Photo: Tom walker · CC BY 3.0Bletchley sees more crime per resident than 91% of UK towns
Measured against the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, 17% of them record more crime per resident. Add to that, on crimes police recorded inside Bletchley’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety. In a usual year, 46.1 violent and sexual offences and 18.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bletchley
More crime than many places its size
Of 151 UK towns of 32,000 to 61,000 people, Bletchley has the 110th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than King's Lynn, Hatfield and Folkestone, higher than Banbury, Brighouse and Billingham. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Bletchley’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 8,663 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bletchley 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, Bletchley runs highest on robbery (1.3 per 1,000 against 0.5), vehicle crime (6.1 per 1,000 against 2.8) and shoplifting (12.6 per 1,000 against 6.1).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,045 | 45.4 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 568 | 12.6 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 501 | 11.1 | 12.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 381 | 8.5 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 379 | 8.4 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 327 | 7.3 | 6.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 275 | 6.1 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 153 | 3.4 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 141 | 3.1 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 74 | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 59 | 1.3 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 30 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 28 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 26 | 0.6 | 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.
Crime in Bletchley 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 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 22 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Bletchley places 110th of 151 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 107 | Banbury Oxfordshire | 52,041 | 47 | 15.4 | 18.8 | D |
| 108 | Brighouse West Yorkshire | 33,159 | 46.3 | 16.2 | 14.9 | D |
| 109 | Billingham County Durham | 33,917 | 38.6 | 24.3 | 15.5 | D |
| 110 | Bletchley Buckinghamshire | 45,018 | 46.1 | 18.2 | 20.3 | D |
| 111 | Sutton in Ashfield Nottinghamshire | 36,435 | 45 | 19.4 | 24.7 | D |
| 112 | Merthyr Tydfil Mid Glamorgan | 39,542 | 45.6 | 19.1 | 25.4 | D |
| 113 | Chorley Lancashire | 39,539 | 48.7 | 16.2 | 15 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 151 | 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 Bletchley, and others in Buckinghamshire.
How Bletchley’s neighbourhoods rank in England
20% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 18% 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.
Bletchley’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.
Police in Bletchley identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 62% of Bletchley’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” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 3% 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. 2,874 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Bletchley West, Bletchley Park and Great Brickhill; highest in Bletchley East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bletchley West | 10,973 | 34.7 | 10.4 | |
| Bletchley Park | 15,565 | 34.1 | 13.7 | |
| Great Brickhill | 899 | 41.5 | 9.6 | |
| Bletchley East | 17,581 | 55.7 | 22.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol stations | 855 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 633 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 609 | 54% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 606 | 33% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 82 | 49% violent |
| Nightclubs | 79 | 38% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Bletchley East records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bletchley. 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 Bletchley. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bletchley’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 +1% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -5% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +23% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -8% (towns its size -4%).
No one died in a collision on Bletchley’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 199 collisions with injuries inside Bletchley in five years. 30 people were killed or seriously injured: 13 on foot and 5 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 Bletchley’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bletchley’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bletchley had 13.3 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). 43% 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 Bletchley’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bletchley
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bletchley | 45,018 | 46.1 | 18.2 | D |
| Newton Longville | 1,877 | 14.4 | 7.5 | A− |
| Stoke Hammond | 1,155 | 22.2 | 13.3 | C+ |
| Milton Keynes | 197,328 | 46.3 | 19.3 | D |
| Woburn Sands | 4,315 | 15.4 | 10 | B+ |
| Stewkley | 1,421 | 19 | 9.9 | B |
| Aspley Guise | 2,114 | 8.4 | 15.9 | B+ |
| Heath and Reach | 1,451 | 10.6 | 6.7 | A |
Bletchley records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Milton Keynes records more. Newton Longville, 1.8 miles away, records 14.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bletchley’s 46.1.
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 Bletchley 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 Bletchley
Is Bletchley safe?
Police recorded 46.1 violent and sexual offences and 18.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bletchley’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 151 UK towns of 32,000 to 61,000 people, Bletchley is 110th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Bletchley?
By council ward, Bletchley West, Bletchley Park and Great Brickhill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 34.7, 34.1 and 41.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 55.7 in Bletchley East.
Is crime going up in Bletchley?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 23% and anti-social behaviour fell 8%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Bletchley town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 79 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 38% of them violent, and Bletchley East ward records 55.7 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 December.
What is the most common crime in Bletchley?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,045 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (568) and other theft (381), with 501 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Bletchley compare with Milton Keynes?
Milton Keynes records 46.3 violent and sexual offences and 19.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Bletchley’s 46.1 and 18.2, 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.