Crime in South West

The safest and worst parts of South West

The safest part of South West is Gloucestershire, with 58.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents, about 36% below the England and Wales average. At the other end, Bristol recorded 147.5 per 1,000, about 62% above the national rate.

Counties inside South West, by recorded crimes per 1,000 residents in the year to June 2026, shaded against the England and Wales average.

Neighbourhoods here are Middle Layer Super Output Areas of around 7,000 residents. Each figure is an average over the whole neighbourhood, and the ones holding a town centre run high wherever daily visitors outnumber residents. How the figures work explains why these areas are used rather than electoral wards.

By type of offence

Recorded offences in the 12 months to June 2026, with the change on the 12 months before.

Set against the national mix of offences, theft from the person, and drugs all make up well under their national share of recorded crime in South West.

Home Office recorded crime, data.police.uk. Rates use ONS mid-2024 population estimates (5,889,695 residents). Categories are the Home Office crime types as published; they are not comparable with court or conviction figures.

What happened to those crimes

Police recorded 389,578 offences other than anti-social behaviour in South West in the year to June 2026. By the time this data was published, about 28% had been closed with no suspect identified and 43% closed because a prosecution was not possible or not pursued. Around 11% had led to a charge, caution or other formal action, and 18% were still open.

The widest shortfall against the national picture is for drugs: 40.5% of cases here ended in a charge or other formal action, against 53.4% across England and Wales.

Outcomes describe where each investigation stood when the data was published, so recent offences are naturally still open and the closed shares will edge up as cases conclude. Anti-social behaviour is left out entirely: police record no outcomes for it, and counting it would quietly flatter every percentage here. "Formal action" spans charges, summonses, cautions, penalty notices and community resolutions.

Outcomes by offence in South West

The share of cases ending in a charge, caution or other formal action, against the same figure for England and Wales. Offences with fewer than 30 recorded cases here are left out: a percentage of twelve cases moves several points on one decision.

"Charged or dealt with" counts every outcome that is a formal action: charged, summonsed, cautioned, penalty notice, community resolution. Anti-social behaviour is excluded from both columns because it carries no outcome by design. A low rate is not necessarily a failing of the force here: some offences are far harder to detect anywhere, which is why every row is shown against the national figure for the same offence rather than against the other rows.

Over time

Recorded crime in South West peaked at 531,280 offences in 2011; the latest 12 months, at 467,967, are about 12% below that peak. That works out at roughly 1,282 a day.

Download every month as CSV, including which months each force filed.

Compared with nearby areas

Counties in South West

• Bristol
• Cornwall
• Devon
• Dorset
• Gloucestershire
• Somerset
• Wiltshire

Against the rest of the country

In the national table, where 1st is the highest recorded crime rate, South West was 9th of 9 in December 2010 and is 8th of 9 today.

Time of year

Recorded crime here peaks in July, about 30% above its quietest month, February.

Crime in context

How tightly packed it is

247 people per square kilometre, across 23,838 km². England and Wales averages about 400 people per square kilometre. Density is the usual explanation for a high position in the national crime table: a rate divides the crime of everyone who passes through by the number who sleep there.

What a home costs

The median home sold in South West in 2025 went for £317,000, across 67,299 sales, little changed on 2024.

The night-time economy

South West had 22,491 premises licensed to sell alcohol, 38.2 per 10,000 residents, against 35.9 per 10,000 across England and Wales on the same count. A concentration of licensed premises is the other half of why compact centres sit high in the national crime table: much recorded violence and public order happens where the night-time economy is, and it is counted against the people who live there rather than the people who go there.

Licensed premises are as at 31 March 2022, the last count the Home Office published by licensing authority; it has reported national totals only since, and a pub estate changes slowly enough for the count to stay worth carrying. The date is shown so nobody reads it as current. Nothing in this section causes anything on this page: a correlation is not a cause.

When searches happen in South West

Of the 48,415 searches in South West that could be placed and timed from July 2023 to June 2026, the busiest hour was 9pm and the quietest 6am. 30% of them fell between 10pm and 4am, which is about the national share of 29%.

South West England and Wales, for comparison. Both drawn as each one's own share of its searches, so a small area and the country can be put side by side.

Counted on the hour the search happened, in local time. Only searches carrying coordinates can be placed, which is roughly seven in eight, so the number above is smaller than this area's true total and is a sample of it rather than a count. Three years are used rather than one because a single year of one area is too thin to show a shape. Forces filing a date with no time are excluded entirely. Stop and search by time of day sets out the national picture and the method.

Questions

Is South West safe?

In the year to June 2026, the recorded crime rate in South West was 79.5 per 1,000 residents. That is 13% lower than the England and Wales average. A recorded crime rate measures what the police recorded, across a whole region. It says nothing about any particular street, and areas with busy town centres, shopping areas or nightlife record more crime per resident because far more people are present than live there.

What are the worst areas of South West for crime?

Going by recorded crime rates in the year to June 2026, the highest are in Bristol (147.5 per 1,000), Somerset (89.0 per 1,000) and Devon (78.6 per 1,000). The top of the list usually marks the town centre, where daily visitors outnumber residents many times over.

What are the safest areas of South West?

The lowest recorded crime rates in South West are in Gloucestershire (58.2 per 1,000), Wiltshire (67.6 per 1,000) and Dorset (69.8 per 1,000). Full figures for every neighbourhood are in the table above.

Is crime in South West going up or down?

In South West, the latest 12 months are 4.1% lower than the 12 before. Over the full series, recorded crime here peaked at 531,280 offences in 2011 and the current total is about 12% below it.

What is the most common crime in South West?

The most commonly recorded offence in South West is violence and sexual offences, with 185,031 offences in the 12 months to June 2026 (40% of all recorded crime). The next most common is anti-social behaviour, with 78,389.

Where does this come from?

Police recorded crime open data, published at data.police.uk by the Home Office under the Open Government Licence. It covers offences the police recorded, which is not the same as offences committed: crimes that are never reported never appear. Rates use ONS mid-2024 population estimates. How the figures work sets out the calculation, the reporting lag and every known gap.