Is crime in London rising or falling? Is it high or low compared with the rest of England and Wales? Cut through the arguments to the facts with my interactive London crime chart.
Many claims and counter-claims are made about London crime, when the truth should be easy to find given that all the figures are freely available. But it’s hard to make sense of a sea of numbers, which is where my interactive London Crime Chart comes in. Explore 18 types of crime from bicycle theft to homicide, how crime in London has changed over time, and how it compares with the rest of England and Wales.
Shoplifting recorded in London
Notes and Observations
Comparison with “rest of E&W” means England and Wales total, minus London.
Change what the bars mean. Counts, indexed, or per 1,000. Count is the actual number of crimes. Indexed shows you percentage change over time, by setting the first year to 100 then scaling each year from that. Per 1,000 shows you the crime rate, so taking population into account making it easier to compare London with the rest of the country. The rate compares each year’s crime figure with that year’s population.
Switch the year basis. Normal humans start their year in January, but some government officials like to start in April. I give you the choice.
Recorded Crime is not the same as all crime. These are the official Home Office statistics, but if people don’t report crimes then they aren’t recorded so these figures also partly measure people’s willingness to report.
Source Home Office
