For most Britons, their home is their safe place. It’s a place to come back to after a day at work, to raise a family in and to relax in. But how safe is it, really? Ironmongerydirect.co.uk has put together a graphic (see below) to illustrate the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The number of burglaries in the UK is falling. The incidents in 2015 were down 33% from the same period ten years earlier (Jan-Dec 2005) and 70% just 20 years ago (Jan-Dec 1995).
However, according to the Office for National Statistics, there were 401,718 police-reported burglaries between January 2015 and December 2015 – giving a burglary rate at seven offences per 1,000 people.
That also means that, on average, there were 1,100 burglaries per day reported to police. That’s 45 per hour.
The figure gets even scarier when you take in to account an estimate of all burglaries (aside from police-reported) – where an estimated 713,000 burglaries took place. This means there was an estimated:
- 1,953 burglaries per day
- 81 per hour
- 1.35 each minute
Even with decreased numbers, there’s still more than one burglary every minute. In 2000, a Home Office study concluded that the average burglary costs £2,300 per incident. Adjusted for inflation, that figure is now £3,600. That’s not even counting the rise in commonly stolen electronic devices such as smartphones, which cost an average of £180 each, and laptops (average cost = £692 each).
According to insurer’s MoneySuperMarket, London is a fairly dangerous place to reside. In fact, the ten areas with the highest rate of burglary in the UK are in our capital:
Most burgled postcodes
- SE21 South Tulse Hill & Dulwich, South London 61.2
- IG5 Clayhall, Ilford, East London 57.5
- IG4 Redbridge, East London 56.7
- IG2 Gants Hill, Newbury Park, Aldborough Hatch, East London 53.5
- N20 Whetstone district, North London 49.5
- TW5 Heston, Cranford (north), Osterley (west), West London 49.2
- EN4 Hadley Wood, Cockfosters, East Barnet, New Barnet, North London 48.6
- N11 New Southgate district, North London 48.1
- IG6 Barkingside, Hainault (south), East London 46.7
- TW11 Teddington, West London 46.6
Throughout history, people have made efforts to secure their homes to prevent the theft of their belongings. This began with a number of weapons and tools before morphing into the systems we use today.
A report by futurologist Dr Ian Pearson suggested that we may soon see intelligent alarms that can communicate with one another, directional sound emitting alarms that disorientate intruders and even affordable robotic security guards.
