How to read crime figures for an area before you move

Recorded crime figures count crimes reported to and recorded by the police, often shown as a rate per 1,000 residents. They describe a neighbourhood over time, not how safe you personally will be, and they run high wherever many people visit but few live.

Checked 16 Oct 2026

Where the figures come from

Police forces in England and Wales publish street-level crime and anti-social behaviour every month on police.uk, sorted into categories such as burglary, vehicle crime, violence and sexual offences, shoplifting, and criminal damage and arson. The same records can be downloaded from data.police.uk.

To protect the privacy of victims, each crime is placed at an approximate map point rather than where it happened: the middle of a street, or a public place such as a park, car park, station or shopping centre. A dot on your street may be a crime from round the corner, and a single car park or station can collect a large number of crimes.

Anti-social behaviour, such as rowdy groups or nuisance neighbours, is published alongside crime but counted separately, so check whether a figure you are given includes it.

The figures run a month or two behind, and monthly counts go up and down, so look at a year or more at a time.

What a rate per 1,000 residents means

A raw count favours small areas, so figures are often turned into a rate: crimes in a year for every 1,000 people who live in the area. That lets you compare a neighbourhood with others of different sizes, or with England and Wales as a whole.

The catch is the word residents. The rate divides crime by the people who live in an area, but crime happens wherever people are, including visitors, shoppers and commuters.

Why some places show high rates

Town and city centres: shops, bars, stations and offices draw thousands of visitors and workers every day, but few people live there. Shoplifting and incidents involving visitors are counted against a small resident population, so the rate climbs.
Places with few homes: an industrial estate, a retail park or a neighbourhood that is mostly parkland can show a high rate from a modest number of crimes.
Small numbers: in a small area, a handful of crimes either way moves the rate a lot from one year to the next.

It works the other way too. A quiet residential street can share a neighbourhood figure with a busy high street, and that figure may say more about the high street than about the street where you would live.

What recorded crime does not tell you

It is not a prediction of personal safety. Crime concentrates in particular places and at particular times, and a rate for a whole neighbourhood says little about one street, one household or you.
It only counts crime that is reported and recorded. Many crimes are never reported to the police, and changes in how forces record crime can move the figures with no change on the street. For long-term trends, the Office for National Statistics relies on the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which asks people about their experiences.
It does not show seriousness. One category can mix minor and serious offences, and many incidents happen inside shops and businesses or between people who know each other.
Fraud and most online crime are missing. They are reported centrally rather than to a local force, so they do not appear in the street-level figures.

Recorded crime describes incidents in a place, not the people who live there.

How to use the figures sensibly

Look at the categories, not just the total. Burglary and vehicle crime say more about a residential street than shoplifting on the high street.
Compare like with like: a residential neighbourhood with other residential neighbourhoods, and both with the figure for England and Wales.
Look at the trend over several years rather than a single month.
Look at outcomes as well as counts: police.uk shows what happened after each crime was recorded, such as a suspect being charged or an investigation closing with no suspect identified.
Visit at different times, including a weekday evening and a weekend night, and talk to neighbours.
Read the page for the local neighbourhood policing team on police.uk, which sets out its current priorities and how to contact it.

The same caution about averages applies to other area figures. Schools are a good example: see why school distance is not a catchment.

Check it for a specific home

The neighbourhood section of a HouseReport report shows recorded crime per 1,000 residents in the home’s neighbourhood, by type, against England and Wales, alongside deprivation and commutes. It describes the neighbourhood, not the home, and it is not a prediction of personal safety. Look up any address to see its free preview.

Look up any address

The free preview shows which of these checks the report answers for that home.