What's the reported rape rate in england in 2024?
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Executive summary
Police-recorded rape in England and Wales reached roughly 70–71 thousand offences in 2024 according to official datasets and widely‑cited compilations, but headline police counts and charity prevalence estimates measure different things and cannot be read as a single “true” rate without context [1] [2] [3].
1. What the headline police figures show — counts, not a simple rate
The Office for National Statistics and related compilations report that in the year ending September 2024 there were 69,958 offences recorded as rape by the police — about a 3% increase on the year to September 2023 — and additional releases (compiled by Statista from ONS data) list a peak of about 71,670 recorded rapes in the 2024/25 reporting year [1] [2].
2. Survey prevalence gives a very different picture of lived experience
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides prevalence estimates that are not directly comparable with police counts: CSEW-based analysis reported that 4.1% of people aged 16 and over had experienced rape (including attempts) once or more since the age of 16 — a figure the House of Lords Library interpreted as roughly two million people — and longer‑run CSEW measures show prevalence has been relatively stable rather than exploding in recent years [3] [4].
3. Why “rate” versus “count” matters — measurement, definitions and reporting
Police recorded figures are sensitive to recording practices, definitions and reporting behaviour: the ONS and analysts caution that increases in police‑recorded sexual offences can reflect improved recording, new offences and changes in victim reporting as much as changes in underlying prevalence, so raw counts over time or cross‑country comparisons can be misleading without those qualifiers [5] [4].
4. The criminal justice end of the story — outcomes and low charge rates
Even where rapes are recorded by police, progression through the justice system is limited: specialist trackers and Rape Crisis analysis cite very low charge/summons rates for recorded rapes (one Home Office table showed 2.7% of police‑recorded rapes resulting in a charge/summons in the year to December 2024), illustrating that high recorded volumes do not translate into high prosecution or conviction rates [6].
5. How journalists and commentators sometimes conflate different metrics
Some reporting aggregates police counts and survey prevalence without noting the distinction, producing headlines about “rates” that imply cross‑national or temporal equivalence; critical fact‑checks stress that international comparisons require harmonised definitions and survey methods, and that the UK’s high recorded counts partly reflect its recording practices and legal definitions [4].
6. Direct answer and limitations
The most direct, public‑facing “reported” figure for police‑recorded rape in England and Wales in 2024 is about 70,000 offences (69,958 in the year to September 2024 and reported peaks of ~71,670 in the 2024/25 reporting year), while population‑level survey estimates indicate substantial lifetime and recent prevalence (for example, 4.1% since age 16 equating to ~2 million people), and official publications caution that these are different measures and that police figures do not equate to a definitive prevalence rate per 100,000 without further calculation and caveats [1] [2] [3] [5].
7. What to watch next and who benefits from which framing
Policymakers and victim‑advocacy groups use high police counts to argue for more resources and reforms to the justice process [6] [7], while others warn that raw comparisons can be weaponised politically; the ONS, government reviews and independent fact‑checks all emphasise the need to present both CSEW prevalence and police outcomes together to avoid misleading conclusions [7] [4] [5].