# Recorded crimes (Scotland)

The number of crimes recorded by Police Scotland in each council area in the year.

## Facts

- Published by: Scottish Government
- Level of detail: Council
- Updates: Yearly
- History: Since 1996
- Licence: Open Government Licence 3.0
- Levels: Nation, Council

## Periods

| Level | First | Latest | Periods |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nation | 1996/97 | 2025/26 | 30 |
| Council | 1996/97 | 2025/26 | 30 |

## Coverage

| Nation | Areas | With a figure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| England | 296 | 0 |
| Wales | 22 | 0 |
| Scotland | 32 | 32 |
| Northern Ireland | 11 | 0 |

This layer covers Scotland only. For England, see street-level crime.

This layer covers Scotland only. For Wales, see street-level crime.

This layer covers Scotland only. For Northern Ireland, see street-level crime.

## Gaps

- This layer covers Scotland only. For England, see street-level crime: 296 (Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington, Halton)
- This layer covers Scotland only. For Wales, see street-level crime: 22 (Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham)
- This layer covers Scotland only. For Northern Ireland, see street-level crime: 11 (Antrim and Newtownabbey, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Belfast, Causeway Coast and Glens, Derry City and Strabane, Fermanagh and Omagh)

## Caveats

- These are crimes recorded by Police Scotland, not all the crime that happens. Changes in the law and in how police record crime change the figures.
- Counts mostly follow how many people live in an area. To compare areas, use the recorded crime rate.
- All crimes here means Groups 1 to 5 in the Scottish Government's classification, which are the more serious crimes. It leaves out lesser offences such as antisocial behaviour and road traffic offences.
- Crimes are counted in the year the police record them, which is not always the year they happened. Years run from 1 April to 31 March.
- Council counts add up to the Scotland count in every year.
- Scottish figures are not directly comparable with England, Wales or Northern Ireland. Scotland tends to record each crime in an incident, where England and Wales tend to record only the most serious one.

## Sources

### Recorded crimes and offences in Scotland

- Publisher: Scottish Government, from Police Scotland
- Licence: [Open Government Licence 3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/)
- Edition: Recorded crimes and offences 1996/97 to 2025/26
- Published: 13 August 2026
- Fetched: 15 October 2026
- Updates: annual
- Credit: Source: Scottish Government, Recorded Crimes and Offences (data.gov.scot). Crown copyright. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Publisher's page: https://data.gov.scot/dataset/recorded_crimes_and_offences

## Use it

- [The map](https://openindex.co.uk/map/scotland-crime-count)
- Download (Council): https://data.openindex.co.uk/s/2026.10.8/downloads/layers/crime-scotland-count/council.csv
- API: https://openindex.co.uk/v1/layers/crime-scotland-count

## How to cite

Source: Open Index, openindex.co.uk. Link to this page, https://openindex.co.uk/sources/scotland-crime-count.

Open Index's own text and the figures it works out are licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Source data keeps its publishers' licences, named with each figure. Give each figure's period and source with it.

- Source: Scottish Government, Recorded Crimes and Offences (data.gov.scot). Crown copyright. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Snapshot 2026.10.8, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23508850. The HTML page: https://openindex.co.uk/sources/scotland-crime-count