Photo: Manfred Heyde · CC BY-SA 4.0Bude records more crime per resident than 78% of UK towns
On crimes police recorded inside Bude’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades C− for safety: #21 of 35 in Cornwall.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bude
More crime than many places its size
Of 546 UK towns of 5,000 to 10,000 people, Bude has the 407th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Norton Canes, Wincanton and Stonehouse, higher than Rothwell, Ruthin and Skelton (Redcar and Cleveland). Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Bude grades C− for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,047 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bude against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
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.
Against the typical town its size, Bude runs highest on shoplifting (8.7 per 1,000 against 1.8), other theft (6.4 per 1,000 against 3.2) and violence & sexual offences (37.2 per 1,000 against 22.4).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 273 | 37.2 | 22.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 64 | 8.7 | 1.8 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 63 | 8.6 | 8.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 47 | 6.4 | 3.2 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 42 | 5.7 | 4.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 26 | 3.5 | 3.6 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 14 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 7 | 1 | 2 |
| Other crime | not graded | 4 | 0.5 | 1.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 4 | 0.5 | 0 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 3 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 2 | 0.3 | 1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 2 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
“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.
How Bude’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Bude’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.
31% 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.
Bude is 407th of 546 UK towns of 5,000 to 10,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Bude, and others in Cornwall.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merley Dorset | 5,489 | 8.4 | 2.8 | 3.8 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 361 | Torpoint Cornwall | 7,163 | 33.7 | 9.7 | 6.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 367 | St Blazey Cornwall | 6,569 | 33.1 | 11.4 | 7.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 372 | Looe Cornwall | 5,314 | 31.5 | 13.3 | 9.8 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 404 | Rothwell Northamptonshire | 8,623 | 37 | 12.4 | 6.2 | C− |
| 405 | Ruthin Clwyd | 5,700 | 39.8 | 9.6 | 8.3 | C− |
| 406 | Skelton (Redcar and Cleveland) North Yorkshire | 6,895 | 33.6 | 15.8 | 18.7 | C− |
| 407 | Bude Cornwall | 7,347 | 38.2 | 11.4 | 21.9 | C− |
| 408 | Newent Gloucestershire | 5,360 | 39.3 | 10.7 | 6.4 | C− |
| 409 | Wigton Cumbria | 5,396 | 40.1 | 9.9 | 6.2 | C− |
| 410 | Newcastle Newry, Mourne and Down | 8,298 | 34.8 | 15.4 | 10.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 427 | Hayle Cornwall | 9,040 | 36.7 | 15.3 | 16.4 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 546 | City of London London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | 710 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
For every 1,000 residents, about 38 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
Police in Bude identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
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. 353 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 64% of Bude’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 8% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (69% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 3% of household crimes reached court.
Violent crime held steady over the year
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 +5% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -28% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -35% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -32% (towns its size +0%).
Devon & Cornwall Police published three months short or not at all (Sep 2023, Oct 2023 and Nov 2023), so the line breaks there and those months are left out of the rates. “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).
Where in Bude police recorded crime
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 381 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 104 | 43% violent |
| Petrol stations | 93 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 71 | 76% violent |
| Shopping areas | 41 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
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 Bude. We show only these, never streets or homes.
No one died in a collision on Bude’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Bude’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 30 collisions with injuries inside Bude in five years. 11 people were killed or seriously injured: 7 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Bude is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, Bude had 29.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (16.7).
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.
Crime in the places around Bude
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bude | 7,347 | 38.2 | 11.4 | C− |
| Stratton | 1,928 | 25.3 | 9.4 | B− |
| Holsworthy | 3,472 | 33.7 | 6.5 | C+ |
Bude records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Stratton, 0.8 miles away, records 25.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bude’s 38.2.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Some months are short. Devon & Cornwall Police published September 2023, October 2023 and November 2023 only in part or not at all. Those months are left out of the rates, which average the months that were published in full; the raw counts include what was published.
- 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 Bude 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 Bude
Is Bude safe?
Police recorded 38.2 violent and sexual offences and 11.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bude’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 546 UK towns of 5,000 to 10,000 people, Bude is 407th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Bude?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 28%, shoplifting and theft fell 35% and anti-social behaviour fell 32%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Bude town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 71 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 76% of them violent. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in May and was lowest in September.
What is the most common crime in Bude?
Violence & sexual offences: 273 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (64) and other theft (47), with 63 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.