How to compare crime rates between towns

What does a crime rate per 1,000 residents mean?

A rate puts a count in relation to a population. It helps you avoid comparing a large town’s total with a small town’s total as though they had the same number of residents. It does not tell you the probability that a particular person will experience a crime.

Rate = recorded incidents ÷ population denominator × 1,000. In a hypothetical example, 1,200 incidents divided by 20,000 residents gives 60 incidents per 1,000. Another town with 900 incidents and 10,000 residents has fewer incidents but a higher rate: 90 per 1,000. These are invented numbers to demonstrate the arithmetic.

Kerbside’s comparison includes recorded antisocial behaviour as well as crime. Its population denominator can differ from the newer Census population displayed elsewhere in a town guide. Do not recompute the published rate with a different denominator and assume one figure is wrong.

Read the rate beside the population

Scroll sideways to see all columns.

Home Office / Police.uk: July 2025 to June 2026 · 12 months. Figures come from the same Kerbside release as the linked comparison; this is an illustration, not a recommendation between the towns.

Explore the full comparison and its inclusion rules

Read across each row before comparing down the rate column. The figures answer a narrow question about recorded incidents and a population denominator. They do not adjust for the number of visitors, workers or shoppers using the town, and they do not establish complete reporting coverage.

Five checks before you compare two places

• Period: use matching months. One month and a rolling year answer different questions.
• Boundary: a town, council area and police neighbourhood are different geographies.
• Categories: check whether antisocial behaviour is included and inspect the categories relevant to your concern.
• Denominator: check which population estimate is used. Residents are not everyone who spends time in a town centre.
• Coverage: missing records or an absent town are not evidence of zero incidents.

Kerbside limits its crime comparison to towns with a population denominator of at least 5,000. This is an inclusion rule to reduce small-denominator comparisons, not a certificate of safety or data completeness. Read the methodology and source limitations before interpreting a gap.

Why a map pin is not evidence about one house

Published police map locations are approximate. Exact incident locations are replaced with anonymous map points to protect privacy. A cluster on a road or near a commercial building should not be attributed to the nearest home. Police.uk’s data and anonymisation explanation explains how those points are produced.

For a property you are considering, look beyond the aggregate: review the wider neighbourhood, visit at the times you would use it and consider the route between the home and transport or other regular destinations. Keep recorded data and your observations separate. Neither is a complete picture on its own.

Use the comparison to make a better shortlist

Write down the concern you are trying to answer: a late walk from the station, vehicle crime, or a different issue. Examine the relevant evidence rather than labelling a whole town “safe” or “unsafe”. If the data is missing or the periods differ, leave the comparison unresolved.

Then return to the guide to choosing where to live and weigh this evidence alongside the household priorities you started with.

Frequently asked questions

Continue researching your move

Start with the full guide to choosing where to live

• Flood Zone 3 versus surface-water risk
• What a town’s average house price really tells you

Data sources

Dates below distinguish the period represented by the data from when the source was collected and published here. How we use these sources