Photo: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0Shirebrook has more crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns
On crimes police recorded inside Shirebrook’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #50 of 59 in Derbyshire. For its size, it sits below 16% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident. Per 1,000 residents a year, 50.2 violent and sexual offences and 14.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded. Violent crime barely moved in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Shirebrook
More crime than many places its size
Of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Shirebrook has the 373rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than North Wingfield and Holmewood, Pool and Illogan and Abergavenny, higher than Chadwell St Mary, Morpeth and Thorne. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
28% of Shirebrook’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 14% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Shirebrook’s D for safety
A firm grade. Built on 2,251 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Shirebrook against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Shirebrook against towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 38 | Hilton Derbyshire | 8,269 | 19.8 | 5.9 | 3.9 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 140 | Killamarsh Derbyshire | 9,082 | 23.5 | 10.5 | 3.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 154 | New Mills Derbyshire | 9,195 | 27.1 | 8.8 | 4.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 190 | Ashbourne Derbyshire | 8,854 | 30.8 | 8.3 | 7.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 370 | Chadwell St Mary Essex | 10,680 | 39.5 | 24.1 | 7.3 | D |
| 371 | Morpeth Northumberland | 14,419 | 45.3 | 18.4 | 16.8 | D |
| 372 | Thorne South Yorkshire | 12,303 | 44.3 | 19.5 | 13.6 | D |
| 373 | Shirebrook Derbyshire | 11,571 | 50.2 | 14.7 | 12.4 | D |
| 374 | Conisbrough South Yorkshire | 11,465 | 43.8 | 21.5 | 9 | D |
| 375 | Waltham Cross Hertfordshire | 11,936 | 43.5 | 21.8 | 30.3 | D |
| 376 | Filton Gloucestershire | 10,955 | 43.4 | 22.4 | 19.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 428 | 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 Shirebrook, and others in Derbyshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Shirebrook runs highest on public order (8.9 per 1,000 against 5.4), other theft (7 per 1,000 against 4.4) and violence & sexual offences (46.9 per 1,000 against 30.4). Shoplifting sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 543 | 46.9 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 143 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 103 | 8.9 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 90 | 7.8 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 81 | 7 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 42 | 3.6 | 2.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 38 | 3.3 | 6.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 29 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 23 | 2 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 20 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 9 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 3 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
“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.
Crime in Shirebrook 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 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 11 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
28% of Shirebrook residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
14% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 28% 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.
Shirebrook’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.
Police in Shirebrook identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 61% of Shirebrook’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” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 8% 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. 806 crimes.
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 -4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +6% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +26% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -39% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Shirebrook South, Langwith and Shirebrook North; highest in Shirebrook North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shirebrook South | 4,416 | 31.3 | 12.2 | |
| Langwith | 2,261 | 49.2 | 10.6 | |
| Shirebrook North | 4,894 | 67.7 | 18.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 277 | 29% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 181 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 29 | 34% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Shirebrook North records 1.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Shirebrook. 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 Shirebrook. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Shirebrook’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 Shirebrook’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 51 collisions with injuries inside Shirebrook in five years. 11 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 on foot and 0 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 Shirebrook’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Shirebrook’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Shirebrook had 19.2 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).
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 Shirebrook’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Shirebrook
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shirebrook | 11,571 | 50.2 | 14.7 | D |
| Langwith | 3,009 | 34.6 | 16.5 | C− |
| New Houghton | 1,431 | 50.3 | 22.4 | D |
| Church Warsop | 2,139 | 29.9 | 9.8 | C+ |
| Market Warsop | 6,970 | 36.4 | 12.3 | C− |
| Mansfield Woodhouse | 19,521 | 29.3 | 10.4 | C+ |
| Glapwell | 1,559 | 19.7 | 5.6 | B+ |
| Bolsover | 11,228 | 42.8 | 19.5 | D |
Shirebrook records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only New Houghton records more. Langwith, 1.6 miles away, records 34.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Shirebrook’s 50.2.
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 Shirebrook 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 Shirebrook
Is Shirebrook safe?
Police recorded 50.2 violent and sexual offences and 14.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Shirebrook’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Shirebrook is 373rd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Shirebrook?
By council ward, Shirebrook South, Langwith and Shirebrook North record the least violent and household crime per resident: 31.3, 49.2 and 67.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 67.7 in Shirebrook North.
Is crime going up in Shirebrook?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 6%, shoplifting and theft rose 26% and anti-social behaviour fell 39%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Shirebrook?
Violence & sexual offences: 543 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (103) and criminal damage & arson (90), with 143 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Shirebrook compare with Mansfield?
Mansfield records 56.4 violent and sexual offences and 22.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Shirebrook’s 50.2 and 14.7, 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.