Photo: Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0Newbury records bicycle theft at 4.6 times the rate of a typical town its size
In sum, crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put Newbury at C− (#28 of 30 in Berkshire): more crime per resident than 80% of UK towns. Violent crime was down 11% in a year. Year on year, 37.1 violent and sexual offences and 14.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents. It has more violent crime than 80% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 77%.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Newbury
One ward carries much of the rate
Newbury Central ward, where 54% of Newbury’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 1,719 of Newbury’s 4,695 violent and sexual offences in three years: 77.1 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Newbury the figure is 28.3. Where in Newbury ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 11% less violent crime per resident in Newbury 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 14% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 155 UK towns of 30,000 to 57,000 people, Newbury has the 77th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Epsom, Rushden and Braintree, higher than Royal Leamington Spa, Sedgley and Rowley Regis. 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. 10% of Newbury’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 6% 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.
What’s behind Newbury’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 6,467 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Newbury against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Newbury runs highest on bicycle theft (1.6 per 1,000 against 0.3), shoplifting (13.9 per 1,000 against 6.1) and drugs (3.6 per 1,000 against 1.9).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,408 | 33.3 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 586 | 13.9 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 517 | 12.2 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 341 | 8.1 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 302 | 7.1 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 241 | 5.7 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 189 | 4.5 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 151 | 3.6 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 138 | 3.3 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 85 | 2 | 1.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 66 | 1.6 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 34 | 0.8 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 13 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 13 | 0.3 | 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.
1 in 10 Newbury residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
31% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 6% 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.
Newbury’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 Newbury 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 +14% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +14% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -2% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Newbury Wash Common, Newbury Clay Hill and Newbury Greenham; highest in Newbury Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newbury Wash Common | 9,318 | 22.6 | 7.2 | |
| Newbury Clay Hill | 7,547 | 24.3 | 11 | |
| Newbury Greenham | 11,610 | 31.3 | 14.4 | |
| Newbury Speen | 6,358 | 35.7 | 11.1 | |
| Newbury Central | 7,429 | 77.1 | 27.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 711 | 34% violent |
| Supermarkets | 640 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 404 | 35% violent |
| Petrol stations | 157 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 130 | 39% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 110 | 34% anti-social behaviour |
| Bus and coach stations | 72 | 32% violent |
| Racecourses | 43 | 49% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Newbury Central records 2.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Newbury. 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 Newbury. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Newbury’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Newbury 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 15 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 21 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Newbury’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” (57% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% 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. 2,186 crimes.
Set against 155 towns its size, Newbury is 77th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harpenden Hertfordshire | 30,964 | 11.3 | 11.2 | 13.4 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 4 | Caversham Berkshire | 33,038 | 16.7 | 9 | 14.3 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 7 | Wokingham Berkshire | 50,320 | 18.3 | 8.6 | 12.5 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 72 | Windsor Berkshire | 31,569 | 34 | 16.3 | 21.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 74 | Royal Leamington Spa Warwickshire | 51,321 | 34 | 16.8 | 19.3 | C− |
| 75 | Sedgley West Midlands | 31,976 | 32 | 19 | 7.8 | C− |
| 76 | Rowley Regis West Midlands | 39,052 | 36.6 | 14.4 | 7.6 | C− |
| 77 | Newbury Berkshire | 42,262 | 37.1 | 14.1 | 20.3 | C− |
| 78 | Warwick Warwickshire | 36,673 | 34.1 | 17.2 | 18.6 | C− |
| 79 | Leyland Lancashire | 39,281 | 37.3 | 14.2 | 14.3 | C− |
| 80 | Andover Hampshire | 48,484 | 41.5 | 10.3 | 12.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 155 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Newbury, and others in Berkshire.
Two people died in collisions on Newbury’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 171 collisions with injuries inside Newbury in five years, in which two people died (2 were pedestrians). 40 people were killed or seriously injured: 14 on foot and 10 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 Newbury’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Newbury’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Newbury had 18.9 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). 35% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Newbury’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Newbury
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newbury | 42,262 | 37.1 | 14.1 | C− |
| Thatcham | 25,537 | 29.7 | 8 | C+ |
| Cold Ash | 2,267 | 5.7 | 4.3 | A+ |
| Woolton Hill and Highclere | 2,755 | 11 | 6.9 | A |
| Upper Bucklebury | 1,036 | 20 | 12.6 | B− |
| Hermitage | 2,224 | 11.1 | 6.9 | A |
| Kintbury | 2,054 | 20.5 | 6 | B+ |
| Kingsclere | 2,889 | 20.7 | 9.4 | B |
Newbury records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Thatcham, 2.8 miles away, records 29.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Newbury’s 37.1.
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 Newbury 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 Newbury
Is Newbury safe?
Police recorded 37.1 violent and sexual offences and 14.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Newbury’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 20% of UK towns. Among 155 UK towns of 30,000 to 57,000 people, Newbury is 77th from the least crime. 10% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Newbury?
By council ward, Newbury Wash Common, Newbury Clay Hill and Newbury Greenham record the least violent and household crime per resident: 22.6, 24.3 and 31.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 77.1 in Newbury Central.
Is crime going up in Newbury?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 11%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 14%, shoplifting and theft rose 14% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Newbury town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 130 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 39% of them violent, and Newbury Central ward records 77.1 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 Newbury?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,408 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (586) and public order (341), with 517 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.