Revealed: The area where you’re most likely to be a victim of crime

Levels of crime in England and Wales have reached a record high, with people in London by far the most likely to be the victim of criminal activity, new figures show.

The data from the Office of National Statistics crime survey showed that 16% of adults were a victim of crime in the capital in the year ending in March 2022, significantly higher than everywhere else involved in the survey.

The North West came second with 12% and the North West came last with 9%.

A total of 6.3 million crimes were recorded in the year to March 2022 – 4% higher than the previous all-time high of 6.1 million in 2019/20.

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It is also sharply up from 2020/21 when figures were impacted heavily by the COVID pandemic.

The increase has been driven by increases in fraud, rape, knife crime, theft and domestic abuse.

The survey is carried out each year by the ONS, where they ask random members of the public if they have been a victim of crime and then they estimate where crime is the likeliest to happen.

Meanwhile, records from police forces across England and Wales have also reported record levels of crime.

Police-recorded offences of fraud and computer misuse have risen 17% in the past year, while the number of knife crimes reported was up by 10% - though this was below the pre-pandemic record.

Homicides have also increased by 25% but have not beaten their pre-pandemic record.

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Various types of police-recorded crime are now at their highest level since current records began in 2002/03, including the number of rape offences (70,330 in 2021/22), all sexual offences (194,683), stalking and harassment offences (722,574), and all violence against the person offences (2.1 million).

The number of sex offences recorded by forces in England and Wales has more than doubled in the past seven years, from 88,576 in 2014/15 to 194,683 in 2021/22.

Rape offences have nearly doubled in the past six years, from 36,320 in 2015/16 to 70,330 in the year to March.

Some of this increase may reflect improvements seen in reporting over the last few years.

Separate figures published on Thursday by the Home Office show that just 5.6% of offences in England and Wales in 2021/22 – around one in 18 – resulted in a charge and/or summons, down from 7.1%, or one in 14, in 2020/21.

The charge rate has been on a downwards trend for several years and now stands at around a third of the level in 2014/15, when it was 15.5%.