Historical trend
Trend summary
Police in England and Wales recorded 5,241,415 offences (excluding fraud) in the year ending December 2025, up 1.4% from 5,168,016 in 2024.
Trend
- Police-recorded crime (excluding fraud) rose from 4.9 million in 2007–08 to 5.2 million in 2025, with substantial year-to-year variation.
- A sharp fall occurred during 2020 (COVID lockdowns), followed by a rebound.
- The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows a very different long-run trend (falling since 1995); police-recorded figures reflect recording practice changes as much as underlying crime.
Context
- Excludes fraud and computer misuse; those offences add approximately 5.2 million if included (from CSEW estimates).
- Source: ONS Crime in England and Wales Appendix Tables, year ending December 2025 (Table D4).
Commentary contains no editorial judgement — describes direction, magnitude, and official projections only.
About this indicator
- Source
- Home Office
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Last updated
- 19 June 2026
- Licence
- OGL v3
- Direction
- ↓ Falling
Statistics
- Latest
- 5.24m offences
- Period high
- 5.34m offences
- Period low
- 5.24m offences
- Period average
- 5.29m offences