Photo: Andrew Abbott · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Penzance than in 94% of UK towns
Violent crime was down 9% in a year. More crime per resident is recorded in 11% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Penzance’s built-up area put it at D for safety: #32 of 35 in Cornwall. In a usual year, 53.0 violent and sexual offences and 18.7 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 Penzance
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 9% less violent crime per resident in Penzance than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 12% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D for Penzance
A firm grade. Built on 3,058 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Penzance 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, Penzance runs highest on theft from the person (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.3), robbery (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.5) and criminal damage & arson (12.8 per 1,000 against 6.2). Vehicle crime sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 731 | 48.9 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 341 | 22.8 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 191 | 12.8 | 6.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 150 | 10 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 136 | 9.1 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 111 | 7.4 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 52 | 3.5 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 34 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 34 | 2.3 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 34 | 2.3 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 18 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 16 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 12 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 1 | 0.1 | 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.
Police in Penzance identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 52% of Penzance’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 4% of violent and 7% 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. 909 crimes.
How Penzance compares with UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 65 | Penryn Cornwall | 11,194 | 21.6 | 8.7 | 11 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 158 | Saltash Cornwall | 15,433 | 28.3 | 10.8 | 10 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 162 | Helston Cornwall | 11,366 | 29.6 | 9.8 | 7.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 286 | Redruth Cornwall | 15,455 | 43.4 | 12.7 | 11.1 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 337 | Littlehampton West Sussex | 19,060 | 49.9 | 19.9 | 23.1 | D |
| 338 | Colne Lancashire | 18,914 | 49.5 | 21.2 | 16.5 | D |
| 339 | Bacup Lancashire | 13,559 | 48.4 | 23 | 14.9 | D |
| 340 | Penzance Cornwall | 14,957 | 53 | 18.7 | 19.3 | D |
| 341 | Oswaldtwistle Lancashire | 10,810 | 48.8 | 23 | 12.7 | D |
| 342 | Dinnington South Yorkshire | 10,962 | 47.3 | 24.9 | 10.6 | D |
| 343 | Cradley Heath West Midlands | 18,819 | 52.5 | 20.2 | 11.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 372 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | 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 Penzance, and others in Cornwall.
Crime in Penzance 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 19 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Penzance’s neighbourhoods rank in England
9% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 25% 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.
Penzance’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.
How crime in Penzance has moved
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 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 -9% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -12% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -2% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -30% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Ludgvan, Madron, Gulval & Heamoor, Penzance Promenade and Penzance East; highest in Penzance East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ludgvan, Madron, Gulval & Heamoor | 2,622 | 29.5 | 10.4 | |
| Penzance Promenade | 5,840 | 29.1 | 12.6 | |
| Penzance East | 6,495 | 77.2 | 26.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 734 | 38% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 288 | 34% anti-social behaviour |
| Nightclubs | 80 | 73% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 80 | 33% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 49 | 43% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 36 | 36% violent |
| Hospitals | 21 | 43% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Penzance East records 2.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Penzance. 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 Penzance. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Penzance’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Penzance’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 82 collisions with injuries inside Penzance in five years. 19 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 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 Penzance’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Penzance’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Penzance had 25.4 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).
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 Penzance’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Penzance
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penzance | 14,957 | 53 | 18.7 | D |
| Longrock | 1,983 | 38.3 | 14.1 | C− |
| Newlyn | 3,362 | 29 | 7.7 | C+ |
| Marazion | 1,350 | 25.1 | 11.3 | C+ |
| Crowlas | 1,054 | 16.9 | 5.9 | A− |
| Goldsithney | 1,346 | 19.7 | 4.3 | B+ |
| St Erth | 1,128 | 34.5 | 11.3 | C |
| Carbis Bay | 3,967 | 18.1 | 4.7 | A− |
Penzance records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Longrock, 1.1 miles away, records 38.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Penzance’s 53.
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
- 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 Penzance 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 Penzance
Is Penzance safe?
Police recorded 53 violent and sexual offences and 18.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Penzance’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 6% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Penzance has less crime per resident than 11%.
What are the safest areas of Penzance?
By council ward, Ludgvan, Madron, Gulval & Heamoor, Penzance Promenade and Penzance East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 29.5, 29.1 and 77.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 77.2 in Penzance East.
Is crime going up in Penzance?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 9%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 12%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 30%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Penzance town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 80 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 10% of them violent, and Penzance East ward records 77.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in June and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Penzance?
Violence & sexual offences: 731 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (191) and shoplifting (150), with 341 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Penzance compare with Camborne?
Camborne records 50 violent and sexual offences and 17.1 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Penzance’s 53 and 18.7, 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.