Crime Numbers for England and Wales in 2025
Introduction
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) gave numbers about crime in England and Wales for 2025. Some crimes went up. Some crimes went down.
Main Body
Police recorded more drug crimes. Drug crimes went up by 18% to 230,783. This is the highest number since 2011. Drug selling crimes went up by 26% to almost 76,000. This is a record high. Sex crimes also reached a record high of 215,180. That is 5% more than in 2024. Robbery (taking things by force) was 84,666. This is the highest in five years. The ONS said better police recording and more people reporting crimes caused these increases. Shoplifting (stealing from shops) went down by 1% to 509,566. But shop owners said the real number is much higher. They said there were 5.5 million thefts. A new rule in April 2025 changed how police record some crimes. If a person steals and then uses violence, it is now called robbery of a business. This change made robbery of businesses go up by 78%. Knife crime (crimes with knives) went down by 10% to 49,151. This is the lowest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most police areas saw fewer knife crimes. Killing someone with a knife went down by 21% to 172. This is the lowest number since records began in 2010/11. All killings went down by 6% to 503. Total violent crime stayed the same at 1.96 million. Total recorded crime (not including fraud) went down by 2% to 5.24 million. The ONS said that increases in recorded crime over the last ten years are mostly because police record crimes better now. So police numbers are not a good way to see real crime trends. Another survey asks people about crime. That survey said people aged 16 and over had 9.58 million crimes in 2025. This is about the same as last year and 15% lower than in 2016/17. Other data from the Home Office showed that only 8.2% of crimes reported to police ended with someone going to court. For sex crimes, the rate was 4.6%. For robbery, it was 9.6%. For theft, it was 8.5%. Politicians had different ideas about the numbers. Crime Minister Sarah Jones said the government is making crime go down. She said violent crime and knife killings are down. She said shoplifting is down and charges for shoplifters went up by 17%. She talked about new police reforms. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the opposite. He said shoplifting went up by 8% since the election. He said this shows a breakdown in law and order. He criticized the government for cutting police numbers and releasing prisoners early. He proposed adding 10,000 police officers and using facial recognition cameras.
Conclusion
The 2025 crime numbers show a mixed picture. Some serious crimes like drug selling and sex crimes reached record highs. Other crimes like knife crime and killings went down. The government and opposition disagree about the policies. The official numbers have limits because of how police record crimes and because some crimes are not reported.