Civometry

ONS · Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables

Theft offences (police-recorded)

Year ending March 2026 Final

1,637,773offences

Theft offences (police-recorded) were 1,637,773 offences in the year ending March 2026, down 7.9% (139,846) from 1,777,619 in the year ending March 2025.

▼ 7.9% · −139,846 against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. ONS count
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 23 July 2026
  4. Table A5a
  5. row “TOTAL THEFT OFFENCES”
  6. column “Apr 2025 to Mar 2026”
  7. cell value 1637773

The series is falling. Rule: down 7.9% from Year ending March 2025 to Year ending March 2026.

Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2026

Theft offences (police-recorded): Year ending March 2003 to Year ending March 2026LabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour01m2m3m20052010201520202025Year ending March 2003: 3,413,319 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2004: 3,249,647 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2005: 2,837,862 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2006: 2,739,231 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2007: 2,638,784 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2008: 2,422,728 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2009: 2,321,580 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2010: 2,132,620 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2011: 2,107,446 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2012: 2,074,779 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2013: 1,900,944 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2014: 1,845,169 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2015: 1,750,607 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2016: 1,762,925 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 1,881,317 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 2,012,500 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 2,013,578 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 1,928,317 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 1,301,397 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 1,496,470 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 1,722,498 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 1,780,309 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 1,777,619 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 1,637,773 offences · published 23 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Longer history: 1898 to Year ending March 2026

Joins Theft and handling stolen goods, 1898 to 2001/02 to the current series. The line is broken where the publisher changed method; the two sides are not directly comparable.

Theft offences (police-recorded): 1898 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabourLabourCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour01m2m3m1900191019201930194019501960197019801990200020102020Before: Offences counted under the Home Office Counting Rules as they stood before April 1998. After: Offences counted under the widened 1998 Counting Rules, which increased the number counted.methodology changeBefore: Recording practice as it stood before the National Crime Recording Standard. After: Recording under the National Crime Recording Standard, which increased the number of crimes recorded.methodology change1898: 63,821 offences · published 19 July 20121899: 58,785 offences · published 19 July 20121900: 60,775 offences · published 19 July 20121901: 61,949 offences · published 19 July 20121902: 63,233 offences · published 19 July 20121903: 64,797 offences · published 19 July 20121904: 69,987 offences · published 19 July 20121905: 71,478 offences · published 19 July 20121906: 68,334 offences · published 19 July 20121907: 74,234 offences · published 19 July 20121908: 78,478 offences · published 19 July 20121909: 77,611 offences · published 19 July 20121910: 75,573 offences · published 19 July 20121911: 70,885 offences · published 19 July 20121912: 75,516 offences · published 19 July 20121913: 71,688 offences · published 19 July 20121914: 65,265 offences · published 19 July 20121915: 59,597 offences · published 19 July 20121916: 62,881 offences · published 19 July 20121917: 69,748 offences · published 19 July 20121918: 67,895 offences · published 19 July 20121919: 62,591 offences · published 19 July 20121920: 71,601 offences · published 19 July 20121921: 72,503 offences · published 19 July 20121922: 72,688 offences · published 19 July 20121923: 74,842 offences · published 19 July 20121924: 76,528 offences · published 19 July 20121925: 77,720 offences · published 19 July 20121926: 92,979 offences · published 19 July 20121927: 84,762 offences · published 19 July 20121928: 86,610 offences · published 19 July 20121929: 89,200 offences · published 19 July 20121930: 96,818 offences · published 19 July 20121931: 103,087 offences · published 19 July 20121932: 140,591 offences · published 19 July 20121933: 161,449 offences · published 19 July 20121934: 167,484 offences · published 19 July 20121935: 168,361 offences · published 19 July 20121936: 180,187 offences · published 19 July 20121937: 192,237 offences · published 19 July 20121938: 203,384 offences · published 19 July 20121939: 219,478 offences · published 19 July 20121940: 231,231 offences · published 19 July 20121941: 277,193 offences · published 19 July 20121942: 276,518 offences · published 19 July 20121943: 280,634 offences · published 19 July 20121944: 307,319 offences · published 19 July 20121945: 333,442 offences · published 19 July 20121946: 318,780 offences · published 19 July 20121947: 339,894 offences · published 19 July 20121948: 358,402 offences · published 19 July 20121949: 308,797 offences · published 19 July 20121950: 308,661 offences · published 19 July 20121951: 365,123 offences · published 19 July 20121952: 350,700 offences · published 19 July 20121953: 316,364 offences · published 19 July 20121954: 291,667 offences · published 19 July 20121955: 302,051 offences · published 19 July 20121956: 330,776 offences · published 19 July 20121957: 369,604 offences · published 19 July 20121958: 419,390 offences · published 19 July 20121959: 456,142 offences · published 19 July 20121960: 500,954 offences · published 19 July 20121961: 545,207 offences · published 19 July 20121962: 604,349 offences · published 19 July 20121963: 653,404 offences · published 19 July 20121964: 721,779 offences · published 19 July 20121965: 763,561 offences · published 19 July 20121966: 797,666 offences · published 19 July 20121967: 807,829 offences · published 19 July 20121968: 853,085 offences · published 19 July 20121969: 911,500 offences · published 19 July 20121970: 952,666 offences · published 19 July 20121971: 1,003,645 offences · published 19 July 20121972: 1,009,472 offences · published 19 July 20121973: 998,810 offences · published 19 July 20121974: 1,189,863 offences · published 19 July 20121975: 1,267,674 offences · published 19 July 20121976: 1,285,672 offences · published 19 July 20121977: 1,487,549 offences · published 19 July 20121978: 1,441,253 offences · published 19 July 20121979: 1,416,143 offences · published 19 July 20121980: 1,463,469 offences · published 19 July 20121981: 1,603,151 offences · published 19 July 20121982: 1,755,853 offences · published 19 July 20121983: 1,705,924 offences · published 19 July 20121984: 1,807,981 offences · published 19 July 20121985: 1,884,069 offences · published 19 July 20121986: 2,003,873 offences · published 19 July 20121987: 2,052,005 offences · published 19 July 20121988: 1,931,274 offences · published 19 July 20121989: 2,012,760 offences · published 19 July 20121990: 2,374,409 offences · published 19 July 20121991: 2,761,119 offences · published 19 July 20121992: 2,851,638 offences · published 19 July 20121993: 2,751,901 offences · published 19 July 20121994: 2,564,608 offences · published 19 July 20121995: 2,452,109 offences · published 19 July 20121996: 2,383,946 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 1998: 2,144,973 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 1999: 2,191,439 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 2000: 2,223,620 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 2001: 2,145,372 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 2002: 2,266,964 offences · published 19 July 2012Year ending March 2003: 3,413,319 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2004: 3,249,647 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2005: 2,837,862 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2006: 2,739,231 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2007: 2,638,784 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2008: 2,422,728 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2009: 2,321,580 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2010: 2,132,620 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2011: 2,107,446 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2012: 2,074,779 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2013: 1,900,944 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2014: 1,845,169 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2015: 1,750,607 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2016: 1,762,925 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 1,881,317 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 2,012,500 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 2,013,578 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 1,928,317 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 1,301,397 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 1,496,470 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 1,722,498 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 1,780,309 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 1,777,619 offences · published 23 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 1,637,773 offences · published 23 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestOne point a year is drawn; the source publishes overlapping year-ending figures, and every one is in the history table and CSVDashed line: change in coverage or methodShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Breakdowns

What this measures

Police-recorded theft offences in England and Wales in a 12-month period, including burglary, vehicle offences, shoplifting and theft from the person.

What this doesn’t measure

Theft not reported to the police, robbery, or fraud.

Important caveat

Police-recorded crime counts offences reported to and recorded by the police. It is affected by whether people report crime and by changes in police recording practice, so it does not measure all crime that happens. The Crime Survey for England and Wales is the better guide to long-term trends in the crimes it covers. Police recorded crime is not designated as National Statistics.

When the way this was measured changed

A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.

April 1998 · methodology change

Before
Offences counted under the Home Office Counting Rules as they stood before April 1998.
After
Offences counted under the widened 1998 Counting Rules, which increased the number counted.

Home Office: "the change to the Home Office Counting Rules for recorded crime had the effect of increasing the number of crimes counted. Numbers of offences for years before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable."

April 2002 · methodology change

Before
Recording practice as it stood before the National Crime Recording Standard.
After
Recording under the National Crime Recording Standard, which increased the number of crimes recorded.

Home Office: the National Crime Recording Standard "had the effect of increasing the number of crimes recorded by the police. Therefore, following the introduction of the Standard, numbers of recorded crimes are not comparable with previous years." The modern theft offences group also includes burglary and vehicle offences.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
ONS
Publication
Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 23 July 2026
Source file
appendixtablesyemar2026.xlsx
File SHA-256
9e4a930ec090b4b4a7dfda22f6f5f3b418cfa6a034f977ae99977562f8502ac9
Retrieved
4 September 2026
Sheet
Table A5a
Table
Table A5a
Row
TOTAL THEFT OFFENCES
Column
Apr 2025 to Mar 2026
Cell value
1637773
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
offences
API
/api/metrics/prc_theft · /series · /vintages

Related metrics

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–1,780,309Year ending March 20241,637,773Year ending March 2026↓ 8.0%
Conservative 2019–20242,013,578Year ending March 20191,780,309Year ending March 2024↓ 11.6%
Conservative 2017–20191,881,317Year ending March 20172,013,578Year ending March 2019↑ 7.0%
Conservative 2015–20171,750,607Year ending March 20151,881,317Year ending March 2017↑ 7.5%
Coalition 2010–20152,132,620Year ending March 20101,750,607Year ending March 2015↓ 17.9%
Labour 2005–20102,837,862Year ending March 20052,132,620Year ending March 2010↓ 24.9%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Year ending March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
23 July 2026
Next scheduled release
22 October 2026 (official date)