There were ***** firearm offences recorded in London 2023/24, compared with ***** in 2022/23. There was a noticeable drop in gun crime at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with offences falling from ***** in 2019/20 to ***** in 2021/21, and ***** in 2021/22. This is also reflected in London's overall crime rate, which fell from ***** crimes per 1,000 people in 2019/20, to **** in 2020/21, before increasing to **** in 2021/22, and ***** in the most recent reporting year. Firearm homicides rare in the UK The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, resulting in relatively low levels of gun crime and firearm homicides. In 2023/24 just *** percent of homicides in England and Wales were the result of shootings, compared with *****percent in the United States in 2023. The most common method of killing for homicides in England and Wales was by far the use of a sharp instrument, such as knife, at ** percent of homicides in the 2023/24 reporting year. London police budget cut in 2025/26 In 2025/26, the budget for policing in London was cut to **** billion pounds, from over **** billion in 2024/25. Prior to this, London's police budget increased for sixth-consecutive years, occurred alongside a recruitment drive for police officers, which had fallen to quite low levels in the mid 2010s. It is unlikely that the London policing budget will fall to as low as it did in the mid 2010s, when the budget was effectively frozen at around *** billion pounds a year between 2013/14 and 2018/19

Knives or other sharp objects were involved in ** percent of homicides in England and Wales in 2023/24, the most of any method of killing. Homicides which involved hitting or kicking without a weapon made up **** percent of homicides, while shootings were identified as the method in *** percent of homicides. Overall, there were *** homicides in this reporting year, which was slightly lower than in the previous year, when there were ***, but noticeably higher than in 2014/15, when there were ***. Firearm homicides rare in England and Wales In 2023/24, there were *** knife homicides in England and Wales, compared with *** in 2021/22, which was the highest figure recently. By comparison, homicides which involved the use of a firearm were far less common, with just ** in the 2023/24 reporting year. Due to strict gun laws and low levels of ownership, the UK contrasts starkly with the United States, which has struggled with high levels of gun violence. Although some specialist police officers in England and Wales are licensed to carry firearms, the majority of police officers are unarmed. In 2023/24, for example, there were just ***** armed police, out of around ******* police officers. Overall knife crime on the rise Like many other types of crime, knife crime offences in the ***** started to decline at the start of the decade before creeping up again from 2014 onwards, reaching almost ****** in 2019/20. In London, where much of the media’s attention on knife crime is focused, there were ****** knife crime offences alone in 2019/20. Although this fell during subsequent reporting years, which were influenced by COVID-19 restrictions, it remains to be seen if the trend will continue. In 2023/24, the number of knife offences in the capital was higher than in any other year since 2019/20.

Data tables relating to offences involving weapons as recorded by police and hospital episode statistics.

In 2023/24, 22 homicide offences involved the use of a firearm in England and Wales, compared with 29 in the previous reporting year. Overall, there were 570 homicides in England and Wales in 2023/24, with 262 of these involving a knife or other sharp instrument.

Number of recorded firearms offences per 1,000 of the population.

In 2023/24, the police in England and Wales fatally shot two people, compared with three in the previous reporting year, and six in 2016/17. During the same reporting year, the police used firearms twice, compared with ten times in 2022/23. In general, the police in England and Wales and in the rest of the UK do not have a tradition of carrying firearms, with the country having some of the strictest gun laws in the world. In 2023/24, out of around 147,746 police officers, just 5,861 were licensed to carry firearms in England and Wales. Comparisons with the United States Among developed economies, the United States is something of an outlier when it comes to police shootings. In 2024, it is estimated that the police in the United States fatally shot 1,173 people. There are also significant disparities based on a person's ethnicity. Between 2015 and March 2024, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was 6.1 per one million people, 2.7 per million people for Hispanic Americans and 2.4 per million people for white Americans. Gun violence overall is also far more prevalent in the United States, with 42 percent of American households owning a firearm as of 2023. Gun homicides rare in England and Wales Of the 583 homicides that took place in England and Wales in 2023/24, just 22 were committed by a person using a firearm. By far the most common method of killing was using a knife or other sharp instrument, at 262 homicides, or around 46 percent of them. Compared with twenty years ago, homicides in England and Wales have declined, falling from 1,047 in 2002/03, to just 533 in 2014/15. After this point, annual homicides rose, and by 2016/17 there were more than 700 homicides recorded in England and Wales. Although there have been some fluctuations, particularly during 2020/21 at the height of COVID-19 lockdowns.

Number of recorded firearms offences per 1,000 of the population.

This dataset shows the levels of various crimes throughout the Boroughs of London, UK. Data is available monthly, with September being the most recently available month.

There were 535 homicides recorded in England and Wales in 2024/25, the fewest number of homicides in a reporting year since 2013/14, when there were 533. Between 2002/03 and 2013/14, the number of homicides in England and Wales fell significantly before rising again in the late 2010s. This increase in homicides occurred alongside an increase in the overall number of crimes, with police officials linking this to long-term cuts to their manpower and resources. Knives involved in almost half of all homicides In the 2023/24 reporting year, homicides involving a sharp instrument were involved in 262 incidents, an increase on the previous reporting year, when there were 243 knife homicides. As a proportion of all homicides, sharp instruments were the main method of killing, and were used in 46 percent of all homicides in 2023/23. Firearm homicides are quite rare in England and Wales, with shooting homicides only accounting for 3.9 percent of all homicides in the same reporting year. Since 2011/12 there have been 369 firearm homicides in England and Wales, compared with 3,743 knife homicides in the same period. Homicide rate highest in Lincolnshire With 104 homicides, London was the UK region with the highest number of homicides in 2024/25, although it was behind several police areas when it came to the homicide rate. At 17.9 homicides per one million people, Lincolnshire Police had the highest homicide rate in England and Wales in 2024/25. When compared with the rest of the UK, the overall homicide rate in England and Wales was above that of Northern Ireland, but below that of Scotland. In all jurisdictions of the UK, the homicide rate is however far lower in the 2020s than it was during the 2000s.

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.

Raw data on crime supplied by the Metropolitan Police Service and the Mayors Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). Pan-London data includes: - Total Notifiable Offences - Total Victim-based crime (and Sanctioned Detection Rates) - Violence against the Person - Violence with injury (VWI) (and SDR) - Serious Youth Violence - Female victims of robbery & Violence with Injury - Rape - Knife Crime (and SDR) - Knife Crime with Injury - Gun Crime (and SDR) - Gun Crime with firearm discharged - Gang violence indicator - Dog Attacks (and SDR) - Homicide - Sexual Offences - Burglary (all) - Burglary (residential) - Robbery (all) - Theft & Handling - Theft from Person - Theft of Motor Vehicle - Theft from Motor Vehicle - Criminal Damage - Domestic Offences - Homophobic Hate Victims - Racist & Religious Hate Victims - Faith Hate Victims - Disability Hate Victims - Stop & Search Totals (and related Arrest rate) - Police Strengths - Officer/Sergeant/Staff/Special Constable/PCSO - Satisfaction/Confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service (ease of contact/satisfaction with action taken/well-informed/fairly treated/overall satisfaction/overall confidence) NB. Quarterly data - Crime-related calls to Police by category - Anti-Social Behaviour-related calls to Police by category Borough data includes: - Fear of crime ("to what extent are you worried about crime in this area?") NB. Quarterly data NB. Action Fraud have taken over the recording of fraud offences nationally on behalf of individual police forces. This process began in April 2011 and was rolled out to all police forces by March 2013. Data for Greater London is available from Action Fraud here .

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.

The Balkan countries Montenegro and Albania have the highest murder rates with cases involving firearms in Europe. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Sweden came third. The Scandinavian country has seen increasing levels of gang-related violence in recent years.

Check out where the United States Speakers of the House of Representatives have been born! Data Source: http://www.lonympics.co.uk/new/birthplaceofPresidentsUSA.htm#President Accessed on 27 Sept. 2007

This dataset displays the population statistics by county and age for England and Wales. This data is derived from statistics from the 2001 UK Census. Due to variation in the data and the shapefile data is not available for Merseyside, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and Tyne and Wear.

This data reports natural gas proved reserves (in trillion cubic meters) by country for the years 1980 to 2005. The data comes from the British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy. www.bp.com

Between 2021 and 2024, the homicide rate for people of the Black ethnic group was **** homicides per million population in England and Wales, far higher than that of the white ethnic group, which was *** victims per million population for the same time period.