Photo: Robin Stott · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Dawlish runs higher than in 80% of UK towns
From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Dawlish’s built-up area put it at C− for safety: #35 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 Dawlish
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% more violent crime per resident in Dawlish 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 13% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Dawlish has the 305th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Rushall and Shelfield, Hayle and East Ardsley, higher than Abergele, Linthwaite and Slaithwaite and Stapleford. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Dawlish grades C− for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 1,719 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dawlish against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Police in Dawlish 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. 499 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 51% of Dawlish’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 11% 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 6% of violent and 8% of household crimes reached court.
How Dawlish’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Dawlish’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.
23% 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.
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, Dawlish runs highest on shoplifting (11.1 per 1,000 against 6.1), violence & sexual offences (40.6 per 1,000 against 30.4) and criminal damage & arson (8.1 per 1,000 against 6.2). Anti-social behaviour and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 479 | 40.6 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 131 | 11.1 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 95 | 8.1 | 6.2 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 89 | 7.5 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 69 | 5.8 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 61 | 5.2 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 19 | 1.6 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 18 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 15 | 1.3 | 1.9 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 4 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 2 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
“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.
Dawlish is 305th of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Dawlish, and others in Devon.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 62 | Kingsteignton Devon | 11,945 | 20 | 8.6 | 6.8 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 74 | Sidmouth Devon | 13,258 | 21.9 | 7.6 | 6.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 102 | Ivybridge Devon | 12,485 | 24.2 | 7.6 | 7.9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 171 | Tavistock Devon | 12,676 | 27.9 | 9.1 | 9.2 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 302 | Abergele Clwyd | 8,531 | 39.3 | 11.6 | 11.3 | C− |
| 303 | Linthwaite and Slaithwaite West Yorkshire | 9,242 | 36.3 | 14.7 | 8.9 | C− |
| 304 | Stapleford Nottinghamshire | 15,041 | 37.2 | 13.9 | 13.3 | C− |
| 305 | Dawlish Devon | 11,800 | 39.5 | 11.8 | 12.8 | C− |
| 306 | Addlestone Surrey | 13,748 | 35.8 | 15.9 | 17.2 | C− |
| 307 | Pyle Mid Glamorgan | 14,075 | 40.1 | 11.6 | 8.6 | C− |
| 308 | Wick West Sussex | 13,231 | 37.6 | 14.2 | 18.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 41 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 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 8% 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 +8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -13% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +39% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -50% (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).
Where in Dawlish police recorded crime
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 268 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 222 | 75% violent |
| Car parks | 69 | 36% violent |
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 Dawlish. We show only these, never streets or homes.
One person died in collisions on Dawlish’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Dawlish’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 43 collisions with injuries inside Dawlish in five years, in which one person died. 10 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 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 Dawlish’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Dawlish’s own rate (1.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Dawlish had 17.0 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.
Crime in the places around Dawlish
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawlish | 11,800 | 39.5 | 11.8 | C− |
| Dawlish Warren | 1,191 | 53.4 | 10.4 | D |
| Teignmouth | 15,314 | 32 | 11.3 | C |
| Starcross | 1,687 | 24.8 | 8 | B− |
| Shaldon | 1,717 | 13.1 | 6.1 | A− |
| Bishopsteignton | 2,271 | 10.4 | 4 | A |
| Exmouth | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | C+ |
| Lympstone | 1,838 | 12.9 | 7.9 | A− |
Dawlish records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Dawlish Warren records more. Teignmouth, 2.6 miles away, records 32 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Dawlish’s 39.5.
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 Dawlish 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 Dawlish
Is Dawlish safe?
Police recorded 39.5 violent and sexual offences and 11.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Dawlish’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 20% of UK towns. Among 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Dawlish is 305th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Dawlish?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 13%, shoplifting and theft rose 39% and anti-social behaviour fell 50%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Dawlish?
Violence & sexual offences: 479 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (131) and criminal damage & arson (95), with 89 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Dawlish compare with Torquay?
Torquay records 62.6 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Dawlish’s 39.5 and 11.8, 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.