Fareham vs Gosport

Fareham records less crime for its size than Gosport: 60.5 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 78.9. That is about 30% 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.

Fareham 60.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, Hampshire
Gosport 78.9 crimes per 1,000 residents, Hampshire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Fareham is about 34% below it. Gosport is about 13% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Fareham and Gosport
  Fareham Gosport
Crimes per 1,000 residents 60.5 78.9
Offences in the year to July 2026 6,986 6,538
Residents 115,428 82,921
Change on the previous 12 months +2.4% -11.4%
Rank in England and Wales 264 of 306 190 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. Fareham records about 1.5 times as much shoplifting per resident. Gosport records about 1.7 times as much other theft, 1.5 times as much other crime and 1.5 times as much drugs per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Fareham Gosport
Violence and sexual offences 27.6 36.5
Anti-social behaviour 7.8 11.0
Public order 4.7 6.3
Shoplifting 5.2 3.5
Criminal damage and arson 3.8 5.3
Other theft 3.3 5.6
Drugs 1.7 2.6
Vehicle crime 1.7 2.0
Burglary 1.5 1.5
Other crime 1.1 1.7
Possession of weapons 1.0 1.1
Bicycle theft 0.5 1.0
Robbery 0.5 0.6
Theft from the person 0.2 0.3
All recorded crime 60.5 78.9

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.

Fareham Gosport
3060901200Covid lockdown61 Fareham79 Gosport2012201420162018202020222024Jul 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 Fareham safer than Gosport?

Fareham records less crime for its size than Gosport: 60.5 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 78.9. That is about 30% 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 Fareham or Gosport 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.