Photo: Roger A Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0Barnstaple records more crime per resident than 90% of UK towns
From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Barnstaple’s built-up area put it at D for safety: #44 of 47 in Devon.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Barnstaple
One ward carries much of the rate
Barnstaple Central ward, where 54% of Barnstaple’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 1,361 of Barnstaple’s 4,383 violent and sexual offences in three years: 172.2 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Barnstaple the figure is 34.1. Where in Barnstaple ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in Barnstaple 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 21% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 195 UK towns of 22,000 to 42,000 people, Barnstaple has the 155th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Sutton in Ashfield, Merthyr Tydfil and Chorley, higher than Clifton, Ryde and Brighouse. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 10% of Barnstaple’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 5% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Barnstaple grades D for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 5,764 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Barnstaple against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Lowest recorded crime in Newport, Roundswell and Bickington; highest in Barnstaple Central
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Barnstaple’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport | 5,054 | 28.2 | 7.6 | |
| Roundswell | 3,655 | 29 | 11.7 | |
| Bickington | 4,951 | 33.5 | 9.4 | |
| Barnstaple with Westacott | 6,681 | 36.3 | 10 | |
| Barnstaple with Pilton | 8,045 | 38.6 | 11.6 | |
| Barnstaple Central | 2,634 | 172.2 | 58.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 864 | 77% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 717 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 393 | 43% violent |
| Car parks | 347 | 37% violent |
| Hospitals | 323 | 56% violent |
| Petrol stations | 315 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 97 | 42% violent |
| Police stations | 45 | 40% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 20 | 50% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Barnstaple Central records 5.1× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Barnstaple. 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 Barnstaple. We show only these, never streets or homes.
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 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Against the typical town its size, Barnstaple runs highest on shoplifting (17.4 per 1,000 against 6.1), robbery (1.3 per 1,000 against 0.5) and possession of weapons (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.7). Vehicle crime sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,460 | 46.7 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 544 | 17.4 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 432 | 13.8 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 276 | 8.8 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 259 | 8.3 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 167 | 5.3 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 94 | 3 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 71 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 69 | 2.2 | 1.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 49 | 1.6 | 2.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 43 | 1.4 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 41 | 1.3 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 26 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 19 | 0.6 | 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.
Police in Barnstaple 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. 1,878 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 56% of Barnstaple’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” (60% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 9% of household crimes reached court.
1 in 10 Barnstaple residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
Barnstaple’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.
24% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 5% 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.
Barnstaple is 155th of 195 UK towns of 22,000 to 42,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Barnstaple, and others in Devon.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 62 | Exmouth Devon | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | 8.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 118 | Newton Abbot Devon | 29,650 | 40.4 | 11.2 | 14.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 152 | Clifton Nottinghamshire | 22,936 | 43.7 | 18.5 | 21 | D |
| 153 | Ryde Isle of Wight | 24,094 | 50.9 | 11.4 | 13.2 | D |
| 154 | Brighouse West Yorkshire | 33,159 | 46.3 | 16.2 | 14.9 | D |
| 155 | Barnstaple Devon | 31,271 | 48 | 14.6 | 22.8 | D |
| 156 | Billingham County Durham | 33,917 | 38.6 | 24.3 | 15.5 | D |
| 157 | Port Talbot West Glamorgan | 31,557 | 48.8 | 14.2 | 19.5 | D |
| 158 | St Austell Cornwall | 24,361 | 47.8 | 15.6 | 16.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 195 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 49 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 13 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 24 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.
Violent crime up 7% in a year, while towns its size held steady
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 +7% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -21% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -5% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -43% (towns its size -4%).
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).
Two people died in collisions on Barnstaple’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Barnstaple’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 193 collisions with injuries inside Barnstaple in five years, in which two people died (1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist). 37 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 on foot and 11 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 Barnstaple’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Barnstaple’s own rate (1.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Barnstaple had 23.7 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). 27% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Barnstaple
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnstaple | 31,271 | 48 | 14.6 | D |
| Bickington | 2,105 | 17.8 | 5.7 | B+ |
| Landkey | 2,001 | 13.3 | 4 | A |
| Fremington | 5,229 | 15.6 | 4.7 | A− |
| Chivenor and Wrafton | 1,953 | 20.5 | 3.4 | B+ |
| Braunton | 6,610 | 17.3 | 7.8 | B+ |
| Appledore | 1,711 | 18.1 | 9.8 | B |
| Northam | 5,191 | 14 | 6.2 | A− |
Barnstaple records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Bickington, 1.8 miles away, records 17.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Barnstaple’s 48.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 323 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Barnstaple’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Barnstaple 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 Barnstaple
Is Barnstaple safe?
Police recorded 48 violent and sexual offences and 14.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Barnstaple’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 10% of UK towns. Among 195 UK towns of 22,000 to 42,000 people, Barnstaple is 155th from the least crime. 10% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Barnstaple?
By council ward, Newport, Roundswell and Bickington record the least violent and household crime per resident: 28.2, 29 and 33.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 172.2 in Barnstaple Central.
Is crime going up in Barnstaple?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 21%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 43%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Barnstaple town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 393 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 43% of them violent, and Barnstaple Central ward records 172.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in March and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Barnstaple?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,460 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (544) and criminal damage & arson (276), with 432 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.