Photo: John Sutton · CC BY-SA 2.0Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Melbourn records less crime per resident than 69%
It has less violent crime than 68% of UK towns, but less burglary, vehicle crime and damage than only 48%. Violence recorded locally climbed 7% in a year. Its police logs show 17.6 violent and sexual offences and 9.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Melbourn
Less crime than many places its size
Of 823 UK towns of 3,000 to 7,000 people, Melbourn has the 267th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Henfield, Rhoose and Littlestone-on-Sea, higher than Milton, Cuffley and Broughton. Towns its size ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in Melbourn than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Melbourn’s B
A fairly firm grade. Built on 403 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Melbourn against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How Melbourn’s neighbourhoods rank in England
69% 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.
Melbourn’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, Melbourn runs highest on vehicle crime (3.1 per 1,000 against 2), burglary (2.4 per 1,000 against 1.9) and criminal damage & arson (5.7 per 1,000 against 4.5). Violence & sexual offences sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 85 | 17.3 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 51 | 10.4 | 8.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 28 | 5.7 | 4.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 20 | 4.1 | 3.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 15 | 3.1 | 2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 12 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 9 | 1.8 | 1 |
| Other theft | not graded | 8 | 1.6 | 3.2 |
| Other crime | not graded | 7 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2 | 0.4 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 2 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 1 | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Towns its size: Melbourn comes 267th of 823
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 23 | Hemingford Grey Cambridgeshire | 3,372 | 6.8 | 7.8 | 3.8 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Great Shelford and Stapleford Cambridgeshire | 6,159 | 10 | 7.2 | 3.9 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 52 | Girton Cambridgeshire | 4,384 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 4.9 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 178 | Bar Hill Cambridgeshire | 3,899 | 13.6 | 10.3 | 18.3 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 264 | Milton Cambridgeshire | 4,150 | 15.7 | 11.5 | 27.2 | B |
| 265 | Cuffley Hertfordshire | 4,350 | 12.6 | 14.7 | 4.9 | B |
| 266 | Broughton Lincolnshire | 4,499 | 19.6 | 7.8 | 3.9 | B |
| 267 | Melbourn Cambridgeshire | 4,907 | 17.6 | 9.8 | 2.5 | B |
| 268 | Shenley Hertfordshire | 3,556 | 17.8 | 9.6 | 4.2 | B |
| 269 | Overton Hampshire | 4,350 | 19.1 | 8.3 | 4.6 | B |
| 270 | Pewsey Wiltshire | 3,792 | 20.2 | 7.2 | 3.1 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 823 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | 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 Melbourn, and others in Cambridgeshire.
Police in Melbourn identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 75% of Melbourn’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 11% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 3% 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. 146 crimes.
How crime in Melbourn has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling twelve-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 +7% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +72% (towns its size -1%), anti-social behaviour +34% (towns its size +0%).
Crime in Melbourn 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 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 2 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Melbourn’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 10 collisions with injuries inside Melbourn in five years. 4 people were killed or seriously injured: 1 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Melbourn is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Melbourn’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 4 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Melbourn had 4.
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 Melbourn’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Melbourn
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourn | 4,907 | 17.6 | 9.8 | B |
| Meldreth | 1,823 | 22.2 | 11.5 | B− |
| Fowlmere | 1,295 | 14.2 | 11.8 | B+ |
| Royston | 17,443 | 20.6 | 10.3 | B− |
| Foxton | 1,275 | 23.8 | 9.7 | B− |
| Bassingbourn | 2,353 | 24.5 | 9.4 | B− |
| Barrington | 1,184 | 17.5 | 12.7 | B |
| Orwell | 1,147 | 10.5 | 8.7 | A |
Melbourn records more graded crime per resident than 2 of its 7 neighbours. Fowlmere, 2.3 miles away, records 14.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Melbourn’s 17.6.
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 Melbourn 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 Melbourn
Is Melbourn safe?
Police recorded 17.6 violent and sexual offences and 9.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Melbourn’s built-up area). That earns a B for safety: less crime per resident than 63% of UK towns. Among 823 UK towns of 3,000 to 7,000 people, Melbourn is 267th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Melbourn?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 72%, shoplifting and theft fell 33% and anti-social behaviour rose 34%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Melbourn?
Violence & sexual offences: 85 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (28) and public order (20), with 51 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Melbourn compare with Cambridge?
Cambridge records 35.3 violent and sexual offences and 16.9 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Melbourn’s 17.6 and 9.8, 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.