Crime rate in England and Wales 2021/22, by police force area

With a crime rate of 129 per 1,000 people Cleveland, in North East England, had the highest crime rate of all the police force areas in England and Wales in 2021/22. High crime rates are evident in other areas of northern England, such as West Yorkshire which had a crime rate of 125.5. In the English capital, London, the crime rate was 92.3 per 1,000 people. The lowest crime rate in England was in the relatively rural area of Wiltshire in South West England, with a crime rate of 55.8.

Regional homicide rates

Although the North East of England had the highest crime rate in this year, it had a relatively low homicide rate of 10.1 per million people. North West England had the second highest homicide rate at 15.5 per million people, followed by the UK capital, London which had a homicide rate of 14.5.

Overall UK crime rate

In 2019/20, the crime rate for the United Kingdom was 96.4 crimes per one thousand people, with England & Wales having a much higher crime rate of 102.8 crimes per thousand people than Scotland’s 45.1 crimes per thousand people. The number of overall crimes in the United Kingdom has been steadily climbing from a low of 4.4 million recorded in 2013/14, reaching 6.43 million in 2019/20.