Photo: Peter S · CC BY-SA 2.0For burglary, vehicle crime and damage, St Neots trails 76% of UK towns per resident
For its size, it sits below 59% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident. Even so, the overall Safety Grade is C (#41 of 50 in Cambridgeshire), which means more crime per resident than 66% of UK towns, judged on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Violent crime barely moved in a year. Behind the grade sit 26.8 violent and sexual offences and 13.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in St Neots
Less crime than many places its size
Of 200 UK towns of 23,000 to 45,000 people, St Neots has the 66th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Hertford, Waterlooville and Bishop's Stortford, higher than Witney, Egham and Whitstable. 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. 15% of St Neots’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.
St Neots: C for safety, and why
A fairly firm grade. Built on 4,042 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks St Neots 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 7 St Neots residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
36% 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.
St Neots’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, St Neots runs highest on vehicle crime (4.1 per 1,000 against 2.8) and drugs (2.6 per 1,000 against 1.9). Public order and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 882 | 26.5 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 407 | 12.2 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 198 | 6 | 6.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 142 | 4.3 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 138 | 4.1 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 124 | 3.7 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 106 | 3.2 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 87 | 2.6 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 83 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 69 | 2.1 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 25 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 21 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 10 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 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.
St Neots against towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 63 | Witney Oxfordshire | 30,167 | 31.9 | 8.2 | 11.9 | C+ |
| 64 | Egham Surrey | 28,003 | 28.5 | 11.7 | 17.6 | C+ |
| 65 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | 19.4 | C |
| 66 | St Neots Cambridgeshire | 33,262 | 26.8 | 13.8 | 10.7 | C |
| 67 | Walton-on-Thames Surrey | 27,016 | 28.5 | 12.9 | 13.7 | C |
| 68 | Bromsgrove Worcestershire | 34,759 | 30.9 | 10.8 | 12.9 | C |
| 69 | Falmouth Cornwall | 24,066 | 29.4 | 12.5 | 16.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 151 | Huntingdon Cambridgeshire | 25,603 | 44.6 | 16.4 | 19.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 186 | Wisbech Cambridgeshire | 26,800 | 54.1 | 21.9 | 28.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 200 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 St Neots, and others in Cambridgeshire.
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 -5% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -13% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -27% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -23% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in St Neots 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 13 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 8 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in St Neots Priory Park & Little Paxton, St Neots Eatons and St Neots East; highest in St Neots Eynesbury
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Neots Priory Park & Little Paxton | 6,500 | 16.6 | 9.5 | |
| St Neots Eatons | 10,977 | 18.1 | 12.1 | |
| St Neots East | 4,143 | 32.3 | 10.4 | |
| St Neots Eynesbury | 11,642 | 37.3 | 18.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 317 | 24% violent |
| Supermarkets | 231 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 199 | 83% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 106 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 23 | 52% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so St Neots Eynesbury records 1.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of St Neots. 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 St Neots. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside St Neots’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of St Neots’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (62% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 2% 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. 1,261 crimes.
Two people died in collisions on St Neots’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 126 collisions with injuries inside St Neots in five years, in which two people died (1 was a pedestrian). 36 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 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 St Neots’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so St Neots’s own rate (1.2) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, St Neots had 21.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 28% 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 St Neots’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around St Neots
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Neots | 33,262 | 26.8 | 13.8 | C |
| Little Paxton | 4,031 | 18.4 | 10.2 | B |
| Great Paxton | 1,003 | 5.7 | 6 | A+ |
| Offord D'Arcy and Offord Cluny | 1,385 | 13.2 | 7.2 | A− |
| Buckden | 2,757 | 19.5 | 7.9 | B |
| Gamlingay | 2,920 | 19 | 6.6 | B+ |
| Great Barford | 2,254 | 15.5 | 10.2 | B+ |
| Blunham | 1,391 | 114.1 | 29.5 | D− |
St Neots records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Blunham records more. Little Paxton, 1.6 miles away, records 18.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against St Neots’s 26.8.
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 St Neots 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 St Neots
Is St Neots safe?
Police recorded 26.8 violent and sexual offences and 13.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside St Neots’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 34% of UK towns. Among 200 UK towns of 23,000 to 45,000 people, St Neots is 66th from the least crime. 15% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of St Neots?
By council ward, St Neots Priory Park & Little Paxton, St Neots Eatons and St Neots East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.6, 18.1 and 32.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 37.3 in St Neots Eynesbury.
Is crime going up in St Neots?
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 27% and anti-social behaviour fell 23%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in St Neots?
Violence & sexual offences: 882 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (198) and shoplifting (142), with 407 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.