London has recorded its lowest homicide rate per capita since records began, with 97 homicides in 2025, down 11 per cent from 109 in 2024. This milestone marks the lowest total in eleven years, despite the city’s population having increased by more than half a million over the period.
The reduction reflects the Metropolitan Police’s targeted approach to tackling serious crime. Officers are arresting an additional 1,000 offenders each month, using technologies such as live facial recognition, and disrupting organised crime groups and predatory individuals.
The Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) has been central to the city’s strategy, addressing root causes of crime through prevention and early intervention. The VRU has delivered more than 550,000 interventions aimed at diverting young people away from gangs and violence. This work includes school-based initiatives, after-school activities, and placing youth workers in custody suites and A&E departments, which has prevented 80 per cent of under-18s from reoffending within 12 months.
Teenage homicides have fallen to their joint lowest level in nearly three decades, with just eight teenage victims in 2025, a 73 per cent reduction since 2021. Young people accounted for only 8.3 per cent of all homicides last year, and London recorded the fewest homicides of victims under 25 this century. Hospital admissions of young people for knife assaults have fallen by 43 per cent since 2019, when the VRU was established.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “London’s record-low homicide rate is the result of relentless work: arresting 1,000 more offenders each month, using innovative technology such as live facial recognition to solve more crime, and taking precise action against the most dangerous gangs, organised criminals, and predatory men who target women and children. The results speak for themselves: fewer lives lost, fewer families shattered.”
The V100 programme has strengthened protections for women and girls by identifying predatory men and ensuring they face prosecution for criminal behaviour. In the past year, more than 1,600 arrests were made as part of operations to dismantle gang networks and drug lines, removing thousands of guns and knives from London streets.
The Met achieved a 95 per cent positive outcome rate for homicide investigations in 2025, and the city’s homicide rate now stands at 1.1 per 100,000 people. This is lower than any other UK city and compares favourably to global cities such as New York (2.8), Berlin (3.2), Milan (1.6) and Toronto (1.6). Major US cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia have rates several times higher.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Last year London had the lowest murder rate per capita since records began, the fewest murders of those aged under 25 this century, and one of the lowest number of homicides for almost three decades. Our sustained focus on being tough on crime and tackling the complex causes of crime is working.”
Director of the VRU, Lib Peck, added: “Prevention and the work of thousands of youth workers, mentors, teachers and all those who work closely with young people have become a key part of London’s approach. When we were set up more than six years ago, London’s homicide rate of young people was three times higher than it is today. We will continue to invest in young people and in youth clubs because we’re committed to keeping young people safe and supporting them to thrive.”
Overall, the combination of enforcement, technological innovation, and community-based prevention has contributed to London becoming safer than it has been in over a decade, with fewer shootings, stabbings, and violent incidents leading to injury. Public confidence in policing is rising, with 81 per cent of Londoners rating the Met positively and trust among Black Londoners increasing by 10 per cent.
