Recorded sexual crimes (Scotland)
Sexual crimes recorded by Police Scotland for every 1,000 people, by council area.
- Published by
- Scottish Government
- Level of detail
- Council
- Published for
- Nation and Council
- Covers
- Scotland
- Updates
- Yearly
- Latest period
- 2025/26
- Published
- 13 August 2026
- Fetched by Open Index
- 15 October 2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence 3.0
Where it covers
- Scotland
- England(not covered)
- Wales(not covered)
- Northern Ireland(not covered)
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.
- England0 of 296 councils have a figure
- Wales0 of 22 councils have a figure
- Scotland32 of 32 councils have a figure
- Northern Ireland0 of 11 councils have a figure
329 councils have no figure for 2025/26. The map hatches each one and gives the reason.
- This layer covers Scotland only. For England, see street-level crime. Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington, Halton and 290 more
- This layer covers Scotland only. For Wales, see street-level crime. Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham and 16 more
- This layer covers Scotland only. For Northern Ireland, see street-level crime. Antrim and Newtownabbey, Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Belfast, Causeway Coast and Glens, Derry City and Strabane, Fermanagh and Omagh and 5 more
How it is made
Open Index shows the figures as Scottish Government publishes them, for the areas they were published for: nations and councils.
Larger areas use the publisher’s own figures, never an average of smaller areas.
Zoom in past council level and the map keeps the council shapes and says so, rather than inventing detail.
- Nation1996/97 to 2025/26 (30 periods)
- Council1996/97 to 2025/26 (30 periods)
Before you use it
- This is Group 2 in the Scottish Government's classification, sexual crimes. It includes rape, sexual assault and crimes such as communicating indecently.
- Recorded sexual crime depends on how many victims report to police as well as on how many crimes happen, and both change over time.
- The law changed on 1 December 2010 (the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009), so rates from 2010/11 are not directly comparable with earlier years.
- These are crimes recorded by Police Scotland, not all the crime that happens.
- The Scottish Government publishes rates per 10,000 people. Open Index divides them by 10 to show crimes per 1,000 people, to one decimal place, so small differences between councils are not visible.
- 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.
- The rates for 2024/25 and 2025/26 use the 2024 mid-year population estimates, because the 2025 estimates came out after the Scottish Government's crime bulletin.
- Small councils, such as Shetland, Orkney and Na h-Eileanan Siar, record few crimes, so their rates move around from year to year.
- Scottish figures are not directly comparable with England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Colours on the map
Fixed breaks, held for every period, so colours mean the same over time.
How Open Index describes it
Page text on Open Index comes from this layer’s sentence rules, filled in with published figures. For Glasgow City:
In 2025/26, the recorded rate of sexual crimes in Glasgow City was 3.8 per 1,000 people.
That compares with 3.0 per 1,000 people across Scotland.
Source and licence
- Edition
- Recorded crimes and offences 1996/97 to 2025/26
- Published
- 13 August 2026
- Fetched by Open Index
- 15 October 2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence 3.0