Nigerians Rank Lowest Among UK Sex Offender Records

Data from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice has revealed that Nigerians are among the least represented nationalities in sex offence convictions across the country.

The statistics, obtained by The Telegraph in March through freedom of information laws, detail sex crime convictions by nationality between 2021 and 2023.

The records show that foreign nationals accounted for up to a quarter of sex crime convictions—including rape—during this three-year period. When adjusted for population size, certain nationalities were found to be significantly more likely than British citizens to be convicted.

Notably, Afghans and Eritreans were over 20 times more likely to be involved in such convictions.

Overall, foreign nationals were 71% more likely than British citizens to be convicted of sex offences. Romanians recorded the highest total number of convictions at 987, followed by Poles (208), Indians (148), and Pakistanis (144).

When measured per 10,000 population, Afghans had the highest conviction rate at 59—22.3 times that of Britons—while Eritreans followed with a rate of 53.6.

In contrast, Nigerians were among the nationalities with conviction rates lower than that of British citizens. Other African nationalities with higher representation in the data included individuals from Congo, Namibia, Somalia, Algeria, Angola, Gambia, Tunisia, and Libya.

The data also revealed regional disparities: North Africans were convicted at 6.6 times the British rate, Middle Easterners at 3.8 times, and Sub-Saharan Africans at 2.6 times the rate.

These figures have sparked debate within British policy circles, with some think tanks linking high rates of violent and sexual offences—as well as robbery, fraud, and drug crimes—to broader migration trends.