Women For Restore
Data & Packs

The National Picture

What's happening across the country, from official sources. Information correct as of 31 October 2026.

On this page:The scaleTrust and justiceA rape epidemicJustice delayedChildren and online abuseConvictions by nationalityArrests by nationalityPrisons and deportationSmall boats and asylumLegal migrationEurope's biggest migrant increasesA changing populationSources

Looking for your local area? See the Branch Packs. Not sure what a term means? See the glossary.

Violence against women and girls

The scale

Violence against women and girls in numbers.

1 in 3
women worldwide have suffered physical or sexual violence in their lifetime
1 in 8
girls are raped or sexually assaulted before 18. Counting online and verbal abuse, it is 1 in 5
1 in 8
women in England and Wales, about 3.2 million, suffered domestic abuse, sexual violence or stalking in just one year. This is the measure the government uses for its pledge to halve violence against women and girls

England and Wales

4.7m
people aged 16 and over suffered domestic abuse in a year, including 11.5% of women
218,994
sexual offences recorded by police, up 4%
74,484
rapes recorded by police, 34% of all sexual offences
1.9m
people stalked in a year
1 in 7
rape victims report it to the police
100+
UK women and girls killed by men in 2025, or where a man is the principal suspect

Sources: WHO; UNICEF, October 2024 (370 million girls and women alive today; 650 million counting non-contact abuse); ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending June 2026 (survey figures: year to March 2026); ONS Sexual offences in England and Wales, year to March 2025 (reporting rate); Counting Dead Women, Oct 2026.

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Why so few women report

Trust and justice

And why so few cases reach court.

50%
of the public do not trust the police to tackle violence against women and girls
32%
of crime victims were dissatisfied with how the police dealt with them (2024)
54%
of rape and sexual assault victims would report to the police again. The rest would not, or are unsure
1 in 7
rape victims report it to the police. Most never come forward

What happens to rapes recorded by police

Charged or summonsed3.4%
Closed for evidential difficulties51.8%
Other outcomes or still open44.8%

Year ending June 2026. For all sexual offences the charge rate is 4.8%.

1 in 20

Of rapes recorded in the year that have reached an outcome, only about 1 in 20 ended with a charge. A third are still open, which is why the charge rate for all recorded rapes is 3.4%.

Women deserve better. Safer streets. Fairer justice.

Sources: YouGov for EVAW, 2024; Victims' Commissioner Annual Victims' Survey 2024; ONS CSEW to March 2025; Home Office Crime Outcomes, year ending June 2026. The 1 in 20 is calculated from the outcomes tables.

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Recorded rapes since 2002

A rape epidemic

Rapes recorded by police in England and Wales, 2002 to 2026.

6 times
as many rapes recorded by police as in 2002/03: 74,484 in a year, up from about 12,300. A rise of more than 500%
204
rapes recorded every day. One every seven minutes
+2%
still rising: up 2% on the year before, close to the record of 74,697 in the year to March 2026

Police-recorded rapes, England and Wales

2002/0312.3k
2012/1316.4k
2016/1742.0k
2021/2270k
2024/2571.7k
Year to June 202674.5k

Before April 2002 police used different counting rules, so earlier years are not directly comparable. Figures rounded.

1 in 7
rape victims report it to the police, so the true number is far higher
3.4%
of rapes recorded in a year have led to a charge so far. A third are still open
2,932
new rape cases entered the Crown Court in just six months of 2026 (see Justice delayed)
If challenged: The ONS says the long-term rise is largely down to better recording, after a 2014 inspection found police were failing to record about a quarter of sexual offences, and more victims coming forward, including about past abuse. Even so, recorded rapes are at record levels. The courts are now receiving the most rape cases since records began, and most victims still never report at all.

Sources: ONS Crime in England and Wales, year ending June 2026; ONS Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables, year ending June 2026, Table A5a; HMIC 2014; ONS CSEW; Home Office Crime Outcomes, year ending June 2026; MoJ.

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Rape cases and the court backlog

Justice delayed

Rape cases and the Crown Court backlog, England and Wales.

2,932
new rape cases entered the Crown Court between January and June 2026. Both quarters set new records
Months, even years
of waiting for victims. Behind every case is a woman or child whose life is on hold

New rape cases entering the Crown Court

January to March 20261,416
April to June 20261,516

April to June 2026 against a year earlier: adult rape cases up 19%, child rape cases up 10%.

The Crown Court backlog

80,829cases open in the Crown Court at the end of June 2026, the highest on record
16,089sexual offence cases waiting, 22% more than a year earlier
+26%rise in open rape cases in a year
23,706cases waiting a year or more, another record and up 22%
203 daysmedian wait for an open case, up from 168 days a year earlier
400trials could not go ahead in the first half of 2026 because no interpreter was available in magistrates' courts and the Crown Court (215 in January to March, 185 in April to June), about 3% of all trials that fell through. The Ministry of Justice does not say which offences these trials were for

The next court figures, for July to September 2026, are due on 10 December 2026.

Sources: Ministry of Justice, Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026 and April to June 2026.

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Grooming, abuse images and sextortion

Children and online abuse

The scale of abuse against children, online and offline.

311,610
reports of child sexual abuse material confirmed by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2025, up 7% and the most yet. One every 101 seconds
122,768
child sexual abuse and exploitation offences recorded by police in England and Wales in 2024, up 6%. 42% had an online element
3,443
AI-made child abuse videos found in 2025, up from 13 in 2024

Who is targeted

Girls in AI-made abuse imagery97%
Girls among all abuse imagery victims77%
Boys among sextortion victims98%
7,263
online grooming offences recorded across the UK in a year, a record
500,000
children at least in England and Wales estimated to suffer contact sexual abuse every year
+66%
rise in reports to Report Remove from young people trying to get their images taken down

Grooming gangs: what the inquiries found

Casey audit, June 2025: ethnicity was not recorded for about two thirds of perpetrators. Where local data existed, in three police areas, men of Asian background were disproportionately represented among suspects. Flawed data had been used to dismiss concerns. The national inquiry began in 2026, starting with Oldham, London, and Bradford and Keighley, and added Birmingham and Wales in September.

Rape Gang Inquiry, June 2026: the inquiry led by Rupert Lowe MP found gangs had operated in at least 149 council areas (see The Rape Gang Inquiry).

Sources: IWF Annual Report 2025; NPCC VKPP 2024; NSPCC; CSA Centre; Casey National Audit, June 2025; Rape Gang Inquiry report, June 2026.

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Sexual offence convictions

Convictions by nationality

Sexual offence convictions, England and Wales.

26%
of convictions for sexual assault on a woman
22%
of convictions for rape of a woman 16 or over
14%
of all sexual offence convictions
23%
at most, 2021 to 2023, if every unknown nationality were foreign

Shares of convictions where the offender was a foreign national. Foreign nationals are about 11% of the population (the basis used by the Centre for Migration Control's analysis of MoJ data). 2024 figures, MoJ data released under FOI.

Convictions per 10,000 people, 2021 to 2023

Afghanistan59.2
Eritrea53.6
Sudan31.4
Albania28.9
Somalia25.3
Iraq25.3
Algeria23.3
Morocco22.0
Iran18.0
Syria17.1
Romania8.6
Pakistan8.3
India4.3
Poland3.4
United Kingdom2.7

Afghan nationals against UK nationals

22x
sexual offences
11x
drug offences
11x
robbery
6x
violent offences
6x
weapon possession
4x
theft

Times more likely to be convicted, 2021 to 2023. Centre for Migration Control analysis of MoJ data, not official statistics.

If challenged: The CMC rates use a survey estimate of about 13,000 Afghans. The 2021 Census counted about 85,700 people born in Afghanistan. Using the Census, as Sky News did, gives about 9 per 10,000: still about 3 times the rate for UK-born people. Many people born in Afghanistan are now British citizens, so the true rate lies between the two. The share of convictions above does not depend on these estimates.

Sources: Centre for Migration Control analysis of MoJ data; MoJ FOI via LBC and GB News; Telegraph, March 2025; Sky News analysis via spiked. Small-population nationalities left out.

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Police FOI data

Arrests by nationality

Police FOI data, England and Wales, January to October 2024.

3.4x
Foreign nationals were arrested for sexual offences at about 3.4 times the rate of British nationals: 164.6 against 48 per 100,000
26.1%
of sexual offence arrests were of foreign nationals
16.1%
of all arrests were of foreign nationals, who are about 9% of the population (ONS estimate used in this analysis)

All arrests per 1,000 people

Albania209.8
Afghanistan106.9
Iraq92.9
Algeria72.7
Morocco70.0
Somalia64.6
Eritrea64.1
Iran62.5
Sudan58.4
Vietnam46.8
Syria41.3
Zimbabwe35.6
Romania31.6
Pakistan20.9
Poland14.3
India14.1
British nationals12.0

British nationals: 12 per 1,000. Albania is about 17 times the British rate.

Sexual offence arrests: the highest rates

A separate MailOnline FOI analysis of 2024 and early 2025 found Sudanese nationals had the highest sexual offence arrest rate, about 1,200 per 100,000, followed by Afghan, Eritrean, Iranian and Iraqi nationals.

An arrest is not a conviction, and one person can be arrested more than once. Rates use 2021 population estimates.

Sources: Centre for Migration Control FOI report (41 of 43 forces), January 2025; MailOnline FOI analysis, April 2025.

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Foreign national offenders

Prisons and deportation

Foreign national offenders, England and Wales.

10,217
foreign nationals were in prison on 30 September 2026, out of 87,712
12%
of prisoners. They make up 18 to 19% of everyone entering prison
21,294
foreign offenders living in the community while facing deportation, June 2026, a record. Up from 18,993 a year earlier

Foreign nationals in prison (each June)

20199.1k
20209.3k
20219.8k
20229.7k
202310.3k
202410.4k
202510.8k
202610.1k

Largest groups in prison

Albanian9% (about 900)
Irish7% (about 700)
Polish6% (about 600)
Romanian6% (about 600)
Indian4% (about 400)

Share of foreign national prisoners, September 2026.

Jailed for sex offences

Romania121
Pakistan95
Poland81
India80
Ireland80

1,731 foreign nationals in prison for sexual offences, June 2025 (latest available), up 9.9% in a year (British: up 3.8%).

Foreign offenders returned, to 2025

20114,761
20166,437
20212,706
20233,936
20255,634

5,962 foreign offenders were returned in the year to June 2026, the most since 2017. Returns include voluntary ones; Irish nationals generally cannot be removed. About 8% of SDS40 early releases in early 2026 were not British.

Sources: MoJ Offender Management Statistics; House of Lords Library; MoJ FOI via GB News; Home Office immigration statistics; Home Office data via Daily Sceptic, August 2026; MoJ FOI via The Telegraph, November 2025; MoJ SDS40 data. Nationality is self-reported.

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Arrivals, housing and cost

Small boats and asylum

Arrivals, housing and the cost to the public.

33,374
small boat arrivals in the year to June 2026
200,000+
people have crossed since records began in 2018
65
people per boat on average, against 7 in 2018

Arrivals by nationality

Eritrea18%
Sudan13%
Afghanistan13%
Somalia12%
Iran11%
Other33%

Who arrives illegally

Adult men71%
Aged 17 or under18%
Adult women and others11%

All illegal arrivals detected since 2018.

Housing people on asylum support

Other accommodation, mostly dispersal housing78%
Hotels17%
Financial support only, no housing5%

93,000 people on asylum support, June 2026. Hotel use halved in a year. 85,891 people claimed asylum in the year, and 38% of initial decisions were grants.

The cost to the public

£4.36bn
Home Office asylum spending, 2025-26, not counting Channel patrols
£144.98
per person per night in a hotel, against £23.25 in dispersal housing
£5.77m
a day on hotels in 2024-25 (£2.1bn)
£15.3bn
asylum housing contracts 2019 to 2029, planned at £4.5bn

Sources: Home Office immigration statistics to June 2026; Home Affairs Committee, October 2025, and Home Office, 2026 (nightly costs); NAO; Home Office, Immigration and protection data Apr to Jun 2026, table ASY_04. Afghan and Iranian shares and the "other" housing share are calculated.

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Who comes, who leaves, and why

Legal migration

Long-term migration to and from the UK, ONS, year ending December 2025.

813,000
people moved to the UK long term in 2025. Most of them legally, on a visa
171,000
net migration in 2025: arrivals minus people leaving. Still well above the "tens of thousands" first promised in 2010
350,000
net migration from outside the EU alone in 2025. EU and British net migration were both negative

Net migration: from record high to 171,000

Year to March 2023 (peak)944,000
Year to December 2024331,000
Year to December 2025171,000

The fall is mainly fewer non-EU people coming to work, down 47%. Study arrivals rose 7%, and slightly fewer people left.

Who came and who left, 2025

Non-EU+ in+627,000
EU+ in+76,000
British in+110,000
Non-EU+ out-278,000
EU+ out-118,000
British out-246,000

More British people are leaving than returning: 136,000 more left than arrived.

Why non-EU migrants came, 2025

Study47%
Work23%
Asylum14%
Family7%
Humanitarian6%
Other3%

Of 627,000 non-EU arrivals: about 294,000 to study, 146,000 to work and 88,000 claiming asylum. Indian nationals are the most common, with Pakistani, Chinese and Nigerian nationals regularly in the top five.

Net migration in 2025 was the lowest since the pandemic (132,000 in the year to March 2021), and still far above the "tens of thousands" pledged in 2010. Small boats are only part of the picture: most migration to the UK is legal, decided by visa policy.

If challenged: These are provisional ONS estimates and are often revised: the 2024 figure was first published as 431,000 and is now 331,000. Net migration has fallen sharply, but 171,000 in one year is still more than the population of many British towns. The asylum figure counts people arriving by any route, not only small boats.

Sources: ONS Long-term international migration, provisional, year ending December 2025 (May 2026); Migration Watch UK.

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2000 to 2024

Europe's biggest migrant increases

Rise in the number of people living in each country who were born abroad, 2000 to 2024.

+7.1m
more foreign-born residents in the UK since 2000: the largest rise in Europe
11.8m
people born abroad living in the UK in 2024, up from 4.7m in 2000
1 in 6
people living in the UK in 2024 were born in another country

Increase in migrant population, 2000 to 2024

United Kingdom7.1m
Spain6.8m
Germany6.4m
Turkey5.8m
Italy4.4m
France3.0m
Austria1.4m
Netherlands1.4m
Switzerland1.3m
Belgium1.3m
Sweden1.3m
Poland917k
Ireland840k
Norway720k
Romania521k
Portugal476k
Denmark475k
Hungary393k
Czechia386k
Finland378k
If challenged: "Migrant" here means anyone born abroad, including British citizens born overseas, students and EU workers, so it is not the same as foreign nationals or asylum seekers. These are total numbers, not rates: measured against population size, Ireland, Spain and Austria grew faster than the UK. The UK still saw the biggest rise of any European country.

Sources: UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024, via Our World in Data. Increase calculated from the 2000 and 2024 totals.

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Ethnicity, projections and births

A changing population

England and Wales today (Census), and where current UK trends lead.

England and Wales today

White British74.4%
Asian9.3%
Other White7.4%
Black4.0%
Mixed2.9%
Other2.1%

Census 2021. Asian: Indian 3.1, Pakistani 2.7, Bangladeshi 1.1, Chinese 0.7, other 1.6. Other White: Irish, Gypsy and Traveller, Roma, Eastern European, other. Other: Arab 0.6, any other.

White British share of the population

200187.5%
201180.5%
202174.4%
202573%
2050 (projected)57%
2063 (projected)under 50%
2100 (projected)33.7%

2001 to 2021: Census. Later years: estimate and projections (Goodwin, 2025).

230,000
a year: the long-term net migration the ONS now assumes in its official population projections (April 2026)
2063
White British projected to become a minority of the UK population. Among under-40s, by 2050

Key insights

  • The White British share fell by 13 points in 20 years, from 87.5% to 74.4%.
  • Deaths are projected to exceed births in the UK from mid-2026. Net migration is the only source of expected growth.
  • The UK population is projected to reach 71.0 million by 2034 and 72.4 million by 2049, up from 69.3 million in 2024.
  • Change is fastest in the cities, but every region is changing.

The falling birth rate

1.39
children per woman in 2025, the lowest on record. 2.1 keeps a population stable
585,396
births in 2025, the fewest since 1977
53%
of babies born in 2025 were White British, down from about 64% in 2007 (Spectator analysis of ONS data)
40%
of babies had at least one parent born outside the UK
If challenged: Projections are not predictions: they show what happens if current trends continue. This one is Professor Matt Goodwin's (2025). The ONS's newer projections (April 2026) assume lower net migration, 230,000 a year, so change could be slower than shown. White British is an ethnic group, not a nationality.

Sources: ONS Census 2001, 2011, 2021; ONS National Population Projections, 2024-based; ONS Births in England and Wales 2025; ONS linked births; Matt Goodwin, Substack, 2025.

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Where the figures come from

Sources

Every title below is a link to the original source.

Cited without a link: MailOnline FOI analysis of sexual offence arrests, April 2025, dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14599087 (Arrests by nationality); The Telegraph, 10 March 2025, telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/10/foreigners-commit-up-to-quarter-of-sex-crimes (Convictions by nationality). No public online copy was found for: MoJ FOI data via GB News and The Telegraph, November 2025 (Prisons and deportation); House of Lords Library (Prisons and deportation); Migration Watch UK (Legal migration); ONS linked births data (A changing population).

Not sure what a term means? See the glossary.

Web addresses can change. If a link no longer works, search for the title. Spotted an error or a newer figure? Please let me know.

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