OpenCrime

Worst areas for other theft

City of London in Greater London has the highest recorded rate of other theft of the 306 local authority areas in England and Wales with a full year of data: 158.5 per 1,000 residents in the year to July 2026, against 6.1 nationally. It has 15,111 residents and 92,154 people in it on a working day, so that rate divides a city centre's crime by a village's population. Measured against the people actually there on a weekday, Westminster comes top instead. On the resident measure, Westminster, Camden and Kensington and Chelsea come next. The 100 highest are listed below.

158.5 other theft per 1,000 residents in City of London, the highest of 306 areas
6.1 per 1,000 across England and Wales
-3.4% national change on the previous 12 months
6.6% of all recorded crime is other theft

This ranks recorded crime, not danger. A high position means the police recorded more other theft per resident, which is not the same as a place being more dangerous to be in. Somewhere people report readily looks worse than somewhere people do not, and a district that fills with visitors carries their crime against the few who live there.

The 100 worst areas for other theft

Ranked by recorded offences per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to July 2026, across 306 local authority areas: cities, towns and rural districts alike.

# Area County Per 1,000 Per 1,000 workday Offences Year on year Share of its crime
1 City of London Greater London 158.5 26.0 2,395 +8.4% 24.4%
2 Westminster Greater London 72.1 41.2 15,148 -13.5% 17.3%
3 Camden Greater London 30.8 23.3 6,687 -5.0% 14.3%
4 Kensington and Chelsea Greater London 19.9 15.5 2,880 -8.6% 11.3%
5 Islington Greater London 16.7 15.9 3,722 -6.0% 9.1%
6 Southwark Greater London 16.0 15.9 5,041 +2.7% 10.3%
7 Lambeth Greater London 14.5 14.3 4,585 +3.5% 9.4%
8 Hammersmith and Fulham Greater London 12.0 11.3 2,265 -2.8% 8.6%
9 Hackney Greater London 11.6 12.0 3,090 -4.7% 7.9%
10 Newham Greater London 11.6 13.0 4,336 -7.9% 8.5%
11 Tower Hamlets Greater London 11.5 11.3 3,824 -1.5% 8.0%
12 Bristol Bristol 11.2 11.4 5,552 +10.3% 7.6%
13 Blackpool Lancashire 11.0 11.1 1,582 -4.1% 5.9%
14 Nottingham Nottinghamshire 10.5 10.1 3,491 +2.9% 6.8%
15 Hillingdon Greater London 9.6 9.7 3,159 -6.7% 8.0%
16 Hertsmere Hertfordshire 9.4 9.4 1,035 +1.5% 10.6%
17 Oxford Oxfordshire 9.4 8.6 1,559 +0.8% 8.8%
18 Watford Hertfordshire 9.2 9.6 990 +8.6% 8.4%
19 Crawley West Sussex 9.2 9.3 1,139 -12.2% 7.1%
20 Haringey Greater London 9.0 9.7 2,385 -3.9% 6.8%
21 Reading Berkshire 9.0 9.4 1,640 +10.6% 8.0%
22 Brent Greater London 8.9 9.7 3,152 -0.4% 7.3%
23 Kingston upon Hull East Riding of Yorkshire 8.8 9.1 2,424 +0.4% 6.4%
24 St Albans Hertfordshire 8.7 8.3 1,316 +13.3% 11.0%
25 Leeds West Yorkshire 8.5 8.7 7,216 -0.4% 6.8%
26 Brighton and Hove East Sussex 8.5 8.6 2,405 -10.3% 6.9%
27 Greenwich Greater London 8.4 9.1 2,507 -2.3% 7.4%
28 Waltham Forest Greater London 8.3 9.0 2,316 +0.8% 7.9%
29 Broxbourne Hertfordshire 8.3 9.1 843 +8.6% 8.8%
30 Wandsworth Greater London 8.3 8.5 2,794 0.0% 8.3%
31 Lewisham Greater London 8.2 9.0 2,474 -7.6% 6.7%
32 Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire 8.2 8.5 2,221 +14.2% 5.9%
33 Enfield Greater London 8.1 8.3 2,652 -4.4% 7.2%
34 Stevenage Hertfordshire 8.0 8.1 731 -4.8% 6.8%
35 Derby Derbyshire 7.9 8.1 2,169 -5.5% 5.9%
36 Slough Berkshire 7.9 8.4 1,317 +11.8% 7.6%
37 Liverpool Merseyside 7.8 7.8 3,984 +0.5% 5.7%
38 Middlesbrough North Yorkshire 7.8 8.2 1,222 -4.2% 4.2%
39 Bradford West Yorkshire 7.8 8.1 4,377 -10.0% 6.0%
40 North East Lincolnshire Lincolnshire 7.7 7.9 1,235 +7.3% 5.6%
41 Leicester Leicestershire 7.7 8.0 2,996 -8.4% 6.3%
42 Birmingham West Midlands 7.6 7.7 8,999 -1.5% 6.1%
43 Gravesham Kent 7.6 8.6 841 -13.5% 8.2%
44 Doncaster South Yorkshire 7.5 7.9 2,398 +4.5% 5.7%
45 Hounslow Greater London 7.5 8.1 2,244 +3.3% 6.8%
46 Southampton Hampshire 7.5 8.0 1,937 -3.8% 5.7%
47 Ealing Greater London 7.5 8.1 2,876 +0.4% 6.6%
48 Plymouth Devon 7.5 7.6 2,026 +12.6% 6.8%
49 Uttlesford Essex 7.4 7.4 706 +8.1% 12.2%
50 Hastings East Sussex 7.4 7.6 676 +4.0% 5.2%
51 Torbay Devon 7.4 7.6 1,035 -4.8% 6.8%
52 Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire 7.4 7.6 2,257 +6.8% 7.3%
53 Preston Lancashire 7.3 7.6 1,191 +1.4% 5.7%
54 Great Yarmouth Norfolk 7.2 7.5 722 +2.1% 6.5%
55 Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear 7.2 7.1 2,298 -20.4% 6.0%
56 Wakefield West Yorkshire 7.2 7.4 2,633 -14.0% 6.1%
57 Calderdale West Yorkshire 7.1 7.3 1,489 -6.9% 6.0%
58 Thanet Kent 7.0 7.4 1,005 -9.0% 6.2%
59 Cambridge Cambridgeshire 7.0 6.2 1,046 -9.8% 6.4%
60 Blaenau Gwent Gwent 7.0 7.8 474 -4.1% 4.8%
61 Portsmouth Hampshire 7.0 7.0 1,489 -6.2% 5.6%
62 Barking and Dagenham Greater London 6.9 8.1 1,612 +0.2% 6.6%
63 Canterbury Kent 6.9 7.0 1,120 -1.0% 6.4%
64 Burnley Lancashire 6.9 7.2 682 -4.8% 4.8%
65 Medway Kent 6.9 7.6 2,012 +0.5% 6.7%
66 Harlow Essex 6.8 7.4 667 +9.9% 6.3%
67 Stockton-on-Tees County Durham 6.8 7.1 1,403 +2.1% 4.8%
68 Mansfield Nottinghamshire 6.8 7.5 764 -3.3% 5.8%
69 Lincoln Lincolnshire 6.7 6.5 702 -2.9% 4.3%
70 Runnymede Surrey 6.7 6.8 613 +12.7% 7.8%
71 Dartford Kent 6.6 6.9 827 +1.2% 6.1%
72 Hartlepool County Durham 6.6 7.4 648 -13.3% 4.1%
73 Southend-on-Sea Essex 6.6 6.9 1,220 +4.5% 5.8%
74 Thurrock Essex 6.6 6.9 1,187 +6.8% 6.6%
75 Croydon Greater London 6.5 7.4 2,670 -6.3% 6.3%
76 Dacorum Hertfordshire 6.5 6.9 1,053 +4.2% 7.7%
77 Newport Gwent 6.5 6.8 1,091 -7.9% 4.8%
78 Fenland Cambridgeshire 6.5 6.9 679 -13.1% 7.2%
79 Coventry West Midlands 6.5 7.0 2,383 -3.2% 6.7%
80 Redbridge Greater London 6.4 7.2 2,066 -5.1% 6.7%
81 Eastbourne East Sussex 6.4 6.6 669 -2.8% 4.7%
82 Ipswich Suffolk 6.4 6.5 898 +3.0% 6.4%
83 Redcar and Cleveland North Yorkshire 6.4 7.0 887 -6.2% 4.7%
84 Norwich Norfolk 6.4 6.2 936 -7.0% 5.1%
85 Barnet Greater London 6.3 6.9 2,565 -6.7% 6.8%
86 Exeter Devon 6.3 5.9 869 -6.3% 5.8%
87 Kirklees West Yorkshire 6.3 6.7 2,804 +0.1% 6.4%
88 Worcester Worcestershire 6.2 6.4 666 -5.4% 5.6%
89 Maidstone Kent 6.2 6.7 1,169 +0.4% 7.2%
90 Wolverhampton West Midlands 6.2 6.8 1,749 +2.0% 6.3%
91 Blackburn with Darwen Lancashire 6.2 6.3 1,009 +4.9% 5.6%
92 North Somerset Somerset 6.2 6.6 1,392 +6.2% 7.1%
93 Sedgemoor Somerset 6.2 6.7 810 -1.3% 5.6%
94 Peterborough Cambridgeshire 6.2 6.3 1,385 -8.3% 5.0%
95 Hyndburn Lancashire 6.2 6.8 532 -4.5% 4.9%
96 Denbighshire Clwyd 6.1 6.2 603 +2.6% 5.4%
97 Colchester Essex 6.1 6.3 1,224 +11.6% 6.5%
98 Tendring Essex 6.1 6.8 956 +7.5% 6.5%
99 Basildon Essex 6.1 6.3 1,177 -2.7% 6.2%
100 Chesterfield Derbyshire 6.1 6.0 645 -13.3% 5.0%

The table stops at 100, by which point the rate has fallen from 158.5 per 1,000 to 6.1. The other 206 areas carry the same figure for other theft on their own pages: search for a place by name, or see all 306 areas ranked by overall crime.

The first rate divides recorded offences by resident population, which is what the Office for National Statistics publishes. The second divides the same offences by the Census 2021 working-day population, which counts the people who are actually there on a weekday rather than the ones who sleep there. In this top ten, City of London and Westminster each fall by more than a third once the same offences are divided by the working-day population instead of the resident one, which is the signature of a place that fills up by day and empties at night.

The last column is this category's share of all crime recorded in that same area. A high rate with an ordinary share is a busy place; a high rate with an unusually high share is a place with a particular problem, and the two are worth telling apart.

What counts as other theft

The Home Office publishes this as a single category, Other theft, covering the theft offences that fit nowhere else, including theft by an employee, blackmail, and making off without payment. It is a residual category rather than theft in general, which is spread across shoplifting, burglary, vehicle crime and robbery as well.

Across England and Wales, police recorded 374,094 of them in the year to July 2026: 6.6% of all recorded crime, 3.4% down on the year before.

Areas are local authority districts, the level England and Wales actually publishes boundaries and populations for. A further 24 districts are left out because their police force has not filed a full year of returns; shown with a partial year, they would sit near the bottom of the table looking safe. How the figures work sets out the method, data sources lists where the numbers come from.

Where each offence peaks

City of London tops 9 of the 13 categories, and between them the 13 are led by only 4 different areas. That is what dividing by residents does: a place whose daytime crowds dwarf the people who live there wins almost everything, whatever the offence. Ordered by how much of all recorded crime each one accounts for, so the largest categories come first.

Offence Led by Rate there England and Wales Share of all crime
Violence City of London 99.3 32.4 35.5%
Anti-social behaviour Westminster 64.2 14.5 15.9%
Shoplifting City of London 108.1 7.8 8.6%
Criminal damage City of London 19.8 6.4 7.0%
Public order City of London 41.6 6.3 6.9%
Other theft (this page) City of London 158.5 6.1 6.6%
Vehicle crime Kensington and Chelsea 14.4 4.7 5.1%
Burglary City of London 31.4 3.3 3.7%
Drug offences City of London 30.5 3.1 3.4%
Theft from the person Westminster 85.0 1.6 1.8%
Robbery City of London 20.2 1.3 1.4%
Weapons Crawley 6.1 0.9 1.0%
Bicycle theft City of London 24.1 0.8 0.9%

Rates are per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to July 2026, across the same 306 areas. For crime as a whole rather than one category, see highest crime rates and safest places to live.