Number of teenage homicides falls by nearly a half to lowest since 2013

The number of teenage homicides per year in England and Wales has fallen by nearly a half to its lowest level in more than a decade, figures show.

There were 34 homicide victims aged 13 to 19 in the year to March 2025, down 48% from 66 in the previous 12 months.

The fall is likely to have been driven by a steep decline in teen homicides involving a knife or sharp instrument.

These offences fell 59% year on year, from 54 in 2023/24 to 22 in 2024/25.

The total number of teenage homicide victims is now at its lowest since 2012/13, when 31 were recorded.

The figures have been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of its annual analysis of homicide trends in England and Wales.

Some 522 homicide victims of all ages were recorded in the year ending March 2025, down 8% from 566 in the previous year and the lowest total since 2014/15, when the number stood at 504.

The rate of homicides “remains very low” compared with most other crimes, the ONS said.

There were 8.6 homicides per million of the population in 2024/25, the lowest rate since 1977, when it stood at 8.5.

Homicide covers all offences of murder and manslaughter, including corporate manslaughter.

A total of 205 homicides in England and Wales in 2024/25 were committed using a knife or other sharp instrument, down 21% from 261 in 2023/24 and the lowest number since 2014/15.

The most commonly used instrument was a kitchen knife (95 offences).

Other types included machete (15 offences), a hunting knife (five) and a sword (three).

Of the 205 victims of sharp-instrument homicides, 132 were white, almost unchanged on the previous year (133), while 45 were black, down from 66.

The number of white victims of all homicides in 2024/25 was 367, slightly higher than 363 in 2023/24.

The number of black victims fell by 25%, however, dropping from 97 to 73 – the lowest for this group since 2015/16.

Within this group, the largest decline was for black male victims aged 16 to 24, down from 33 to 21.

Asian homicide victims fell from 50 to 39, while victims with mixed or multiple ethnicities rose slightly from 17 to 20.

There are “clear differences” in the age profiles of victims between different ethnic groups, the ONS said.

While 7% of white homicide victims in 2024/25 were aged between 16 and 24, the figure for black victims was 29%.

This will “partly reflect the different age distributions of ethnic groups in the population”, the ONS added.