Record number of registered sex offenders now live in England and Wales: See how many live in your area
30 January 2024, 18:15
A record number of registered sex offenders live across England and Wales, the government's latest data has revealed.
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A total of 68,357 offenders - managed by Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) aimed at preventing repeat offenses - live in England and Wales, according to the Ministry of Justice data collected for March 2023.
The data suggests that one in every 769 people over the age of nine are sex offenders - a total that has increased by two per cent since the previous count in March 2022.
The number of those managed by MAPPAs has also increased by 85 per cent over 12 years, when police first published figures across 2010 and 2011, standing the total at 36,921.
Under their MAPP agreement, sex offenders are required to report to the authorities with relevant personal details and any changes to their whereabouts.
Some of the most prevalent areas for sex offenders in the country are in Teesside - where offenders account for one in every 450 people aged over nine - and Lancashire - where offenders account for one for every 459, according to the statistics reviewed by The Mirror.
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Other areas with a high proportion of sex offenders reporting to authorities under MAPP agreements are Country Durham, Humberside, and Durham - all of which have one offender for at least 602 people.
One of the least prevalent areas for sex offenders, however, is Hertfordshire where there are 816 registered sex offenders - one in every 1,299 people. Surrey, London, Bedfordshire, and then Thames Valley follow behind at the lower end of the scale.
See how many sex offenders live in your area, relative to the population:
Avon and Somerset: 877
Bedfordshire: 1087
Cambridgeshire: 806
Cheshire: 690
County Durham: 562
Cumbria: 719
Derbyshire: 735
Devon and Cornwall: 794
Dorset: 826
Dyfed-Powys: 775
Essex: 893
Gloucestershire: 870
Greater Manchester: 610
Gwent: 633
Hampshire: 758
Hertfordshire: 1299
Humberside: 588
Kent: 840
Lancashire: 459
Leicestershire: 885
Lincolnshire: 781
London: 1124
Merseyside: 625
Norfolk: 699
Northamptonshire: 769
Northumbria: 629
North Wales: 602
North Yorkshire: 787
Nottinghamshire: 714
South Wales: 658
South Yorkshire: 676
Staffordshire: 769
Suffolk: 730
Surrey: 1250
Sussex: 758
Teesside: 450
Thames Valley: 1064
Warwickshire: 855
West Mercia: 725
West Midlands: 694
West Yorkshire: 649
Wiltshire: 870
