Crime rate by area England and Wales 2024

With a crime rate of 132.4 per 1,000 people Cleveland, in North East England, had the highest crime rate of all the police force areas in England and Wales in 2023/24. High crime rates are evident in other areas of northern England, such as West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester at 121.7 and 117.7 respectively. In the English capital, London, the crime rate was 105.1 per 1,000 people. The lowest crime rate in England was in the relatively rural areas of Wiltshire in South West England, as well as North Yorkshire.

Overall crime on the in England and Wales

The number of crimes in England and Wales reached approximately 6.74 million in 2022/23, falling slightly to 6.66 million in 2023/24. Overall crime has been rising steadily across England and Wales for almost a decade, even when adjusted for population rises. In 2022/23, for example, the crime rate in England and Wales was 93.6, the highest since 2006/07. When compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, England and Wales is something of an outlier, as crime rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland have not followed the same trajectory of rising crime. Additionally, there has been a sharp increase in violent crimes and sexual offences since the mid-2010s in England and Wales. While theft offences have generally been falling, the number of shoplifting offences reached a peak of 440,000 in 2023/24.

Troubled justice system under pressure

Alongside rising crime figures, many indicators also signal that the justice system is getting pushed to breaking point. The percentage of crimes that are solved in England and Wales was just 5.7 percent in 2023, with sexual offences having a clearance rate of just 3.6 percent. Crimes are also taking far longer than usual to pass through the justice system. In 2023, it took an average of 676 days for a crown court case to reach a conclusion from the time of the offence. This is most likely related to the large backlog of cases in crown courts, which reached over 62,200 in 2023. Furthermore, prisons in England and Wales are dangerously overcrowded, with just 1,458 spare prison places available as of June 2024.

Crime rate per 1,000 population in England and Wales in 2023/24, by police force area

Characteristic	Crime rate per thousand population
England and Wales	110.5
Cleveland	132.4
West Yorkshire	121.7
Greater Manchester	117.7
South Yorkshire	111.1
West Midlands	111.1
Metropolitan Police (London)	105.1
Humberside	105
Durham	100.8
Merseyside	100.8
Northumbria	98.5
Gwent	96.5
Kent	88.7
Nottinghamshire	86.8
Leicestershire	86.7
South Wales	85.6
Avon and Somerset	85.3
Lancashire	83.5
Derbyshire	82.4
Essex	82.2
Gloucestershire	80.3
North Wales	80.3
Hampshire	79.7
Sussex	79.1
Cambridgeshire	76.2
Northamptonshire	75.8
Staffordshire	75.3
Lincolnshire	71.3
Cheshire	71.1
Cumbria	70.7
Dyfed-Powys	70.5
Bedfordshire	70.3
Thames Valley	68.6
West Mercia	65.9
Warwickshire	65.7
Dorset	64.7
Norfolk	64.3
Hertfordshire	61.9
Surrey	61.9
Suffolk	59.7
Devon and Cornwall	59.6
North Yorkshire	57.4
Wiltshire	54.2

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Release date

July 2024

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Region

United Kingdom (England, Wales)

Survey time period

April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2024

Supplementary notes

This statistic is using original data from the Office for National Statistics and includes copyright material from © Crown, licensed under the Open Government License v3.0.

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