Photo: Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0Amersham has less crime per resident than 89% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Recorded violence held steady in a year. Violence and property crime split as 18.6 violent and sexual offences and 9.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year. It has less violent crime than 65% of UK towns, but less burglary, vehicle crime and damage than only 49%.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Amersham
Less crime than most places its size
Of 317 UK towns of 12,000 to 23,000 people, Amersham has the 40th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Carterton, Herne and Neston, higher than Euxton, North Hykeham and Saffron Walden. 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. 26% of Amersham’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.
Amersham: B for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 1,458 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Amersham 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 4 Amersham residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
72% 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.
Amersham’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.
Towns its size: Amersham comes 40th of 317
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 7 | Hazlemere Buckinghamshire | 20,006 | 14.5 | 7 | 4.6 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 35 | Chalfont St Peter Buckinghamshire | 13,654 | 15.6 | 11.9 | 5.8 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 37 | Euxton Lancashire | 17,519 | 21 | 6.9 | 4.3 | B |
| 38 | North Hykeham Lincolnshire | 16,855 | 21.4 | 6.6 | 9.4 | B |
| 39 | Saffron Walden Essex | 16,609 | 19.1 | 9 | 7.7 | B |
| 40 | Amersham Buckinghamshire | 17,377 | 18.6 | 9.7 | 9.5 | B |
| 41 | Knutsford Cheshire | 13,254 | 21.2 | 7.3 | 8.4 | B |
| 42 | Bishop's Cleeve Gloucestershire | 16,323 | 21 | 7.5 | 7 | B |
| 43 | Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne Gloucestershire | 14,969 | 20.3 | 8.5 | 8.6 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 59 | Flackwell Heath and Wooburn Green Buckinghamshire | 12,438 | 20.5 | 11.1 | 7.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 64 | Marlow Buckinghamshire | 14,641 | 22.1 | 9.7 | 13.2 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 317 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | 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 Amersham, and others in Buckinghamshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Criminal damage & arson and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 303 | 17.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 97 | 5.6 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 77 | 4.4 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 71 | 4.1 | 4.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 59 | 3.4 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 57 | 3.3 | 6.2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 46 | 2.6 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 40 | 2.3 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 35 | 2 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 29 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 12 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 12 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 6 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
“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.
How crime in Amersham 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 -4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -17% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +5% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -10% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Amersham 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 8 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 9 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 71% of Amersham’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” (54% 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. 486 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Little Chalfont and Amersham Common, Amersham and Chesham Bois and Penn Wood and Old Amersham
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Chalfont and Amersham Common | 5,196 | 17.8 | 7.1 | |
| Amersham and Chesham Bois | 10,563 | 18.6 | 10.1 | |
| Penn Wood and Old Amersham | 1,618 | 20 | 13.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 224 | 29% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 178 | 61% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 64 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 23 | 61% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 20 | 50% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live. 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 Amersham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Amersham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Amersham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 71 collisions with injuries inside Amersham in five years. 17 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 1 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 Amersham’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Amersham’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Amersham had 19.2 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 Amersham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Amersham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amersham | 17,377 | 18.6 | 9.7 | B |
| Little Chalfont | 6,506 | 21 | 13.2 | B− |
| Chesham | 23,691 | 26.2 | 13.5 | C+ |
| Hyde Heath | 1,048 | 10.8 | 4.8 | A |
| Chalfont St Giles | 4,707 | 13.6 | 9.5 | A− |
| Seer Green | 2,582 | 8.1 | 8.9 | A |
| Bovingdon | 5,313 | 21.8 | 7.6 | B |
| South Heath | 1,278 | 9.1 | 6.8 | A |
Amersham records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Hyde Heath, 2.5 miles away, records 10.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Amersham’s 18.6.
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 Amersham 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 Amersham
Is Amersham safe?
Police recorded 18.6 violent and sexual offences and 9.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Amersham’s built-up area). That earns a B for safety: less crime per resident than 60% of UK towns. Among 317 UK towns of 12,000 to 23,000 people, Amersham is 40th from the least crime. 26% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Amersham?
By council ward, Little Chalfont and Amersham Common, Amersham and Chesham Bois and Penn Wood and Old Amersham record the least violent and household crime per resident: 17.8, 18.6 and 20 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 20 in Penn Wood and Old Amersham.
Is crime going up in Amersham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 17%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 10%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Amersham?
Violence & sexual offences: 303 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (77) and other theft (71), with 97 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Amersham compare with Rickmansworth?
Rickmansworth records 22.5 violent and sexual offences and 9.8 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Amersham’s 18.6 and 9.7, 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.