Sedgemoor vs South Somerset

South Somerset records less crime for its size than Sedgemoor: 81.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 110.3. That is about 36% 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.

Sedgemoor 110.3 crimes per 1,000 residents, Somerset
South Somerset 81.4 crimes per 1,000 residents, Somerset

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Sedgemoor is about 21% above it. South Somerset is about 11% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Sedgemoor and South Somerset
  Sedgemoor South Somerset
Crimes per 1,000 residents 110.3 81.4
Offences in the year to July 2026 14,404 14,361
Residents 130,564 176,399
Change on the previous 12 months +5.0% +7.3%
Rank in England and Wales 71 of 306 173 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. Sedgemoor records about 1.9 times as much robbery, 1.7 times as much drugs and 1.5 times as much anti-social behaviour per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Sedgemoor South Somerset
Violence and sexual offences 47.2 34.0
Anti-social behaviour 16.8 11.4
Shoplifting 9.8 8.4
Public order 9.0 6.9
Criminal damage and arson 7.6 5.8
Other theft 6.2 5.3
Burglary 3.5 2.7
Vehicle crime 2.9 2.4
Other crime 2.3 1.9
Drugs 1.8 1.0
Robbery 1.6 0.8
Possession of weapons 0.7 0.6
Bicycle theft 0.8 0.3
Theft from the person 0.2 0.1
All recorded crime 110.3 81.4

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.

Sedgemoor South Somerset
3060901200Covid lockdown110 Sedgemoor81 South2012201420162018202020222024Jul 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 Sedgemoor safer than South Somerset?

South Somerset records less crime for its size than Sedgemoor: 81.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 110.3. That is about 36% 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 Sedgemoor or South Somerset 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.