Crime in one image
What has fallen, what has risen, and where the exceptions are.
UK Facts · Crime
Crime has more than halved. Knife crime has not.
Two official measures, two different answers — and they are not contradicting each other. They count different things.
- 9.54mCrime Survey incidents, year to March 2010The survey asks the public what happened to them, including crimes never reported
- 4.33myear to March 2026A fall of more than half over sixteen years
- 48,774but knife offences rose over the same periodPolice-recorded offences involving a knife, up from 36,068 in 2011 — down 8% on the year, but well above a decade ago
Crime Survey incidents, England and Wales. The gap at 2021 and 2022 is real — COVID suspended interviewing entirely.
The two measures answer different questions
The Crime Survey asks people what happened to them, so it captures crime that is never reported and is unaffected by changes in police recording. Police-recorded crime captures what is reported and logged, so it moves when reporting or recording practice changes — as knife-crime recording did in 2019 and again in 2024. Neither is wrong; they are not interchangeable.
Read this carefully: Both series are England and Wales only. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate collections on different definitions, so neither figure describes the UK. The knife series also crosses two recording breaks, in April 2019 and April 2024.
England and Wales · Year ending March 2026 · Released 23 July 2026
Source: ONS, Crime in England and Wales · uk-statpack.co.uk
See both measures charted separately, with what each one can and cannot tell you →UK Facts · Crime
48,774
Recorded offences involving a knife
Year ending March 2026 · England and Wales. Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument; England and Wales only; down 8% year on year.
ONS Crime in England and Wales · verified 2026-07-26
4.33m
Crime Survey incidents
England and Wales, all crime types, 2026
ONS, Crime in England and Wales: Appendix Table A1a
Figures cover different geographies and reporting periods. Open the full analysis for definitions and caveats before quoting any of them.
Generated from the same verified stat registry and chart datasets as the rest of the site.