What was the England and Wales recorded rape rate per 100,000 in 2020 according to ONS?

1. Why the question can’t be answered directly from these ONS releases — the missing denominator problem

The ONS texts examined present numbers of offences and survey prevalence but do not publish a single labelled “recorded rape rate per 100,000” for 2020 in the extracts provided. The ONS release on sexual assault prevalence reports a survey estimate (3.8% of adults aged 16–74 experienced sexual assault by rape/penetration) and the headline police recorded rape counts for 2020/21 are reported elsewhere, yet no paragraph in the supplied ONS extracts converts those figures into a per‑100,000 rate for 2020 ^{[1] [3]}. Producing a rate per 100,000 requires matching a clear offence count to a population figure for the exact reporting period; the supplied ONS items stop short of that arithmetic ^[2].

2. What the ONS did publish in these extracts — counts and prevalence, not a per‑100,000 rate

The materials include ONS outputs that emphasise total counts and prevalence measures rather than a normalized rate. One ONS release reports that an estimated 3.8% of adults aged 16–74 had experienced sexual assault by rape or penetration (a prevalence figure from a survey) while police‑recorded rape counts for the year around 2020/21 are cited elsewhere in the evidence set ^{[1] [2]}. Those two different measurement approaches — a survey prevalence and administrative police counts — both inform the scale of the issue but are not presented as a per‑100,000 rate for 2020 in the provided excerpts ^[3].

3. Independent reporting and third‑party compilations reflect counts but not a consistent rate

Media and third‑party compilations cited in the analysis reaffirm that police‑recorded rape offences reached historically high counts in recent years, but those pieces also do not provide a single authoritative ONS rate per 100,000 for 2020 in the provided extracts. For example, a fact‑check style piece referencing official statistics reiterates the rising number of recorded rapes without giving a per‑100,000 conversion, and press coverage highlights annual counts and trend narratives rather than a standardized rate calculated by ONS in these excerpts ^{[5] [6]}. These sources underline that counts and trends are available, but a per‑100,000 figure was not included in the materials you supplied ^[7].

4. What would be required to produce a reliable per‑100,000 rate from ONS data

To produce a valid recorded rape rate per 100,000 from ONS material you need three elements all aligned by the same period: a definitive ONS count of police‑recorded rape for the year in question, an ONS population estimate for England and Wales that covers the same period and population definition, and the ONS‑approved method for annualising or attributing offences to a specific year. None of the supplied ONS extracts include the calculated rate or the paired denominator and method; therefore any per‑100,000 claim cannot be verified from these items alone ^{[2] [4]}.

5. How to get the authoritative per‑100,000 figure and caveats on interpretation

Obtain the authoritative rate by locating an ONS table or bulletin that explicitly gives “offences per 100,000 population” for recorded rape in the relevant ONS time series, or by pairing the ONS police‑recorded rape count with the ONS mid‑year population estimate for England and Wales and using ONS rounding and period conventions. Users should note ONS distinguishes between survey prevalence and police‑recorded crime, each measuring different phenomena; mixing them without care risks misleading interpretation. The supplied materials do not supply that per‑100,000 output, so a definitive ONS‑labelled rate for 2020 cannot be cited from these sources ^{[1] [3] [4]}.

6. Bottom line: the original statement is unverified by the supplied evidence — next steps

The original question — “What was the England and Wales recorded rape rate per 100,000 in 2020 according to ONS?” — cannot be answered from the provided materials because the ONS excerpts do not present a recorded rape rate per 100,000 for 2020; they present counts and prevalence figures that would require a population denominator and ONS calculation conventions to convert into that rate ^{[2] [3]}. To resolve this definitively, consult the ONS crime statistics tables or bulletins for a table explicitly labelled “rate per 100,000 population” for rape in 2020 or request the relevant ONS dataset that pairs offence counts with mid‑year population estimates.