Number of robbery offences in England and Wales 2002-2022

In 2021/22 there were approximately 66,288 robbery offences reported by the police in England and Wales, compared with 59,659 in the previous year. During the provided time period, the reporting year with the highest number of robberies was 2002/03, when there were 110,271.

Robbery following the overall trend

Unfortunately, the rise in robbery offences seen in recent years has not occurred in isolation. Overall crime in England and Wales fell for several years prior to 2014/15 before suddenly climbing upwards and reaching over 6.4 million offences in 2019/20.

Rising crime, falling resources

The increase in crime that has happened in recent years has led to an increasing focus on if the police have enough manpower and resources to reverse this trend. Compared with 2010 there are over 15 thousand fewer police officers in England and Wales and for the United Kingdom as a whole, spending on police services has decreased by over 2 billion British pounds across the same time period, before reaching 18.54 billion British pounds in 2019/20.