In 2024/25, there were approximately 78,800 robbery offences reported by the police in England and Wales, compared with 81,000 in the previous year. During the provided time period, the reporting year with the highest number of robberies was 2002/03, when there were around 110,270. From 2002/03 onwards, robberies in England and Wales generally declined and reached a low of just 50,150 offences in 2014/15. Robberies increased from this year onwards, however, with 2019/20 seeing the highest number of offences since 2006/07. What types of crime are increasing? Unfortunately, the rise in robbery offences seen recently has not occurred in isolation. Overall crime in England and Wales also fell for several years before 2014/15 before suddenly climbing upwards and reaching a peak of over 6.74 million offences in 2022/23. Violent crime and sexual offences have both increased substantially, and while overall theft has declined, shoplifting offences have surged since the pandemic, with over 530,600 offences in 2024/25. This crime spike has led to a focus on the police and if they have enough manpower and resources to reverse this trend. The number of police officers was cut by around 20,000 between 2010 and 2016, while spending was reduced in a similar period, though expenditure has since increased and officer numbers are comparable to 2010 levels. Robbery and the UK justice system Robbery is considered one of the most serious criminal offences, defined as both a violent and property crime. The offence carries one of the longest average prisons sentences in England and Wales, at 45.2 months, or almost four years. Serious crimes such as this would typically be tried in Crown Courts, yet as of 2025, there is a significant backlog of cases awaiting trial. This has led to an increasingly delayed justice system, with the average time an offence reached a conclusion in crown courts reaching 407 days in 2022. At the back end of the justice system, prisons are struggling with capacity issues and have been operating with very little spare capacity for several years.

When incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim’s perception of the incident, injuries sustained, use of weapons and if the offender was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

In 2024/25, there were approximately 1.78 million theft offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales, compared with just under 3.41 million in 2002/23. Unlike overall crime, the number of police recorded theft offences has not seen a substantial increase, with the number of thefts in the 2020s similar to that a decade earlier, with a small uptick in the late 2010s. This is however due to the decline of certain types of theft, with some types of theft increasing substantially since the pandemic. Shoplifting offences peak in 2025 In 2024/25, there were around 530,640 shoplifting offences reported by the police in England and Wales, a peak for this type of crime and a noticeable increase on the previous year. Areas of the country with the highest shoplifting rates include Cleveland, Nottinghamshire, and Sussex. Aside from shoplifting, theft from the person offences also reached a peak in the 2024/25 reporting year, at over 151,000 offences, compared with just 78,000 ten years previous. This type of theft is usually accomplished via pickpocketing or snatching and doesn't involve the implicit use or threat of force that a robbery offence would. Shifting crime patterns Since the early 2000s, there has been a significant fall in the number of burglaries in England and Wales. It's possible this is due to the falling value of certain types of goods, such as TVs, that would typically be targeted in a burglary, with home security technology also improving during this time. The rise of fraud offences and the proliferation of the online scam industry also suggest that would-be criminals have moved online, adoping increasingly sophisticated tactics to steal from people rather than via more conventional theft methods.

In the 2024/25 reporting year, the number of theft crime offences per 1,000 people was 29.2 in England and Wales, with the Metropolitan Police in London reporting the highest theft crime rate among police force areas, at 52.9.

When incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim’s perception of the incident, and what items were stolen. Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

This statistic shows the number of young people found guilty of robbery in England and Wales in 2018/19, by age group. For the ages 15-17 there were *** young offenders who were sentenced for such crimes.

The average for 2017 based on 79 countries was 105 robberies per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Costa Rica: 1587 robberies per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Oman: 1 robberies per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 2003 to 2017. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2024/25, there were 151,220 theft from person offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales, compared with 131,584 in the previous reporting year.

Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and metal theft offences recorded by the police, including demographic and offence type breakdowns and time series data.

Metal theft recorded by police forces in England and Wales.

Source agency: Home Office

Designation: Experimental Official Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Metal theft in England and Wales

This release covers offences involving metal theft recorded by police in England and Wales. Metal theft is not a crime defined by law, but is recorded by police under broader offence classifications, such as other theft offences and burglary. It refers to thefts of items for the value of their constituent metals, rather than the acquisition of the item. This release, where possible, differentiates between infrastructure-related metal theft and non-infrastructure-related metal theft.

When incidents happened, information about offenders, the victim’s perception of the incident, and what items were stolen. Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

When incidents happened, where it took place, the victim’s perception of the incident, and what items were stolen or damaged. Annual data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

This is the tenth report in an annual series combining crimes recorded by the police and interviews from the British Crime Survey (BCS) for the financial year 2010/11. Each source has different strengths and weaknesses but together they provide a more comprehensive picture of crime than could be obtained from either series alone. Bicycle theft covers thefts of bicycles belonging to the respondent or any member of the respondent’s household. This category does not include every bicycle theft, as some may be stolen during the course of another offence (eg. burglary) and are therefore classified as such in the BCS. Vandalism in the British Crime Survey covers any intentional and malicious damage to private households and their property. It does not include accidental damage or incidents that do not incur financial cost to the victim to repair the damage. Vehicles within the scope of the BCS are non-commercial cars, vans, motorbikes, scooters and mopeds. Responsibility for the compilation and publication of all crime statistics (British Crime Survey and Police Recorded Crime) for England and Wales will transfer from the Home Office to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 1 April 2012 as announced by the Home Secretary in July 2011. The ONS will publish for the first time on 19 April 2012.

There were approximately 4.96 million crime offences recorded by the police in England in 2024/25, a decrease when compared with the previous reporting year.

This category shows police-recorded crimes where the offender has used force (or threatened to do so) in order to steal something. This includes stealing both from an individual (robbery of personal property) and from a business (robbery of business property). This category also includes assaults with attempt to rob.

This data is based on a rolling calendar quarter covering 12 months.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).