Photo: Robert Eva · CC BY-SA 2.0Luton sees more burglary, vehicle crime and damage per resident than 88% of UK towns
Recorded violence held steady in a year. Of all the kinds of crime, theft from the person is where Luton departs most from towns its size: 1.1 per 1,000 against 0.7. Graded on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it scores C− for safety: #31 of 33 in Bedfordshire. Police counts work out at 36.7 violent and sexual offences and 17.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Luton
One ward carries much of the rate
South ward, where 32% of Luton’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 5,541 of Luton’s 25,673 violent and sexual offences in three years: 104.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Luton the figure is 31. Where in Luton ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 47 UK towns and cities of 163,000 to 315,000 people, Luton has the 13th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Hounslow, Norwich and Bournemouth, higher than Redbridge, Waltham Forest and Oxford. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Luton’s C− for safety
A firm grade. Built on 38,047 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Luton against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in Bramingham, Barnfield and Toddington; highest in South
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bramingham | 7,269 | 14.9 | 8.9 | |
| Barnfield | 8,200 | 18.3 | 8.7 | |
| Toddington | 1,280 | 22.9 | 10.9 | |
| Icknield | 8,092 | 22.7 | 11.2 | |
| Stopsley | 7,002 | 22.7 | 13.6 | |
| Round Green | 12,695 | 22.7 | 13.7 | |
| Saints | 16,502 | 25.3 | 11.7 | |
| Dunstable-Icknield | 6,983 | 22.8 | 16.1 | |
| Lewsey | 13,710 | 28.9 | 10.2 | |
| Leagrave | 13,886 | 27.2 | 13.3 | |
| Limbury | 8,539 | 29.2 | 14.9 | |
| Sundon Park | 8,452 | 31.4 | 14.8 | |
| Crawley | 8,438 | 30.1 | 18.1 | |
| Wigmore | 11,471 | 32.1 | 16.4 | |
| Challney | 15,464 | 36 | 14.3 | |
| Biscot | 16,622 | 36.4 | 14.7 | |
| Northwell | 8,638 | 37 | 14.2 | |
| Dallow | 17,986 | 38.3 | 17.5 | |
| Farley | 13,611 | 42.6 | 21.4 | |
| High Town | 11,022 | 48.7 | 29.9 | |
| South | 17,662 | 104.6 | 48.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 3,710 | 33% violent |
| Supermarkets | 3,115 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 2,836 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 2,384 | 53% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 755 | 48% drugs, public order & other |
| College and university buildings | 746 | 35% violent |
| Airports and airfields | 639 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 608 | 65% violent |
| Nightclubs | 235 | 49% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 214 | 43% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so South records 3.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Luton. 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 Luton. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Luton’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Luton is 13th of 47 UK towns of 163,000 to 315,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 10 | Redbridge London | 309,509 | 31.1 | 17.7 | 18.7 | C− |
| 11 | Waltham Forest London | 278,129 | 28.5 | 21 | 23.4 | C− |
| 12 | Oxford Oxfordshire | 170,799 | 37 | 15.1 | 32.3 | C− |
| 13 | Luton Bedfordshire | 233,524 | 36.7 | 17.7 | 17.5 | C− |
| 14 | Reading Berkshire | 203,789 | 39.6 | 15.5 | 28 | C− |
| 15 | Brighton and Hove East Sussex | 277,096 | 40.8 | 15.4 | 29.7 | C− |
| 16 | Hillingdon London | 307,089 | 33.4 | 23 | 23.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | 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 Luton, and others in Bedfordshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Luton runs highest on theft from the person (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.7), vehicle crime (7.1 per 1,000 against 4.9) and possession of weapons (1.4 per 1,000 against 1.1). Shoplifting and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 8,043 | 34.4 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 3,391 | 14.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,930 | 8.3 | 10.3 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,663 | 7.1 | 4.9 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,486 | 6.4 | 7.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,470 | 6.3 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 1,448 | 6.2 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,077 | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 590 | 2.5 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 483 | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 355 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 336 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 250 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 122 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
“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 and cities of 50,000 or more.
Crime in Luton per 1,000 residents
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 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Luton’s neighbourhoods rank in England
13% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 16% 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.
Luton’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.
How crime in Luton has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +3% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -13% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -15% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -1% (towns its size -2%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 71% of Luton’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 5% 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. 12,873 crimes.
13 people died in collisions on Luton’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 1,967 collisions with injuries inside Luton in five years, in which 13 people died (8 were pedestrians). 359 people were killed or seriously injured: 130 on foot and 38 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
That is 1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Luton had 30.8 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 36% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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 Luton’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Luton
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luton | 233,524 | 36.7 | 17.7 | C− |
| Caddington | 3,288 | 15.5 | 10.5 | B+ |
| Slip End | 1,410 | 11.4 | 16.1 | B |
| Houghton Regis | 18,814 | 40.5 | 18.4 | D |
| Dunstable | 34,498 | 31.3 | 14.9 | C |
| Kensworth | 1,517 | 21.8 | 16.9 | C+ |
| Markyate | 3,174 | 21.8 | 17.2 | C+ |
| Barton-le-Clay | 4,941 | 10 | 7.5 | A |
Luton records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Houghton Regis records more. Caddington, 2.4 miles away, records 15.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Luton’s 36.7.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 608 at or near a hospital and 639 at an airport or airfield over three years. They count in Luton’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Luton 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 Luton
Is Luton safe?
Police recorded 36.7 violent and sexual offences and 17.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Luton’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 16% of UK towns. Among 47 UK towns of 163,000 to 315,000 people, Luton is 13th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Luton?
By council ward, Bramingham, Barnfield and Toddington record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.9, 18.3 and 22.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 104.6 in South.
Is crime going up in Luton?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 13%, shoplifting and theft fell 15% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Luton city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 235 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 49% of them violent, and South ward records 104.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Luton?
Violence & sexual offences: 8,043 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,930) and vehicle crime (1,663), with 3,391 reports of anti-social behaviour.
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.