UK Knife Crime Statistics 2026: 49,151 Offences and the Latest Trends
Trends, Regional Data and Workplace Violence
Last updated: 5 June 2026 | Data sources: ONS, NHS England, HSE, Home Office, MOPAC
Statistics at a glance: UK police recorded 49,151 knife-enabled offences in the year ending December 2025, a 10% decrease year on year. Knife-related homicides fell 21% to 172. Overall homicides dropped to 503, the lowest since 1983. Frontline workers, particularly security staff, face workplace violence rates six times the national average.
Executive Summary
The 2025 figures mark the steepest year-on-year decline in knife crime outside a pandemic year. The 49,151 offences recorded in the year to December 2025 is comparable to the 49,190 recorded in 2022, which means the post-pandemic surge has now fully reversed. Knife-related homicides fell 21% (from 217 to 172), the lowest annual number since the current ONS knife-homicide data series began in 1977. Overall homicides dropped to 503, the lowest figure since 1983, according to the ONS. [ONS, April 2026]
Despite this progress, knife crime remains nearly double the level of a decade ago (~25,000 in 2015), and the national decline masks an uneven picture: 15 of 44 police forces recorded increases. Frontline workers continue to face disproportionate risk. HSE data shows protective service occupations experience workplace violence at six times the national average. The sections below break down the data by region, demographic group, and occupation, with all figures drawn from published ONS, NHS, HSE, and Home Office sources. This page compiles and presents official statistics; it does not constitute original statistical analysis.
About the data: This page draws on published statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), NHS England, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), the Home Office, the Security Industry Authority (SIA), and peer-reviewed academic research. All sources are listed at the foot of the page. In text, knife-enabled offences means any crime recorded by police that involved a knife or sharp instrument, including possession, threats, robbery, and assault, not exclusively stabbings.
Contents
- National Trends
- Knife Crime as a Proportion of Total Crime
- Regional Breakdown: Which UK Police Forces Saw the Biggest Changes in 2025?
- London Knife Crime: A Closer Look at the 2025 Improvement
- Demographics: Who Is Affected?
- Hospital Admissions (NHS Data)
- Workplace Violence: The Risk to Frontline Workers
- Security Industry Context
- Government Response
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
National Trends
Current Picture (Year Ending December 2025)
| Metric | Figure | Year-on-year change |
|---|---|---|
| Total knife-enabled offences | 49,151 | ↓ 10% (from 54,548) |
| Knife-related homicides | 172 | ↓ 21% (from 217) |
| Homicides (all methods) | 503 | ↓ 6% (from 534) |
| Police forces recording a decrease | 29 of 44 | — |
Source: ONS, quarterly crime bulletin, April 2026.
Ten-Year Trend: Knife-Enabled Offences (England & Wales)
The table below presents annual knife-enabled offences recorded by police in England and Wales from 2015 to 2025.
| Year (period ending) | Offences | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 (Mar) | ~25,000 | Near historical low for decade |
| 2016 (Mar) | ~28,000 | Rising |
| 2017 (Mar) | ~32,000 | Rising |
| 2018 (Mar) | ~37,000 | Rising |
| 2019 (Mar) | ~43,000 | Rising sharply |
| 2020 (Mar) | ~47,000 | Pre-pandemic peak |
| 2021 (Mar) | 44,728 | Pandemic lockdown effect |
| 2022 (Mar) | 49,190 | Rebound |
| 2023 (Mar) | ~51,000 | Rebound |
| 2024 (Mar) | ~54,500 | Post-pandemic peak |
| 2025 (Sep) | 50,430 | Year to Sep 2025 |
| 2025 (Dec) | 49,151 | Year to Dec 2025 |
Figures for 2015 to 2020 and 2022-2023 from Home Office police recorded crime data tables and ONS FOI releases. Figures for 2021, 2024, and 2025 from ONS crime bulletins. ~ denotes rounded values where the exact annual total was not published in a single headline figure; all are accurate to within 500 offences. Pre-2021 figures are rounded to the nearest 1,000 per Home Office published bulletins.
What This Tells Us
The 2025 decline is the steepest year-on-year drop since 2020/21, when pandemic lockdowns suppressed all categories of recorded crime. The 2025 reduction occurred without lockdown conditions, which suggests an underlying decrease rather than a temporary disruption effect.
The 49,151 offences recorded in the year to December 2025 is comparable to the 49,190 recorded in 2022. The post-pandemic increase has been fully reversed.
Knife Crime as a Proportion of Total Crime
Knife-enabled offences consistently account for 0.6% to 0.8% of all police-recorded crime in England and Wales. This proportion has remained stable over the past decade, even as absolute numbers have risen substantially. The near-doubling of knife offences since 2015 (from ~25,000 to ~49,000) has been matched by a comparable increase in total recorded crime (from ~4.2 million to ~6.6 million), driven in significant part by improved police recording practices rather than a genuine increase across all crime types, according to ONS guidance.
Note on reporting periods: The table below uses the financial year (year ending March) to align with how the ONS and Home Office publish total recorded crime totals. This differs from the year ending December used for the headline 49,151 figure elsewhere on this page. The two most recent periods shown are therefore YE March 2025 (53,047 knife offences) and YE December 2025 (49,151). They represent overlapping but different 12-month windows and are not contradictory.
Annual Comparison (Financial Year, YE March)
| Year (YE Mar) | Knife-Enabled Offences | Total Police-Recorded Crime | Knife as % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | ~25,000 | ~4.2 million | 0.60% |
| 2016 | ~28,000 | ~4.5 million | 0.62% |
| 2017 | ~32,000 | ~5.0 million | 0.64% |
| 2018 | ~37,000 | ~5.5 million | 0.67% |
| 2019 | ~43,000 | ~5.8 million | 0.74% |
| 2020 | ~47,000 | ~6.1 million | 0.77% |
| 2021 | 44,728 | ~5.4 million | 0.83% |
| 2022 | 49,190 | ~6.3 million | 0.78% |
| 2023 | ~51,000 | ~6.6 million | 0.77% |
| 2024 | ~54,500 | ~6.7 million | 0.81% |
| 2025 | 53,047 | ~6.6 million | 0.80% |
Sources: Knife offence figures from Home Office police recorded crime data tables and ONS crime bulletins; total crime figures from ONS Crime in England and Wales bulletins and Ministry of Justice Justice in Numbers summary tables. ~ denotes rounded values (see methodology note in National Trends section above). Total crime figures for 2015 to 2020 are rounded to the nearest 100,000.
Context
Violence against the person (~1.9 million offences in 2024/25), the category that includes knife crime, outnumbers knife offences by roughly 35:1.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), which captures unreported and unrecorded crime, estimated 9.4 million total incidents in 2024/25. Against this broader measure, knife-enabled offences represent roughly 0.5% of all crime.
Knife crime gets far more policy attention than its share of total offence volume would suggest because it accounts for roughly a third of all homicides and carries a high injury severity profile relative to other offence categories.
The ONS advises that police-recorded crime figures are influenced by changes in police activity and recording practices and "do not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime." The percentage figures above should be interpreted with this caveat. Both the numerator and denominator are affected by recording practice changes over time.
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Regional Breakdown: Which UK Police Forces Saw the Biggest Changes in 2025?
Knife crime is not evenly distributed. London accounts for more than a quarter of all knife offences in England and Wales.
Three Police Forces with the Highest Knife Crime Volume
| Police force | 2025 offences | 2024 offences | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police | 13,994 | 16,785 | ↓ 16.6% |
| West Midlands | 3,946 | 4,642 | ↓ 15.0% |
| Greater Manchester | 2,890 | 3,476 | ↓ 16.9% |
Source: ONS police force area tables, year ending September 2025. These three forces collectively accounted for 41% of all knife offences nationally.
Forces With the Biggest Increases
Not every area improved. 15 of 44 forces recorded increases.
| Police force | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Yorkshire | 330 | 262 | ↑ 26.0% |
| Suffolk | 338 | 292 | ↑ 15.8% |
| Derbyshire | 746 | 654 | ↑ 14.1% |
| Warwickshire | 331 | 298 | ↑ 11.1% |
| Dyfed-Powys | 183 | 166 | ↑ 10.2% |
Source: ONS police force area tables.
Knife Crime Rate per 100,000 Population
Highest: Metropolitan Police, 182 per 100,000.
Lowest: Cumbria, 31 per 100,000.
Source: House of Commons Library briefing SN04304, based on ONS data.
Living or Working in a High-Risk Area?
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London recorded substantial reductions in 2025. This is significant because the capital accounts for more than a quarter of all knife offences nationally.
| Metric | Figure | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Homicides (Jan-Sep 2025) | 70 | Lowest since MOPAC monthly homicide records began (2003) |
| Full-year 2025 homicides | 97 | ↓ 11% (from 109 in 2024) |
| Knife crime offences (12m to Aug 2025) | 13,423 | 1,154 fewer than the previous 12 months (↓ 7%) |
| Teenage homicides, London only (13-19, calendar yr to Jun 2025) | 3 | Down from 18 in 2021 |
| Under-25 hospital admissions for knife assault | — | ↓ 10% |
Sources: Jan-Sep 2025 homicide figures (70) from MOPAC, October 2025; full-year 2025 homicides (97) and teenage homicide figures from MOPAC, January 2026; knife crime offences (12m to Aug 2025) and hospital admissions data from Metropolitan Police presentation to London Policing Board, July 2025. London's homicide rate remains lower than Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Madrid, and New York.
Demographics: Who Is Affected?
Age
Knife crime disproportionately affects young people, though the age profile has shifted in recent years.
Teenage homicides (13-19) fell 48% to 34 victims in the year to March 2025, with knife-related teen homicides dropping 59% (source: ONS, reported by LBC, January 2026).
Under-25s account for the largest share of hospital admissions for knife assault, though this category saw a 10% reduction in London in the 12 months to June 2025 (source: MOPAC).
Children aged 10-17 remain a concern: knife offences involving this age group peaked in 2023/24 and remain above pre-pandemic levels. [Ministry of Justice, Youth Justice Statistics 2023/24, published January 2025]
Gender
90% of hospital admissions for assault by sharp object are male (source: NHS England, 2024/25 data). Men are both the majority of victims and the overwhelming majority of perpetrators in knife homicide cases.
Ethnicity
ONS data on knife crime by ethnicity shows disparities that are substantially confounded by age, geography, and socioeconomic deprivation. Black victims are overrepresented in knife-enabled homicide statistics relative to population share, though this pattern diminishes when controlling for age structure and area-level deprivation. White victims constitute the largest absolute number of knife crime victims, reflecting the overall population distribution. The ONS publishes detailed knife-crime-by-ethnicity data via FOI releases; the most recent available covers 2020-2025. As with all knife crime data, caution is warranted: police recording practices and victim reporting rates may vary across groups.
Hospital Admissions (NHS Data)
NHS hospital data provides an independent check on police-recorded crime figures, since not all knife assaults result in a police report.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Hospital admissions for assault by sharp object (2024/25) | 3,494 |
| Trend (5-year) | Decreasing year on year since 2021/22 peak |
| Male patients | approx. 90% |
| Patients aged 18 and under | approx. 16% |
Source: NHS England, reported in ONS crime bulletin and Mortons Solicitors analysis. Admissions are at their lowest point in a decade. [NHS England, 2024/25 Hospital Episode Statistics]
The NHS data corroborates the police-recorded crime trend: knife violence, measured by serious injury requiring hospitalisation, is down.
Workplace Violence: The Risk to Frontline Workers
The following section presents HSE workplace violence data relevant to security professionals, lone workers, and those considering personal protective equipment.
HSE Official Statistics (2024/25)
The Health and Safety Executive published its annual Violence at Work report on 20 November 2025.
| Metric | 2024/25 |
|---|---|
| Total incidents of violence at work | 689,000 (up from 642,000) |
| Assaults | 370,000 |
| Threats | 319,000 |
| RIDDOR-reported injuries from violence | 5,900 cases (10% of all RIDDOR reports) |
| LFS-estimated non-fatal injuries | ~61,000 workers annually |
Source: HSE, Violence at Work 2024/25, November 2025. CSEW (Crime Survey for England and Wales). The 689,000 figure represents the highest level since HSE began publishing this data series.
Highest-Risk UK Occupations for Workplace Violence (2023/24-2024/25)
| Occupation | Violence rate | Relative to average |
|---|---|---|
| Protective service occupations (security, police, fire) | 6.8% | 6× the average |
| Health and social care | 2.7% | 2.3× |
| Transport/mobile drivers | 2.4% | 2× |
| Sales and customer service | 2.2% | 1.8× |
| All occupations average | 1.2% | — |
Source: HSE, based on CSEW data, 2023/24-2024/25 combined.
Security staff, prison officers, and police have the highest occupational risk of violence in the UK, 6 times the national average. [HSE, November 2025]
Retail and Customer-Facing Staff
British Retail Consortium (2025) reported 2,000+ incidents of violence and abuse per day against retail staff, a 50%+ increase year on year. Incidents involving a weapon reached 70 per day (25,000+ annually), up 180% from ~25 per day the previous year. [BRC, Retail Crime Survey 2025]
USDAW (the retail workers' union) survey (~10,000 retail staff): 77% experienced verbal abuse, 10% were physically assaulted. [USDAW, 2025]
Suzy Lamplugh Trust (September 2025): 31% of frontline workers experienced at least one violent incident in the past 12 months. Of those who experienced an incident, 32% did not report it. Fewer than 1 in 5 saw any meaningful action taken. [Suzy Lamplugh Trust / YouGov, September 2025]
Joint Study: City St George's, University of London and University of Manchester (2025)
A joint study by City St George's, University of London and the University of Manchester found that 1 in 12 UK workers experienced threats, insults, or attacks in the workplace in the past year. The mental health consequences (anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms) persisted a year or more after a single incident. Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health. [Gash and Blom, 2025, DOI:10.5271/sjweh.4230]
Security Industry Context
The private security industry in the UK has grown substantially:
- 497,000+ active SIA licence holders as of December 2024, a 57% increase from ~317,000 in 2017 (source: Security Industry Authority).
- This growth means more professionals are working in roles with elevated violence risk, particularly door supervision and security guarding, which account for the majority of SIA licences.
- The SIA's December 2024 licence holder report shows door supervision (206,000) and security guarding (170,000) as the two largest licence categories.
Frontline Workers: Don't Become a Statistic
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The government introduced several measures in 2024-2025 aimed at reducing knife crime:
- Ban on zombie-style knives and machetes came into force on 24 September 2024, adding these weapons to the existing list of prohibited offensive weapons.
- Ronan's Law, announced in January 2025, tightens restrictions on online knife sales with mandatory age verification at point of sale and delivery. Named after Ronan Kanda, a 16-year-old murdered in 2022 with a knife purchased online.
- Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) continue to be used, though their uptake varies significantly by police force area.
- The Home Office published a Knife Crime Strategy refresh in early 2025 with an increased focus on enforcement against online sales and a new prevention programme targeting 10-14-year-olds.
What the Data Shows
- Knife crime is falling. The 10% decline in 2025 is the steepest year-on-year reduction outside pandemic conditions. Homicides (172) and hospital admissions (3,494) are at or near decade lows.
- The decline is not universal. 15 of 44 police forces recorded increases. North Yorkshire (+26%), Suffolk (+16%), and Derbyshire (+14%) saw the sharpest rises.
- Frontline workers bear disproportionate risk. Security staff face workplace violence at 6× the national average. 31% of frontline workers experienced violence in the past year. 1 in 12 UK workers faced threats, insults, or attacks at work.
- Retail violence is escalating sharply. 2,000+ incidents per day, weapons involved in 70 per day (up 180% year on year).
- Young people remain acutely affected, though teenage homicides have fallen significantly (down 48% overall, down 59% for knife-related).
- Protective equipment is a legitimate response for those in high-risk occupations. The data shows concentration of risk in specific roles and regions. Stab-proof vests certified to NIJ 0115.0 provide tested protection at 24 joules, covering the force 85% of adults can deliver.
Further Reading
- Are Stab Proof Vests Legal in the UK? →: Everything you need to know about UK body armour laws
- Stab Resistance Standards Guide →: NIJ, VPAM, and CAST standards explained
- Stab Proof vs Bulletproof: What's the Difference? →: Why ballistic vests don't stop knives
- Ultimate Guide to Stab-Proof Body Armor →: Types, ratings and how to choose
Shop NIJ-Certified Protection →
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many knife crimes were there in the UK in 2025?
UK police recorded 49,151 knife-enabled offences in the year ending December 2025, a 10% decrease from the previous year. Knife-related homicides fell 21% to 172. Overall homicides dropped to 503, the lowest since 1983.
Which UK regions have the highest knife crime rates?
London (Metropolitan Police) records the highest volume of knife-enabled offences at roughly 14,000 per year, followed by West Midlands and Greater Manchester. Per capita, Cleveland and West Midlands have some of the highest rates outside London.
Are frontline workers at higher risk from knife crime?
Yes. Security staff face workplace violence rates roughly six times the UK average. Delivery drivers, lone workers, and retail staff are also at elevated risk. HSE statistics show 689,000 estimated violent incidents against UK workers in 2024/25.
How can I protect myself from knife crime?
Personal protective equipment like NIJ-certified stab-proof vests provides certified protection against edged blade and spike threats. ArmorLite's FlexGuard vests are independently tested to NIJ 0115.0 Level 1 (24 J), which covers the force roughly 85% of adults can deliver. Covert vests can be worn invisibly under everyday clothing.
Is it legal to wear a stab proof vest in the UK?
Yes. Stab-proof body armour is legal to buy, own, and wear in the UK. No licence or permit is required. It is personal protective equipment, not a weapon. It only becomes an offensive weapon if worn while committing a crime.
I am a delivery driver. What can I actually do to stay safe?
Delivery drivers are one of the largest groups buying stab-proof vests, and the statistics back up why: transport and mobile workers face workplace violence at twice the national average. A covert vest worn under your regular work clothing is the most practical option. It adds roughly 500 g to 1 kg (about the weight of a filled water bottle), is not visible under a hoodie or jacket, and does not restrict movement. The key things to look for: NIJ 0115.0 Level 1 certification (tested at 24 J), a moisture-wicking inner lining so you can wear it for a full shift without overheating, and machine-washable outer layers so you can keep it clean. Delivery work is physical. You need something you will actually wear every day, not something that sits in the van.
Do stab vests get smelly? How do you wash them?
This is the number one practical concern people have after buying a vest, and it is rarely mentioned in product listings. Most stab-proof panels (the protective insert) cannot be machine washed. The carrier vest that holds the panel usually can be. For day-to-day hygiene: remove the armour panel, machine wash the carrier at 30 °C, and air dry. Between washes, wiping the panel down with a damp cloth and leaving it to air out works for most people. SoftGuard fabric is an exception. Its HPPE knit structure is inherently antimicrobial and the full garment is machine washable. Every ArmorLite vest includes care instructions. Read them. Washing a panel that is not designed for it will void the certification.