There were 116 homicides recorded by the police in London in the 2023/24 reporting year, compared with 112 in 2022/23. During this provided time period, 2017/18 had the most homicides in London at 159, with the fewest occurring in 2016/17, when there were 107. Comparisons with the rest of the UK With a homicide rate of 13.1 per million people, London had the highest homicide rate among UK regions in 2023/24. On a more localized level, the Metropolitan Police of Greater London reported a lower homicide rate than other police force areas that cover major cities, such as the West Midlands Police Force, while the highest homicide rate among UK police forces was in Cleveland, in North East England. Across England and Wales as a whole, the number of homicides in 2023/24 was 583, compared with 581 in the previous year. Knives the most common weapon used In 2022/23 there were 244 homicides in England and Wales involving a knife or other sharp instrument. As a comparison, there were just 29 homicides caused by a firearm in the same reporting year. While guns are generally difficult to obtain in the United Kingdom, knives are far more prevalent and have become a major problem for the police, particularly in London. The number of knife crime offences in London rose from 9,752 in 2015/16 to over 15,928 by 2019/20, before falling back recently, to 12,786 in 2022/23. Although 2023/24 saw a return to near pre-pandemic levels, with 15,016 offences.

In 2024/25, there were 104 homicide offences recorded in London, the most of any region of the United Kingdom during that time period. North West England, which includes the large cities of Manchester and Liverpool, had 69 homicides and had the second-highest number of homicides. In the same reporting period, the constituent countries of Wales and Northern Ireland reported the fewest homicides, at 23, and 13 respectively. Homicides in the UK falling despite recent uptick Since 2002/03, all three jurisdictions of the UK; England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, have seen their homicide rates fall, with Scotland seeing the steepest decline. The most significant decline in homicides in this period occurred between 2002/03 and 2014/15, which saw the annual number of homicides in England and Wales half from over 1,000 to around 500. This trend was suddenly reversed from 2015/16 onwards, with homicides rising to around 700 per year between 2016/17 and 2019/20. While homicides fell back to 535 in 2024/25, it remains to be seen if this pattern will continue. Knives used in almost half of all murders In 2024/25 a knife or other sharp instruments were used in approximately 46 percent of all murders in England and Wales, making this, by far, the most common method of killing in that reporting year. The overall number of knife homicides reached 262 in 2023/24, compared with 243 in the previous year. Firearm homicides were much rarer than knife homicides, with only 22 taking place in the same reporting year, and homicides caused by shooting only accounting for 3.9 percent of homicides overall.

The crime rate in London was 106.4 crime offences per thousand people for the 2024/25 reporting year, compared with 105.8 in the previous year. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20, the crime rate in the UK capital increased in every reporting year. The sudden drop in 2019/20 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing a sharp reduction in certain types of crime, such as robbery and theft. Crime patterns in the capital Overall there were 951,803 crimes reported by the police in London in 2024/25, compared with 938,020 in the previous reporting year. Types of crime that have increased recently include violent crimes, shoplifting, and theft from the person offences. One positive is that the number of homicide offences in London has fallen to much lower levels than seen in the late 2010s. Additionally, the Metropolitan Police force area has a lower crime rate than many of the UK's other major police forces, such as West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, and South Yorkshire. Police recruitment drive ends era of cuts  The rise in crime in London happened alongside a decline in both personnel and funding for the London Metropolitan Police. Compared with 2010 for example, there were around 3,000 fewer police officers in 2018, while annual funding was reduced to around 3.3 billion pounds between 2013/14 and 2018/19, compared with 3.62 billion in 2012/13. These cuts were due to the policy of austerity that was implemented by the UK government during that time period, but this has recently been replaced by pledges to increase spending and to recruit more police. In 2024/25, the budget for the Metropolitan Police was over five billion pounds, while the number of officers in 2024 increased to around 35,310.

This data counts the number of crimes at two different geographic levels of London (LSOA and borough) by year, according to crime type. Includes data from 2008 to present. Crime categories are included in the BigQuery table description. This public dataset is hosted in Google BigQuery and is included in BigQuery's 1TB/mo of free tier processing. This means that each user receives 1TB of free BigQuery processing every month, which can be used to run queries on this public dataset. Watch this short video to learn how to get started quickly using BigQuery to access public datasets. What is BigQuery .

There were eleven teenage homicides recorded by the police in London in 2024, with 2021 seeing the highest number of teenage murder victims in this provided time period, at 30.

This dataset is about books. It has 6 rows and is filtered where the book subjects is Murder victims-England-London. It features 9 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

Number and rate (per 100,000 population) of homicide victims, Canada and Census Metropolitan Areas, 1981 to 2024.

This dataset is about books. It has 2 rows and is filtered where the book is 1888 : London murders in the year of the Ripper. It features 7 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

Part of Release: Official Sub-Ward, Ward and Borough level crime counts. Choose from the three data sets (‘Sub-Ward data’, ‘Ward data’ or ‘Borough data’) according to your requirements. This page contains the borough level data files Click here for corresponding LSOA level data: Recorded Crime Summary Data for London: LSOA Level Click here for corresponding ward level data: Recorded Crime Summary Data for London: Ward Level ‘Borough data’ counts the number of crimes in each Local Authority area of London per month, according to crime type. Use this data if you need to analyse crime data according to the location of geographic boroughs. The categories of crime counts within them may change from time to time. Below is a list of the crime types you can currently extract (*only at borough or ward level): Minor Category: Major Category Murder: ViolenceAgainstThePerson CommonAssault: ViolenceAgainstThePerson OffensiveWeapon: ViolenceAgainstThePerson Harassment: ViolenceAgainstThePerson Otherviolence: ViolenceAgainstThePerson AssaultWithInjury: ViolenceAgainstThePerson WoundingGBH: ViolenceAgainstThePerson *Rape: SexualOffences *OtherSexual: SexualOffences PersonalProperty: Robbery BusinessProperty: Robbery BurglaryInADwelling: Burglary BurglaryInOtherBuildings: Burglary TheftOrTakingOfMotor: TheftAndHandling TheftFromMotor: TheftAndHandling MotorInterferenceAndTampering: TheftAndHandling TheftFromShops: TheftAndHandling TheftOrTakingOfPedalCycles: TheftAndHandling OtherTheftPerson: TheftAndHandling OtherTheft: TheftAndHandling HandlingStolenGoods: TheftAndHandling *CountedPerVictim: FraudOrForgery *OtherFraudAndForgery: FraudOrForgery CriminalDamageToADwelling: CriminalDamage CriminalDamageToOtherBldg: CriminalDamage CriminalDamageToMotor: CriminalDamage OtherCriminalDamage: CriminalDamage DrugTrafficking: Drugs PossessionOfDrugs: Drugs OtherDrugOffences: Drugs GoingEquipped: OtherNotifiableOffences OtherNotifiable: OtherNotifiableOffences Each row of data in the data sets contains: *The number of incidents according to the Month Recorded, the specific crime type, and the Location *The Month Recorded *The broad crime type (Major HO category – eg Robbery) *The specific crime type (Minor HO category – eg Robbery: Personal Property) *The Location (Sub –Ward, Ward or borough depending on the data set selected)

The number of knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the police in London rose to approximately 15,016 in 2023/24, compared with 12,786 in the previous year. This was the highest number of knife crime offences reported in London since 2019/20, when there were 15,928 offences. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20, knife crime in London increased yearly, with a particularly large increase occurring between 2016/16 and 2017/18. A wider trend The increase in knife crime witnessed in London has occurred alongside a general increase in overall crime throughout England and Wales. In 2022/23, there were approximately 6.74 million crime offences across England and Wales, compared with just over four million ten years earlier. During a similar time period, the number of knife homicides also increased, and reached 282 in 2021/22, compared with 186 in 2014/15. Due to strict gun laws in the United Kingdom, firearms are rarely used to commit homicides, with knives or other sharp instruments being used in over 41.4 percent of homicides in 2022/23. Acid and moped attacks While knife crime in London has certainly been given a lot of attention by the British media, the increase in acid and moped attacks during the same time period also generated many headlines. In 2017, for example, there were 471 acid attacks recorded by the Metropolitan Police, compared with just 51 in 2007. Moped crime also reached high levels in 2017, with both types of crime declining to much lower levels by the early 2020s. Although overall crime in London continued to rise until 2019/20, this fell back during the COVID-19 pandemic, but by 2023/24, the number of crimes committed in the capital had exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

There has been little research on United States homicide rates from a long-term perspective, primarily because there has been no consistent data series on a particular place preceding the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which began its first full year in 1931. To fill this research gap, this project created a data series on homicides per capita for New York City that spans two centuries. The goal was to create a site-specific, individual-based data series that could be used to examine major social shifts related to homicide, such as mass immigration, urban growth, war, demographic changes, and changes in laws. Data were also gathered on various other sites, particularly in England, to allow for comparisons on important issues, such as the post-World War II wave of violence. The basic approach to the data collection was to obtain the best possible estimate of annual counts and the most complete information on individual homicides. The annual count data (Parts 1 and 3) were derived from multiple sources, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports and Supplementary Homicide Reports, as well as other official counts from the New York City Police Department and the City Inspector in the early 19th century. The data include a combined count of murder and manslaughter because charge bargaining often blurs this legal distinction. The individual-level data (Part 2) were drawn from coroners' indictments held by the New York City Municipal Archives, and from daily newspapers. Duplication was avoided by keeping a record for each victim. The estimation technique known as "capture-recapture" was used to estimate homicides not listed in either source. Part 1 variables include counts of New York City homicides, arrests, and convictions, as well as the homicide rate, race or ethnicity and gender of victims, type of weapon used, and source of data. Part 2 includes the date of the murder, the age, sex, and race of the offender and victim, and whether the case led to an arrest, trial, conviction, execution, or pardon. Part 3 contains annual homicide counts and rates for various comparison sites including Liverpool, London, Kent, Canada, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco.

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

This dataset is about books. It has 3 rows and is filtered where the book subjects is Jack the Ripper Murders, London, England, 1888. It features 9 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

This dataset is about books. It has 1 row and is filtered where the book is Murder at the Tower of London. It features 7 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

🇬🇧 영국 English The data used in the MPS Homicide dashboard is available here Homicide dashboard | Metropolitan Police, along with the related data definitions. Please note that, this data set running quarterly behind with quarterly update. What does it show and how was the content agreed? In English and Welsh law, Homicide consists of the sum of 4 separate offences: Murder (Common Law) * Manslaughter (sec 5 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861) Infanticide (Infanticide Act 1938) Corporate Manslaughter (Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007) these will not show gender for People Proceeded Against. *Note that since 1996, the 'Year and a day rule' has been abolished. Therefore crimes of GBH can be upgraded to murder if the victim dies from their injuries at any point in time past the original offence. Caveats Jurisdiction: Not all homicides in London are recorded by the MPS and presented in this report. It should be noted that 2 other police forces have jurisdiction within the boundary of London: The City of London Police (COLP) and British Transport Police (BTP). Therefore any homicides committed within their jurisdiction will be recorded and reported by them, and not the MPS. Terrorism: The victims of the terrorist attacks in London in 2005 and 2017 are included in this data. However, note that for 2005, the victims of the Tavistock Square bus bombing are in the jurisdiction of the MPS and so included in this report, whereas the victims of the three tube train bombings are in the jurisdiction of the BTP and so do not appear in this report. In addition, note that for the London Bridge attacks of 2017, 1 victim was in the jurisdiction of the COLP and so is not in this report, whereas the rest of the victims were in the jurisdiction of the MPS and so are in this report. Due to an internal IT deployment, from 27th February these datasets may be temporarily disrupted. Work is ongoing to rebuild these datasets.

The data used in the MPS Homicide dashboard is available here Homicide dashboard | Metropolitan Police, along with the related data definitions. Please note that, this data set running quarterly behind with quarterly update.

What does it show and how was the content agreed?

In English and Welsh law, Homicide consists of the sum of 4 separate offences:

Murder (Common Law) *

Manslaughter (sec 5 of the Offences Against The Person Act 1861)

Infanticide (Infanticide Act 1938)

Corporate Manslaughter (Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007) these will not show gender for People Proceeded Against.

*Note that since 1996, the 'Year and a day rule' has been abolished. Therefore crimes of GBH can be upgraded to murder if the victim dies from their injuries at any point in time past the original offence.

Caveats

Jurisdiction: Not all homicides in London are recorded by the MPS and presented in this report. It should be noted that 2 other police forces have jurisdiction within the boundary of London: The City of London Police (COLP) and British Transport Police (BTP). Therefore any homicides committed within their jurisdiction will be recorded and reported by them, and not the MPS.

Terrorism: The victims of the terrorist attacks in London in 2005 and 2017 are included in this data. However, note that for 2005, the victims of the Tavistock Square bus bombing are in the jurisdiction of the MPS and so included in this report, whereas the victims of the three tube train bombings are in the jurisdiction of the BTP and so do not appear in this report. In addition, note that for the London Bridge attacks of 2017, 1 victim was in the jurisdiction of the COLP and so is not in this report, whereas the rest of the victims were in the jurisdiction of the MPS and so are in this report.

Due to an internal IT deployment, from 27th February these datasets may be temporarily disrupted. Work is ongoing to rebuild these datasets.

Please refer here for further information.