90% of the people in the UK convicted of grooming/child rape are Muslims.
Executive summary
The claim that "90% of the people in the UK convicted of grooming/child rape are Muslims" is not supported by available national data and is a misleading simplification: official datasets do not hold comprehensive ethnicity breakdowns for grooming-gang convictions at the national level, and where local cases show over‑representation of men of Pakistani heritage this does not equate to a 90% national share of convictions nor to a simple "Muslim" explanation for all offending [1] [2] [3].
1. What the national data actually says — and what it does not contain
The Office for National Statistics has explicitly said it does not hold comprehensive data on the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims of "grooming gangs" covering the whole period from 2000 to date, meaning there is no authoritative national breakdown that could validate a 90% figure [1]; independent reviewers and government audits repeatedly stress that ethnicity data collected for group-based child sexual exploitation is "not sufficient to allow any conclusions to be drawn at the national level" [3].
2. Local case patterns: undeniable clusters, not national proof
High-profile local inquiries and convictions in places such as Rotherham, Rochdale and other investigations have shown that some grooming networks comprised disproportionately men of Pakistani or South Asian heritage; for example, in Rotherham reviews found that many local convictions involved men of Pakistani background, and specific operations have reported predominantly Pakistani-heritage defendants [2] [4]. These local concentrations are real but geographically and historically bounded, and cannot be extrapolated to a simple national percentage without robust, representative data [3].
3. Group-based offending is a small slice of overall child sexual abuse
Research cited by outlets like The Guardian and government-funded programmes shows that "group-based contact offences" — the model most commonly associated in public debate with "grooming gangs" — made up a small proportion of total recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation offences in recent years; one analysis put that share at about 3.7% of police‑recorded CSAE offences in 2023, indicating the bulk of offending takes other forms and by other offender profiles [5].
4. Media narratives and political frames have amplified ethnicity focus
Scholarly and policy commentary warn that early media exposés and subsequent coverage frequently emphasized ethnicity — often linking Pakistani heritage and Muslim identity — which shaped public discourse and policy attention; critics argue that framing the issue as a "Muslim problem" risks obscuring broader drivers like vulnerability, institutional failure, poverty and gendered dynamics, and can fuel anti‑Muslim prejudice [6] [7].
5. Government reviews: examine failures, not to declare a single ethnic cause
Recent audits and reviews (for example the Casey audit and subsequent calls for national inquiry) have focused on failures by police and agencies and noted that while there have been "enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination," they also stressed shortcomings in national ethnicity data and the need for careful, evidence‑based inquiry rather than simplistic conclusions [3] [4].
6. Bottom line: the 90% figure is not supported by the available evidence
Because national datasets lack a comprehensive ethnicity breakdown for grooming‑gang convictions [1], and because group‑based offending is only a small portion of recorded child sexual offences [5], there is no basis in the cited reporting to accept the sweeping claim that 90% of UK convictions for grooming/child rape were committed by Muslims; detailed local patterns exist and warrant investigation, but they do not validate an unfounded national statistic [2] [3] [1].