Photo: Jack1956 · Public domainPer resident, Biggleswade sees less crime than three in four UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Police recorded 24 cases of robbery in Biggleswade in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 1.1 per 1,000 against a typical 0.5. Its letter overall is B− (#22 of 33 in Bedfordshire): close to the middle of UK towns, from crimes police recorded inside its built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026. Violence recorded locally climbed 11% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Biggleswade
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 11% more violent crime per resident in Biggleswade than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage rose 18% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 281 UK towns of 15,000 to 30,000 people, Biggleswade has the 64th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Abbots Langley and Kings Langley, St Ives and Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay, higher than Garforth, Lancing and Sompting and Clitheroe. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 13% of Biggleswade’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Biggleswade’s B− for safety
A fairly firm grade. Built on 2,274 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Biggleswade against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
1 in 8 Biggleswade residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
32% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Biggleswade’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Biggleswade runs highest on robbery (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.5), vehicle crime (4.7 per 1,000 against 2.8) and shoplifting (8.9 per 1,000 against 6.1). Violence & sexual offences and criminal damage & arson sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 504 | 23 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 293 | 13.4 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 195 | 8.9 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 103 | 4.7 | 2.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 96 | 4.4 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 95 | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 94 | 4.3 | 5.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 43 | 2 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 38 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 37 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 24 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 14 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 6 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 5 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Set against 281 towns its size, Biggleswade is 64th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 61 | Garforth West Yorkshire | 15,148 | 23 | 10.9 | 7.9 | B− |
| 62 | Lancing and Sompting West Sussex | 27,924 | 25.6 | 9.1 | 15.5 | B− |
| 63 | Clitheroe Lancashire | 16,626 | 24.3 | 10.5 | 8.8 | B− |
| 64 | Biggleswade Bedfordshire | 21,945 | 23.8 | 11 | 13.9 | B− |
| 65 | East Grinstead West Sussex | 26,350 | 23.2 | 11.6 | 10.8 | B− |
| 66 | Newport Pagnell Buckinghamshire | 15,250 | 24 | 11 | 9.8 | B− |
| 67 | Omagh Fermanagh and Omagh | 20,458 | 25.9 | 9.4 | 10.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 176 | Kempston Bedfordshire | 22,779 | 35.5 | 16 | 18.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 218 | Houghton Regis Bedfordshire | 18,814 | 40.5 | 18.4 | 11.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 281 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Biggleswade, and others in Bedfordshire.
How crime in Biggleswade has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +11% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +18% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +31% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +31% (towns its size -4%).
Police in Biggleswade identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 78% of Biggleswade’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 14% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 4% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 811 crimes.
For every 1,000 residents, about 24 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 14 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Where in Biggleswade police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 356 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 331 | 71% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 258 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 47 | 32% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 24 | 54% violent |
police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Biggleswade. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Biggleswade’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 80 collisions with injuries inside Biggleswade in five years. 11 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 3 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Biggleswade’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Biggleswade’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Biggleswade had 10.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Biggleswade’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Biggleswade
Biggleswade records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Upper Caldecote, 1.8 miles away, records 15.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Biggleswade’s 23.8.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Biggleswade sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Biggleswade
Is Biggleswade safe?
Police recorded 23.8 violent and sexual offences and 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Biggleswade’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 45% of UK towns. Among 281 UK towns of 15,000 to 30,000 people, Biggleswade is 64th from the least crime. 13% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
Is crime going up in Biggleswade?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 11%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 18%, shoplifting and theft rose 31% and anti-social behaviour rose 31%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Biggleswade?
Violence & sexual offences: 504 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (195) and vehicle crime (103), with 293 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Biggleswade compare with Letchworth?
Letchworth records 32.7 violent and sexual offences and 12.6 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Biggleswade’s 23.8 and 11, over the same three years.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.