Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2024-25

Total Recorded Offences

Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the number of offences recorded by the police in Scotland increased by 1% from 174,073 to 175,979. In the last 10 years, the number of offences recorded by the police in Scotland has decreased by 37% from 279,162 in 2015-16 to 175,979 in 2024-25.

The national rate of total recorded offences was 321 offences per 10,000 population in 2024-25. This has increased from 317 in 2023-24, but decreased from 522 in 2015-16.

In 2024-25, of all recorded offences:

• Road traffic offences accounted for under two thirds (65%)
• Antisocial offences accounted for over a quarter (27%)
• Miscellaneous offences accounted for 8%

It should be noted that the number of offences recorded by the police generally tends to be affected to a greater extent by police activity and operational decisions than the number of crimes.

Figure 21 below presents the offence groups within total recorded offences over the latest 10 years and gives an indication of the trend and scale of each group.

Figure 21. Both Road traffic offences and Antisocial offences have decreased significantly in the last 10 years, driving a decrease in total offences.

Offences recorded by the police by offence group (000’s), Scotland, 1971 to 1994, 1995-96 to 2024-25.

Further information is available from the 'Supporting documents' Excel workbook for this bulletin.  This includes data on the number of offences recorded in each category (Table 2) and rates per 10,000 population (Table 4).