Mid Devon vs Torridge

Torridge records less crime for its size than Mid Devon: 54.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 58.8. That is about 8% 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.

Mid Devon 58.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, Devon
Torridge 54.4 crimes per 1,000 residents, Devon

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Mid Devon is about 36% below it. Torridge is about 40% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Mid Devon and Torridge
  Mid Devon Torridge
Crimes per 1,000 residents 58.8 54.4
Offences in the year to June 2026 4,998 3,802
Residents 84,993 69,841
Change on the previous 12 months -5.5% -2.5%
Rank in England and Wales 274 of 314 286 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

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Mid Devon Torridge
Violence and sexual offences 26.7 25.6
Anti-social behaviour 7.1 7.3
Criminal damage and arson 6.6 4.9
Other theft 4.0 3.6
Shoplifting 3.9 3.6
Public order 3.5 3.4
Burglary 1.8 1.7
Other crime 1.3 1.3
Vehicle crime 1.3 1.2
Drugs 0.9 1.0
Possession of weapons 0.9 0.4
Robbery 0.3 0.2
Theft from the person 0.3 0.1
Bicycle theft 0.3 0.1
All recorded crime 58.8 54.4

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.

Mid Devon Torridge
204060800Covid lockdown59 Mid Devon54 Torridge20122014201620182020202220242026
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 Mid Devon safer than Torridge?

Torridge records less crime for its size than Mid Devon: 54.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 58.8. That is about 8% 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 Mid Devon or Torridge 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.