Homicide in Scotland 2024-25

Key points

• In 2024-25, 45 victims of homicide were recorded, 21% (or 12 victims) less than the 57 victims recorded in 2023-24 (Table 1). This is the lowest number of recorded homicide victims since comparable records began in 1976.
• Over the latest 10 year period from 2015-16 to 2024-25, the number of victims fell by 24% (or 14 victims) from 59 to 45 (Table 1).
• Over the latest 20 year period from 2005-06 to 2024-25, the number of homicide victims in Scotland fell by 53% (or 51 victims) from 96 to 45 (Table 1).
• The greatest reduction in homicide victims over the last 20 years has been amongst young people aged 16-24. In the five years between 2005-06 to 2009-10 there were 110 victims in this age range. This fell to 31 across the latest five years between 2019-20 to 2024-25 (Worksheet 5).
• Of the 45 victims recorded in 2024-25, 67% (30) were male and 33% (15) were female (Worksheet 5).
• In 2024-25, 55 persons were accused of homicide, of which 91% (50) were male and 9% (five) were female (Worksheet 6). This is the lowest number of recorded homicide accused since comparable records began in 1976. For all the 45 homicide victims recorded in 2024-25, the associated case was solved.
• For each of the last 20 years, the most common method of killing was with a sharp instrument (Table 7). In 2024-25, a sharp instrument was the main method of killing for 62% (or 28) of homicide victims.
• For the latest year of 2024-25, the majority (63%) of male victims were killed by an acquaintance (19 of 30 male victims). Female victims were most likely to be killed by a partner or ex-partner (47%, or seven of 15 female victims) (Table 8).
• Whilst most recorded incidents of homicide in these statistics have one victim and one accused, some incidents can have multiple victims and/or accused. There were 45 homicide incidents recorded in 2024-25, 21% (or 12 incidents) less than the 57 recorded in 2023-24 (Table 1).