Adur vs Mid Sussex

Mid Sussex records less crime for its size than Adur: 60.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 68.7. That is about 14% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

Adur 68.7 crimes per 1,000 residents, West Sussex
Mid Sussex 60.0 crimes per 1,000 residents, West Sussex

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Adur is about 25% below it. Mid Sussex is about 34% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Adur and Mid Sussex
  Adur Mid Sussex
Crimes per 1,000 residents 68.7 60.0
Offences in the year to June 2026 4,455 9,703
Residents 64,889 161,755
Change on the previous 12 months -7.4% +2.9%
Rank in England and Wales 229 of 314 269 of 314

Rank 1 is the highest recorded rate. Both areas are local authority areas, so the two populations are counted the same way and the rates are directly comparable.

Offence by offence

The mix differs more than the totals do. Adur records about 2.1 times as much shoplifting per resident. Mid Sussex records about 1.5 times as much burglary per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Adur Mid Sussex
Violence and sexual offences 21.8 19.0
Anti-social behaviour 16.0 14.7
Public order 5.2 4.9
Criminal damage and arson 5.0 4.9
Shoplifting 7.8 3.7
Other theft 4.4 3.9
Vehicle crime 2.0 2.2
Burglary 1.5 2.3
Drugs 1.5 1.4
Other crime 1.5 1.4
Possession of weapons 0.7 0.7
Robbery 0.8 0.4
Bicycle theft 0.2 0.3
Theft from the person 0.2 0.2
All recorded crime 68.7 60.0

Both places since 2011

Each line is a rolling twelve-month rate per 1,000 residents, so seasonality is taken out and the two areas are on the same scale despite their different sizes.

Adur Mid Sussex
2550751000Covid lockdown69 Adur60 Mid Sussex20122014201620182020202220242026
A line breaks wherever the twelve months behind it include a return the force never filed, because a twelve-month total missing three of its months is not a total.

Questions

Is Adur safer than Mid Sussex?

Mid Sussex records less crime for its size than Adur: 60.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 68.7. That is about 14% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

What does this comparison not tell you?

Recorded crime counts what the police wrote down, so a place where people report more looks worse than a place where they report less, whatever actually happened. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority: a town with one busy centre and quiet suburbs carries a rate that describes neither. And the denominator is residents, so somewhere that fills up with commuters, students or shoppers by day records crime against a population it is not credited with. How the figures work sets all of this out.

Where else can I compare?

Pick any other two areas, or start from Adur or Mid Sussex and use the neighbouring areas listed on each. The ranked lists of the safest places and the highest crime rates cover all of them at once.

Figures cover the 12 months to June 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.