London sees lowest number of homicides in over a decade
London has recorded its lowest number of murders in a decade, new figures from the Metropolitan Police have confirmed. The capital saw 97 murders in 2025; This was an 11 percent drop from the 109 homicides reported in 2024, the lowest total since 2014, when 95 were recorded.
Despite London’s population growth over the past decade, the Met highlighted that last year’s per capita murder rate was the lowest in history at 1.1 per 100,000 people. The force noted that this figure falls significantly below rates per 100,000 people in other global cities such as New York (2.8), Berlin (3.2) and Paris (1.6).
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “London’s record low murder rate is the result of relentless work: arresting 1,000 more criminals every month, using innovative technologies such as live facial recognition to solve more crimes, and taking precision action against the most dangerous gangs, organized criminals and predatory men targeting women and children.
“The results are clear: fewer lives lost, fewer families torn apart. Every murder is a tragedy, but we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to eliminate serious violence.”
The figures released by the Met come as the latest crime figures in England and Wales show the number of murders has also fallen to the lowest levels since current reporting methods began in 2003.
According to the Office for National Statistics, around 518 murders were recorded by police by June 2025; this was a 6% drop from the previous year’s 552 murders and 27% below the pre-pandemic total of 710 in 2019/20.
The Met said its anti-homicide work was particularly strong in preventing violence among young people, with the smallest number of victims this century being under 25 and a 73% drop in the number of young victims since 2021, falling from 30 to eight in 2025.
The violence reduction unit, which the mayor of London set up in 2019, is believed to be part of such efforts, making 550,000 interventions to stop young people being drawn into gangs.
Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said: “Many are trying to convince London but the evidence tells a very different story.
“It is clear that our continued focus on getting tough on both crime and the complex causes of crime is working.”
The Met also said public confidence in policing had increased, with 81 per cent of Londoners rating the force locally as doing a good or fair job.
But it follows a review published on Thursday that found 131 officers and staff at the Met, including two serial rapists, committed crimes or misconduct after not being properly vetted.
It found that thousands of police officers and staff were not properly checked during a national recruitment campaign from July 2019 to March 2023.
The Met said it had taken action to clean up its workforce and tighten inspection standards and was open and transparent about some historic practices that did not meet current standards.
