The crime rate of the United Kingdom in 2017/18 was 88 per thousand people, compared with 110 in 2002/03. During this time period the crime rate of England and Wales has been the highest in the UK, while Scotland's crime rate has improved the most, falling from 83 crimes per thousand people in 2002/03, to just 45 by 2017/18.
Overall crime on the rise
In 2017/18 there were approximately 5.87 million crimes recorded by the police in the United Kingdom, representing the highest figure since 2006/07 when there were around 5.97 million. In fact, since 2013/14 when there were just 4.4 million crimes, there has been year-on-year increases, following an almost constant trend of declining crime between the early 2000s and mid-2010s.
Is austerity to blame?
After the 2010 General Election in the UK the government adopted a fiscal policy which sought to reduce public spending across almost all government departments. Between 2009/10 and 2013/14 government spending on the Police Service fell from 19.3 billion to 16.35 billion. As a result of the decline in spending, police officer numbers declined by approximately 20 thousand in the same time period.
Crime rate per 1,000 population in the United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by country
Crime reports for the following countries include the country-specific crime rates, as well as the overall number of crimes which were used to calculate the crime rate for the entire UK.
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Statista, & Office for National Statistics (UK), & Scottish Government, & Police Service of Northern Ireland. (September 24, 2019). Crime rate per 1,000 population in the United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by country [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved February 26, 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/
Statista, und Office for National Statistics (UK), und Scottish Government, und Police Service of Northern Ireland. "Crime rate per 1,000 population in the United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by country." Chart. September 24, 2019. Statista. Accessed February 26, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/
Statista, Office for National Statistics (UK), Scottish Government, Police Service of Northern Ireland. (2019). Crime rate per 1,000 population in the United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by country. Statista. Statista Inc.. Accessed: February 26, 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/
Statista, and Office for National Statistics (UK), and Scottish Government, and Police Service of Northern Ireland. "Crime Rate per 1,000 Population in The United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by Country." Statista, Statista Inc., 24 Sep 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/
Statista & Office for National Statistics (UK) & Scottish Government & Police Service of Northern Ireland, Crime rate per 1,000 population in the United Kingdom from 2002/03 to 2018/19, by country Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030625/crime-rate-uk/ (last visited February 26, 2020)
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