Victims of crime

Published

Last updated 22 October 2024 - see all updates

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the year ending March 2023, 16% of people aged 16 and over said they had been the victim of a crime at least once in the last year
  • people from mixed ethnic backgrounds (24%) were more likely than average to be victims of crime out of all ethnic groups
  • Asian people (14%) appeared to be less likely to be victims of crime, but the differences are not statistically reliable
  • other differences between ethnic groups are not statistically reliable

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the percentage of people who said they had been the victim of at least one crime in the last year, by ethnicity.

The data measures whether someone was either:

  • a victim of at least one crime
  • a resident of a household that had been subject to at least one household crime, like burglary

Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number.

Not included in the data

The data does not include:

  • people living in communal establishments such as care homes, university accommodation and prisons
  • crimes against commercial or public sector bodies, homicide and sexual offences
  • the number of times people were victims of crime, or the seriousness of any crime

Estimates based on fewer than 50 respondents are not shown because they are not reliable.

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for this data.

The figures on this page are based on survey data. Read more about:

In the data file

Download the data for unrounded estimates.

3. By ethnicity

Percentage of people aged 16 years and over who said they were victims of crime, by ethnicity
Ethnicity value
Asian 14
Bangladeshi 11
Chinese 13
Indian 14
Pakistani 16
Asian other 15
Black 15
Black African 15
Black Caribbean 15
Black other 22
Mixed 24
Mixed White/Asian 22
Mixed White/Black African 25
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 27
Mixed other 23
White 16
White British 16
White Irish 19
White Gypsy/Traveller N/A*
White other 18
Other 17
Arab 12
Any other 20

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)

4. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Office for National Statistics

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The main aims of the Crime Survey for England and Wales are to:

  • measure people's experience of crime
  • give reliable estimates about changes over time

The survey does not include all crimes. It excludes 'victimless' crimes (like possession of drugs) and crimes that victims cannot report (like murder).

The survey aims to give a clearer picture of the extent of crime than police statistics. It can do this by including crimes that are not reported to the police or recorded by them.

It can also provide a better indicator of long-term trends because it is not affected by changes in how crimes are reported or recorded.

5. Download the data

Victims of crime data - Spreadsheet (csv) 6 KB

measure, ethnicity, ethnicity type, time, geography, geography type, geography code, gender, age, value, value type, sample size, standard error, lower and upper confidence intervals