Victims of crime 2020 Archived

Published

Last updated 10 April 2024 - see all updates

1. Main facts and figures

  • in the year ending March 2020, 13% of people aged 16 and over said they had been the victim of a crime at least once in the last year

  • this was down from 17% in the year ending March 2014

  • over the 7 years covered, the percentage of White people who said they were victims of crime went down from 17% to 13%

  • men from Mixed ethnic backgrounds (21%) were more likely to be victims of crime than men from any other ethnic group for the 3 years from April 2017 to March 2020

  • Asian people aged 75 and over (11%) were more likely to be a victim of crime than White people aged 75 and over (6%)

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, fraud or computer misuse, 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

In the data by ethnicity over time, estimates are shown for the 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.

In the other data, estimates are shown for the following 5 aggregated groups:

  • Asian
  • Black
  • Mixed
  • White
  • Other

This is because the number of people surveyed from some ethnic groups was too small to make reliable generalisations.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for this data.

In the analyses by ethnicity and gender, age and socio-economic group, the data is an average for the 3 years from April 2017 to March 2020. This is to make sure there are enough people to be able to make reliable generalisations. You can read more about combining multiple years of data and some of the issues involved.

Read more about:

In the data file

See Download the data for estimates rounded to 1 decimal place.

3. By ethnicity over time

Location:
England and Wales
Time period:
April 2013 to March 2020
Source:
Crime Survey for England and Wales, year ending March 2020
Percentage of people aged 16 years and over who said they were victims of crime, by ethnicity over time
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20
Ethnicity 2013/14 % 2013/14 Sample size 2014/15 % 2014/15 Sample size 2015/16 % 2015/16 Sample size 2016/17 % 2016/17 Sample size 2017/18 % 2017/18 Sample size 2018/19 % 2018/19 Sample size 2019/20 % 2019/20 Sample size
All 17 35,371 16 33,350 15 35,324 14 35,420 14 34,715 15 34,163 13 33,735
Asian 19 1,824 16 1,649 18 1,790 15 1,956 16 2,013 15 2,078 15 2,065
Bangladeshi 17 138 12 123 15 135 19 168 18 182 11 215 14 191
Chinese 15 169 11 136 16 173 13 182 15 165 14 185 10 196
Indian 20 767 14 679 18 722 15 772 16 795 14 787 15 810
Pakistani 20 398 22 388 23 428 16 498 18 495 17 510 18 485
Asian other 15 352 14 323 15 332 13 336 14 376 16 381 12 383
Black 17 959 18 902 19 902 17 1,026 15 968 16 930 14 957
Black African 16 564 19 529 19 530 17 629 15 581 17 585 14 591
Black Caribbean 17 350 15 316 16 311 14 318 16 323 16 283 15 298
Black other withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 45 28 57 31 61 22 79 12 64 9 62 14 68
Mixed 27 339 28 309 21 364 20 370 22 375 19 372 20 416
Mixed White/Asian 24 80 28 90 16 94 17 105 29 87 12 90 14 117
Mixed White/Black African withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 46 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 45 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 44 13 56 16 63 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 49 18 56
Mixed White/Black Caribbean 29 120 29 98 21 135 20 121 16 120 23 123 25 125
Mixed other 29 93 23 76 26 91 29 88 26 105 25 110 21 118
White 17 31,980 16 30,212 15 31,967 14 31,673 14 31,003 15 30,424 13 29,919
White British 17 30,073 16 28,476 15 29,993 14 29,366 14 28,714 15 28,040 13 27,633
White Irish 21 322 17 299 17 287 10 296 12 295 13 304 12 258
White Gypsy/Traveller withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 12 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 10 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 15 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 21 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 15 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 10 withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable 11
White other 17 1,573 19 1,427 16 1,672 14 1,990 15 1,979 17 2,070 15 2,017
Other 14 236 15 234 17 242 15 349 17 300 15 285 16 277
Arab 10 88 10 83 10 87 18 141 20 100 21 96 17 110
Any other 16 148 17 151 21 155 12 208 15 200 11 189 14 167

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (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) 309 KB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, geography, gender, age group, socioeconomic group, household income, value, standard error, confidence intervals (upper bound, lower bound).

Publication release date: 21 June 2021

Updated: 10 April 2024

full page history
  1. Archiving page
  2. Restructure of the page
  3. Updated with the latest available data (for the year ending March 2020).

From: Office for National Statistics

Previous editions:
  1. Edition published on 23 September 2020
  2. Edition published on 14 May 2019
  3. Edition published on 14 August 2018
  4. Edition published on 23 February 2018
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