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↓ Falling
Statistics
- Latest
- 0.9 per 100,000
- Period high
- 0.9 per 100,000
- Period low
- 0.9 per 100,000
- Period average
- 0.9 per 100,000