214.35
police personnel per 100,000 people, 2015
Moderate trust, 62 of 100 Only UNODC counts: Eurostat republishes it, so there is nothing independent to check it against.
- UNODC
- Eurostat
Show the data as a table
| Year | UNODC Data Portal, criminal justice personnel (police) | Eurostat, police, court and prison personnel (crim_just_job) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 249.78 | 250.81 |
| 2011 | 238.74 | 239.75 |
| 2012 | 229.04 | 229.88 |
| 2013 | 224.44 | 225.36 |
| 2014 | 221.42 | 222.46 |
| 2015 | 214.35 | 215.13 |
| 2016 | – | 211.78 |
All countriesAll of United Kingdom's figuresCompare
England and Wales, United Kingdom among 129 countries
93 have a higher figure and 35 a lower one. Definitions differ between countries, and their years run from 2004 to 2025.
What this number counts
- Counts
- Police personnel per 100,000 people
- Where
- United Kingdom (England and Wales)
- When
- UNODC 2015, Eurostat 2016 (a staff count at one date, as each source reports it)
Where the number comes from (2 sources)
| Source | Figure and year | Definition | Quality | Counts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
UNODC Data Portal, criminal justice personnel (police)United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26 · Data (Excel file) | 214.352015 | Police personnel, total of both sexes, as reported by the national authority under the joint Eurostat-UNODC questionnaire definition: personnel in public agencies whose principal functions are the prevention, detection and investigation of crime and the apprehension of alleged offenders, excluding support staff such as secretaries and clerks.UNODC publishes the count (124,066 in 2015); the rate per 100,000 is computed here from that count and the ONS mid-year population estimate for 2015 (series EWPOP), because UN World Population Prospects has no figures for the separate UK jurisdictions. UNODC names UN population figures as the denominator for its own rates. UNODC source code for this value: CTS. Latest year UNODC publishes for this country. Raw file: data_cts_access_and_functioning_of_justice.xlsx (UNODC, updated 13 July 2026), rows "Criminal Justice Personnel / Police personel / Total". Population: ONS series EWPOP (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/timeseries/ewpop/pop). | 5 of 5 checks
| 100% |
Eurostat, police, court and prison personnel (crim_just_job)Eurostat (European Commission) · Police and justice recordsRetrieved 2026-10-26 | 211.782016 | Police officers (ISCO 5412), total of both sexes, under the joint Eurostat-UNODC questionnaire definition: personnel in public agencies whose principal functions are the prevention, detection and investigation of crime and the apprehension of alleged offenders, excluding support staff such as secretaries and clerks, as at 31 December unless the country notes say otherwise; Eurostat's published rate per 100,000 people, using the population on 1 January.Eurostat states that it collects national crime and criminal justice data jointly with UNODC through the UN crime trends questionnaire and validates the data for both collections. Its count for 2015 (124,066) is the same as UNODC's, so this line is the same national submission as the UNODC line and is not counted again. The rate differs a little from the UNODC line because Eurostat divides by the population on 1 January. Eurostat's latest rate is for 2016; UNODC's latest figure is for 2015. Raw file: crim_just_job.tsv.gz (Eurostat, data updated 29 April 2026), rows A,OC5412,T,NR,UKC-L and A,OC5412,T,P_HTHAB,UKC-L. Metadata: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/crim_sims.htm | 5 of 5 checks
| Not counted |
- UNODC100%
Shown but not counted: Eurostat (republishes UNODC).
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality40 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement15 / 30
Unknown with one source, so set to half
- Independence6 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness1 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
No source of these kinds: death and health registers, independent count.
- Single source: nothing to check it against
figure no figure here, inside its range no later figure recorded change
Why the numbers differ
- Civilian staff: the joint UNODC-Eurostat definition leaves out support staff, but countries apply it differently. Belgium reports the operational personnel of the local and federal police; civilian staff are not included. Estonia excludes administrative personnel. Ireland includes staff of Forensic Science Ireland. Eurostat's notes say Switzerland changed its method on 1 January 2022 and now counts only employees authorised to use police coercion. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Local, municipal and border police: whether forces outside the national police are counted varies. France includes local police. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Military police and gendarmeries: in countries with a gendarmerie, counting it or not can change the total considerably. Turkey's figures include the Gendarmerie General Command but not conscripts doing compulsory military service. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Headcount or full-time equivalents: countries differ in whether they count persons or full-time posts. Liechtenstein reports full-time equivalent positions filled at the end of the year. Germany reports civil servants in the police (excluding trainees) as a headcount on 30 June, from the public service personnel statistics. England and Wales reports fractional counts, a sign of full-time equivalents, and the Norwegian police's own figure is full-time equivalents. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Reference date: the standard is 31 December. Iceland counts on 1 February each year. Estonia's count for 2019-2022 is on 1 January of the following year. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
- Population: the UNODC rates here divide by the UN population on 1 July, while Eurostat divides by its own population on 1 January, so the same national count gives slightly different rates.
- Norway's two national figures differ in scope: the annual report counts police full-time equivalents at year end without PST, while the Minister of Justice's letter of 26 November 2025 gives 2.03 police per 1,000 inhabitants from 11,370 full-time equivalents in the police and PST in October 2025. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
Common mistakes
- A higher rate does not by itself mean more officers on patrol: countries count different staff (civilians, gendarmes, local police) and some count full-time equivalents.
- Norway's police coverage ("politidekning") is given per 1,000 inhabitants, and the minister's figure includes PST; multiply by 100 and check what is counted before comparing it with rates per 100,000. (source, retrieved 2026-10-26)
Download, cite and report an error
From the table How many police officers does each country have? Updated 2026-10-26.
Download every value in this table (CSV)
Cite as: RealStats, “Police per 100,000 people in England and Wales, United Kingdom”, updated 2026-10-26, with the original sources listed on the page.