The NSPCC research, gathered through Freedom of Information Act requests to 43 police forces, found that there were a total of 31,238 sexual offences reported between April 2013 and March 2014.
This is up by more than a third on the 22,654 reports of sexual offences against children in 2012/13.
Offences reported include rape, sexual assault and grooming, with the majority of cases brought to police in 2013/14 related to children aged between 12 and 16. One in three of the reports involved a child younger than 11, while 2,895 concerned a child under the age of five including 94 related to babies.
Reports involving girls outnumbered those against boys by a ratio of five to one.
The NSPCC says greater awareness in recent years of child sexual offences is likely to have given victims greater courage to come forward, but the charity warned against complacency and said many more child victims continue to be afraid to speak up.
NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless said: “These figures are disturbing and clearly illustrate child sexual abuse is a continuing and widespread problem that needs urgent action.
“But we know this is still only a fraction of the true number of victims because some endure an agonising wait of many years before telling anyone – and others never reveal what has happened to them.
“It’s time to throw down the gauntlet to government which has to ensure all sexual abuse victims get specialist treatment to help them recover. By the end of this current parliament there should be no children living in the shadow of abuse.”
London received the highest number of reports over the 12-month period, with 3,523 being made to the Metropolitan Police. Other areas with high numbers of reports included Greater Manchester with 1,825, West Yorkshire with 1,537 and Thames Valley, where police received 1,449 reports.
The latest figures have been released to coincide with the publication of the NSPCC’s How Safe are our Children report, which compiles latest child protection data.
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