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DSafety Grade
Safety in St Austell · police.uk, 2023–2026

Per resident, St Austell records more crime than 90% of UK towns

Out of every 1,000 residents, 47.8 violent and sexual offences and 15.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually. That puts it at D for safety, judged on crimes police recorded inside St Austell’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #29 of 35 in Cornwall. Police recorded 37 cases of possession of weapons here in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 1.5 per 1,000 against a typical 0.7.

Violent crime
47.8
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
15.6
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
16.5
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
18.9
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in St Austell

More crime than many places its size

Of 236 UK towns of 17,000 to 33,000 people, St Austell has the 190th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Pontypool, Ripley and Whitehaven, higher than Barnstaple, Selby and Port Talbot. Towns its size ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

What sits behind St Austell’s D

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 18% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: more crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (47.8 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 8% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (15.6 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 18% of UK towns
DD

A firm grade. Built on 4,407 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks St Austell against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

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

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences46.6
Anti-social behaviour16.5
Criminal damage & arson10.9
Public order7.4
Shoplifting6.2
Other theft6
Other crime2.8
Drugs2.6
Burglary2.4
Vehicle crime1.7
Possession of weapons1.5
Robbery0.9
Theft from the person0.8
Bicycle theft0.1
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, St Austell runs highest on possession of weapons (1.5 per 1,000 against 0.7), criminal damage & arson (10.9 per 1,000 against 6.2) and violence & sexual offences (46.6 per 1,000 against 30.4). Vehicle crime sits below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent1,13546.630.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded40216.512.4
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle26510.96.2
Public ordernot graded1807.45.4
Shopliftingnot graded1506.26.1
Other theftnot graded14764.4
Other crimenot graded682.81.8
Drugsnot graded642.61.9
BurglaryHome & vehicle592.42.4
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle421.72.8
Possession of weaponsViolent371.50.7
RobberyViolent230.90.5
Theft from the personnot graded200.80.3
Bicycle theftnot graded30.10.3

“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.

Towns its size

Set against 236 towns its size, St Austell is 190th

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Heswall Merseyside29,08214.35.53.8A−
…
94Falmouth Cornwall24,06629.412.516.5C
…
177Newquay Cornwall24,54345.914.818D
…
187Barnstaple Devon31,2714814.622.8D
188Selby North Yorkshire19,48048.214.721.6D
189Port Talbot West Glamorgan31,55748.814.219.5D
190St Austell Cornwall24,36147.815.616.5D
191Coalville Leicestershire21,97545.418.317.4D
192Goole East Riding of Yorkshire20,17346.917.721.8D
193Northfleet Kent29,8924520.615.5D
…
197Camborne Cornwall20,4455017.111.3D
…
208Truro Cornwall23,06056.316.322.4D
…
236Great Yarmouth Norfolk28,97910532.933.7D−

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 Austell, and others in Cornwall.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in St Austell per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
1,195
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
366
homes & vehicles
320
shoplifting & theft
77
of the three, per 1,000

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 15 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.

What happened next

Police in St Austell identify a suspect more often than across UK towns

Violent crime
St Austell
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
St Austell
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 61% of St Austell’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 10% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% 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. 1,340 crimes.

Where in St Austell

Lowest recorded crime in St Austell Bethel & Holmbush, Penwithick & Boscoppa and St Austell Central & Gover; highest in Mevagissey & St Austell Bay

By ward per 1,000 a year
WardResidentsViolentHomes & vehicles
St Austell Bethel & Holmbush6,80623.89.7
Penwithick & Boscoppa2,93935.210.8
St Austell Central & Gover7,09654.519.4
St Austell Poltair & Mount Charles6,97058.716.9
Mevagissey & St Austell Bay55067.918.2
ViolentHomes & vehicles
Public places police.uk named crimes and ASB, 3 years
At or nearReportsMostly
Car parks67536% violent
Shopping areas29558% shoplifting & theft
Supermarkets27336% shoplifting & theft
Petrol stations23928% violent
Sports and recreation grounds8847% violent
Nightclubs7963% violent
Police stations7856% violent

A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Mevagissey & St Austell Bay records 1.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of St Austell. 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 Austell. 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 Austell’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

How St Austell’s neighbourhoods rank in England

0%1
21%2
0%3
11%4
15%5
6%6
9%7
26%8
6%9
8%10
Higher crimeLower crime

39% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 21% 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 Austell’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.

Trend · monthly

Violent crime held steady over the year

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 +1% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +14% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -17% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -12% (towns its size -4%).

On the roads

Two people died in collisions on St Austell’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 127 collisions with injuries inside St Austell in five years, in which two people died. 22 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 on foot and 2 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 Austell’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so St Austell’s own rate (1.6) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, St Austell had 18.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).

2
people killed, 2021–2025
22
killed or seriously injured
5
of them on foot
2
of them on a bicycle

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

Neighbours

Crime in the places around St Austell

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
St Austell24,36147.815.6D
Carlyon Bay1,17419.54.7B+
Trewoon1,24623.93.8B
Penwithick1,70650.112.8D
Polgooth1,09653A+
St Blazey6,56933.111.4C
Tywardreath2,58918.811.2B
Foxhole1,52635.79.3C

St Austell records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Carlyon Bay, 1.4 miles away, records 19.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against St Austell’s 47.8.

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

How to read these numbers

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 St Austell 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 Austell

Is St Austell safe?

Police recorded 47.8 violent and sexual offences and 15.6 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 Austell’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 10% of UK towns. Among 236 UK towns of 17,000 to 33,000 people, St Austell is 190th from the least crime.

What are the safest areas of St Austell?

By council ward, St Austell Bethel & Holmbush, Penwithick & Boscoppa and St Austell Central & Gover record the least violent and household crime per resident: 23.8, 35.2 and 54.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 67.9 in Mevagissey & St Austell Bay.

Is crime going up in St Austell?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 14%, shoplifting and theft fell 17% and anti-social behaviour fell 12%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.

Is St Austell town centre safe at night?

police.uk placed 79 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 63% of them violent, and Mevagissey & St Austell Bay ward records 67.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in April.

What is the most common crime in St Austell?

Violence & sexual offences: 1,135 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (265) and public order (180), with 402 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.