Victims of homicide
Published
1. Main facts and figures
The data shows that:
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in the year ending March 2023, 71.4% of homicide victims (where ethnicity was known) were from the white ethnic group and 16.9% were from the black ethnic group
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81.7% of the UK population were white and 4.0% were black at the time of the 2021 Census
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19.8% of male homicide victims and 10.1% of female homicide victims were from the black ethnic group
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in the 10 years to March 2023, the percentage of victims who were black went up from 9.8% to 16.9%
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows the percentage of homicide victims by ethnicity. Victims where ethnicity is unknown have been excluded.
Homicide offences include:
- murder
- manslaughter
- infanticide
If several people are killed by the same suspect, the number of homicides counted is the total number of victims killed rather than the number of incidents.
Use caution when looking at longer-term homicide trends. For example, the 39 victims of human trafficking found in Grays, Essex in October 2019 are counted as 39 individual homicides.
The data is based on the year the offence was recorded as a crime, not when the offence took place or when the case was heard in court. The offence is usually recorded in the same year as it took place.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data for the years ending March 2022 and March 2023 is shown for the 5 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.
Data from April 2012 to March 2021 uses the Homicide Index categories and cannot be compared with the latest data.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.
The ethnicity of victims of homicide is recorded by the investigating police officer. Read more about differences in the quality of ethnicity data reported by individuals and third parties.
In the data file
Download the data for data by:
- age
- sex
3. By ethnicity
| Ethnicity | % | Number |
|---|---|---|
| All | 100.0 | 590 |
| Asian | 7.5 | 43 |
| Black | 16.9 | 97 |
| Mixed | 2.1 | 12 |
| White | 71.4 | 409 |
| Other | 2.1 | 12 |
| Unknown | N/A* | 17 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
4. By ethnicity and sex
| Female | Male | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Female % | Female Number | Male % | Male Number |
| All | 100.0 | 174 | 100.0 | 416 |
| Asian | 7.7 | 13 | 7.4 | 30 |
| Black | 10.1 | 17 | 19.8 | 80 |
| Mixed | 2.4 | 4 | 2.0 | 8 |
| White | 78.0 | 131 | 68.6 | 278 |
| Other | 1.8 | 3 | 2.2 | 9 |
| Unknown | N/A* | 6 | N/A* | 11 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and sex’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and sex’ (CSV)
5. Data sources
Source
Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2023
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Office for National Statistics
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Home Office Homicide Index contains detailed record-level information about each homicide recorded by police in England and Wales. These figures provide much more detail about the nature and circumstances of homicide offences than the main police recorded crime dataset.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following variables: measure, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, time, time_type, geography, geography_type, victim_age, victim_sex, value, value_type, denominator, numerator, denominator_note