Overview

• The Office for National Statistics estimates that 10.6% of people aged 16 and over in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking in the year to March 2025, affecting about 5.1 million individuals.
• Women faced higher rates at 12.8% compared with 8.4% of men, marking the first combined prevalence figure for these crime types.
• Shoplifting offences climbed by 20% to a record 530,643 and thefts from the person rose 15% to 151,220 over the same period.
• Ministers will use the new combined measure to track their pledge to halve violence against women and girls by 2034 and are deploying thousands of additional neighbourhood officers.
• The ONS cautions that its new combined estimates are provisional and should not be used for direct year-on-year comparisons.