Alderley Edge stands out for drugs: 5.3 times the rate of a typical town its size

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

Against the typical town its size, Alderley Edge runs highest on drugs (5.6 per 1,000 against 1), shoplifting (5.6 per 1,000 against 1.8) and other theft (7.1 per 1,000 against 3.2). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.

“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” 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 +26% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -33% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -9% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -36% (towns its size +0%).

56% 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.

Alderley Edge’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.

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 Alderley Edge, and others in Cheshire.

And about 7 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 13 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

No suspect was identified for 69% of Alderley Edge’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (75% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% of violent and 10% 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. 172 crimes.

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 Alderley Edge’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Alderley Edge records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 5 neighbours; only Macclesfield records more. Wilmslow, 1.7 miles away, records 20.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Alderley Edge’s 25.1.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.