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London’s murder rate has dropped to its lowest in more than a decade with police in the capital and the mayor saying it is now one of the safest cities in the western world.
The figures come as those on the radical right criticise the city for having a crime problem, hoping to gain politically from such claims being believed.
In 2025, the Metropolitan police recorded 97 homicides in London, down from 153 in 2019, and down from 109 in 2024.
In terms of longer term trends, a decade ago there were 120 homicides; in 2005, 181 homicides were recorded, with the peak this century being 216 in 2003.
Homicides of those aged under-25 have fallen dramatically, with 18 recorded in 2025 compared with a peak of 69 in 2017.
Police officials and London’s mayor say a twin approach of smarter and more focused work by officers, and greater diversion efforts by youth workers have brought about the change.
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said that the “public health” approach he championed to combat violence such as knife crime is working: “The evidence shows that violent crime rates are proportionately lower in London than in any other UK city.
“The evidence tells a different story from what the politicians such as Donald Trump, Reform and the Conservatives would have you believe. We are liberal and diverse and also successful.”
Khan said addressing the causes of serious violent crime, such as the effects of poverty and lack of opportunities, had been key, as had the work of the Violence Reduction Unit covering London that was set up in 2019, which took a longer term approach.
Its staff based in police stations, who talk to youngsters after they have been arrested, are reporting a 90% success rate in diverting people away from crime.
The fall in the number of homicides comes despite a rise in London’s population, to 9.1 million compared with 8.1 million in 2010. Thus the chance of being a victim of homicide has fallen and according to Met figures there were, in 2025, 1.1 killings for every 100,000 residents of London, compared with 3.2 for Berlin, 2.9 in Brussels and 1.6 in Paris.
According to the figures, London is safer than many if not all major North American cities, having a fraction of their homicide rate, which in New York is 2.8 for every 100,000 members of the city’s population, 5.6 in Los Angeles, 10.5 in Houston and 12.3 in Philadelphia.
For young people in London who were at a greater risk of homicide, they are now at lower risk than older adults. In 2017, there were 2.51 killings for every 100,000 people aged under-25, while the rate for adults was 1.65. In 2025, the figure for adults was 1.1 for every 100,000, while for those under-25 the rate was 0.65.
The Met’s head of homicide, Commander Paul Brogden, said better enforcement by police as well as better diversion had together worked. He said there was also a street level cultural change with people less willing to grab a knife to settle a dispute.
Roughly 50% of homicides are linked to drugs and Brogden said focusing more on serious and organised crime kingpins and dealers was working: “What we’ve seen is a shift … of younger people stepping back from violence.”
He said more guns and knives have been seized and detectives had gotten better at exploiting the data from suspects’ phones: “Everyone lives their lives on phones and the criminals are no different.”
The drop in killings in the capital coincides with a fall in stop and search rates, the controversial tactic that overly targets innocent black people and which some on the right claim is being underused because of political correctness.
Brogden said: “The days of the police doing broad stop and search sweeps of estates are over. We do much more targeted interventions.”
He said online drill videos where people taunt one another, which could trigger violence, were fewer, and added that young people had a greater awareness of those running drugs networks, wanting to exploit them and placing them in extreme danger. “No one gives away a free set of Adidas trainers for nothing.”
Brogden also said amid the successes there was a race divide in murder rates, with young black men up to 12 times more likely to be victims. All eight teenagers murdered in London in 2025 were black, with two killed in shootings and six in stabbings.
Brogden said: “I think we have a generational opportunity to keep working with our young teenage black children to divert them away from a path of crime. Some of our black communities come from some tough areas of London. There is a lot of social deprivation, [lack of] opportunities for employment, to stay in education, its a tough environment for these young kids.
“How can we continue building trust … the police aren’t there to be feared, we are genuinely here to protect them and not just chase after and search them.”
