Bassetlaw vs Newark and Sherwood

Newark and Sherwood records less crime for its size than Bassetlaw: 84.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 96.0. 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.

Bassetlaw 96.0 crimes per 1,000 residents, Nottinghamshire
Newark and Sherwood 84.0 crimes per 1,000 residents, Nottinghamshire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Bassetlaw is about 5% above it. Newark and Sherwood is about 8% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Bassetlaw and Newark and Sherwood
  Bassetlaw Newark and Sherwood
Crimes per 1,000 residents 96.0 84.0
Offences in the year to July 2026 11,994 10,742
Residents 124,937 127,886
Change on the previous 12 months +2.6% -1.1%
Rank in England and Wales 113 of 306 165 of 306

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. Bassetlaw records about 1.9 times as much vehicle crime, 1.5 times as much drugs and 1.4 times as much robbery per resident. Newark and Sherwood records about 1.6 times as much bicycle theft per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Bassetlaw Newark and Sherwood
Violence and sexual offences 31.5 28.7
Anti-social behaviour 13.9 14.1
Shoplifting 11.5 8.7
Criminal damage and arson 8.9 8.4
Other theft 5.7 5.2
Public order 5.1 4.2
Other crime 4.8 4.5
Vehicle crime 5.7 3.0
Burglary 4.0 3.1
Drugs 2.0 1.3
Possession of weapons 1.0 1.0
Robbery 0.9 0.6
Bicycle theft 0.5 0.9
Theft from the person 0.5 0.4
All recorded crime 96.0 84.0

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.

Bassetlaw Newark and Sherwood
3060901200Covid lockdown96 Bassetlaw84 Newark2012201420162018202020222024Jul 2026
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 Bassetlaw safer than Newark and Sherwood?

Newark and Sherwood records less crime for its size than Bassetlaw: 84.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 96.0. 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 Bassetlaw or Newark and Sherwood 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 July 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.