Core indicator
Homicides
16–24-year-old homicide victims (England and Wales)
Last updated March 2025
(March 2025)
Last reviewed: February 2026
How are we measuring homicides?
We’re using the Home Office’s Homicide Index published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to measure how many 16–24-year-olds are victims of homicide each year. Homicides are generally seen as one of the more accurate measures of violence as nearly all homicides are reported and recorded accurately. However, these figures can be volatile due to the low numbers involved. Some events, such as acts of terrorism, can also have a disproportionate impact on the figures for the years in which they’re recorded.
What does our core indicator show?
Homicides of young people tend to be volatile, partly due to the low numbers involved. Following a rise last year, 2024/25 saw the number of 16-24-year-old homicide victims fall dramatically, to the lowest it’s been in over a decade. Sixty-three young people lost their lives to homicide in the latest year. This is down 41% from the year before (2023/24), down 55% compared to the year before Covid (2019/20) and down 27% from where it was ten years ago (2014/15).