In 2022, the population of Merseyside metropolitan county stood at approximately 1.44 million, with around 740,667 women and 701,414 men.

The population of Merseyside Metropolitan County in 2023 was estimated to be approximately *****million, with the overall population divided into five metropolitan districts. The metropolitan district of Liverpool had the largest population, at over *******, followed by Wirral at almost *******.

The population of Liverpool and the rest of Merseyside metropolitan county in 2023 was estimated to be approximately 1.46 million, compared with 1.37 million in 2001.

Merseyside Police, responsible for policing the city of Liverpool and surrounding areas, performed 34.6 stop and searches per 1,000 population in 2023/24, the highest rate among police forces in England and Wales.

This statistic shows hospital admission episodes for dog bites and strikes per 100,000 population in England from March 2014 to February 2015, by area. The area with the highest incidence of such attacks was Merseyside. With 27 admissions per 100,000 population, this was 19.7 more than the lowest ranking area of Kent and Medway.

In the 2023/24 reporting year, Merseyside Police reported *** drug offences per 1,000 population, the highest among police force areas of England and Wales in this year.

London's Metropolitan Police is by far the largest police force in the United Kingdom with 34,315 officers in 2024. At 16,356 officers, the Scottish police force has the second-largest force in terms of officer numbers, followed by Greater Manchester police force, which had 8,141 officers that year. Although the Metropolitan Police are responsible for policing most of Greater London, the City of London Police force covers the historic center of London, which is around one square mile in size, and numbered 995 officers in 2024. Crime in the UK In 2023/24 there were approximately 6.66 million crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, compared with 6.74 million in 2022/23, which was the highest number of crimes recorded in a reporting year since 2002/03. Although crime declined from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s, there has been a noticeable increase in crimes from 2014/15 onwards. In terms of the crime rate, England and Wales had the highest in the United Kingdom, at 89.7 offences per one thousand people, compared with 55 in Scotland, and 52.3 in Northern Ireland. Cuts to policing reversed in recent years Between 2010 and 2017, the number of police officers in the UK fell from 172,000 officers to just 150,000. During this same period, the London Metropolitan Police saw officer numbers decline by around 2,000 officers. The fall in police personnel was a result of UK-wide funding cuts, during this time period, with police expenditure falling from 19.3 billion in 2009/10 to 16.35 billion by 2013/14. This policy has since been reversed, with the last UK government recruiting officers and generally spending more on the police service. As of 2024, there were 170,500 police officers in the UK, and government expenditure on the police service was 27.3 billion British pounds.