Photo: Own work · Public domainExmouth has more crime per resident than 64% of UK towns
Counting crimes police recorded inside Exmouth’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades C+ for safety: #24 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 Exmouth
Less crime than many places its size
Of 181 UK towns of 25,000 to 48,000 people, Exmouth has the 49th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Whitstable, St Neots and Walton-on-Thames, higher than Great Malvern, Droitwich Spa and Horley. 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. 29% of Exmouth’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 6% 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.
Exmouth grades C+ for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A fairly firm grade. Built on 4,045 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Exmouth against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Police in Exmouth 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. 1,271 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 52% of Exmouth’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 9% 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 4% of violent and 5% of household crimes reached court.
1 in 3 Exmouth residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
Exmouth’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.
47% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 6% 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.
Vehicle crime and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,017 | 28.6 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 278 | 7.8 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 254 | 7.2 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 138 | 3.9 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 136 | 3.8 | 4.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 135 | 3.8 | 6.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 61 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 54 | 1.5 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 50 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 39 | 1.1 | 2.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 30 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 25 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 12 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 12 | 0.3 | 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.
Exmouth is 49th of 181 UK towns of 25,000 to 48,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Exmouth, and others in Devon.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 46 | Great Malvern Worcestershire | 33,194 | 28.5 | 10.7 | 15.8 | C+ |
| 47 | Droitwich Spa Worcestershire | 26,413 | 28.3 | 11.1 | 17.1 | C+ |
| 48 | Horley Surrey | 27,067 | 28.5 | 10.8 | 9.1 | C+ |
| 49 | Exmouth Devon | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | 8.1 | C+ |
| 50 | Bicester Oxfordshire | 37,748 | 30.5 | 9.6 | 30.4 | C+ |
| 51 | Witney Oxfordshire | 30,167 | 31.9 | 8.2 | 11.9 | C+ |
| 52 | Egham Surrey | 28,003 | 28.5 | 11.7 | 17.6 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 100 | Newton Abbot Devon | 29,650 | 40.4 | 11.2 | 14.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 133 | Barnstaple Devon | 31,271 | 48 | 14.6 | 22.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 181 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Exmouth Brixington, Exmouth Halsdon and Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh; highest in Exmouth Town
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Exmouth’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exmouth Brixington | 7,638 | 14.7 | 4.6 | |
| Exmouth Halsdon | 7,408 | 20.5 | 6.2 | |
| Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh | 5,079 | 23.3 | 6.6 | |
| Exmouth Littleham | 8,067 | 30.9 | 11.1 | |
| Exmouth Town | 7,310 | 53.8 | 16.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 233 | 40% violent |
| Car parks | 159 | 30% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 141 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 79 | 37% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 67 | 42% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 54 | 41% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 53 | 30% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 43 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Exmouth Town records 2.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Exmouth. 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 Exmouth. We show only these, never streets or homes.
For every 1,000 residents, about 30 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 9 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 held steady over the year
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 +18% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +18% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -31% (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).
One person died in collisions on Exmouth’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Exmouth’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 114 collisions with injuries inside Exmouth in five years, in which one person died. 25 people were killed or seriously injured: 7 on foot and 4 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 Exmouth’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Exmouth’s own rate (0.6) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Exmouth had 14.1 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).
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 Exmouth
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exmouth | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | C+ |
| Lympstone | 1,838 | 12.9 | 7.9 | A− |
| Starcross | 1,687 | 24.8 | 8 | B− |
| Exton | 1,287 | 4.2 | 3.1 | A+ |
| Dawlish Warren | 1,191 | 53.4 | 10.4 | D |
| Budleigh Salterton | 5,237 | 13.1 | 5 | A |
| Woodbury | 1,749 | 21.4 | 5.8 | B |
| Dawlish | 11,800 | 39.5 | 11.8 | C− |
Exmouth records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Dawlish Warren and Dawlish record more. Lympstone, 1.9 miles away, records 12.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Exmouth’s 30.3.
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 Exmouth 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 Exmouth
Is Exmouth safe?
Police recorded 30.3 violent and sexual offences and 9.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Exmouth’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 36% of UK towns. Among 181 UK towns of 25,000 to 48,000 people, Exmouth is 49th from the least crime. 29% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Exmouth?
By council ward, Exmouth Brixington, Exmouth Halsdon and Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.7, 20.5 and 23.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 53.8 in Exmouth Town.
Is crime going up in Exmouth?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 18%, shoplifting and theft rose 18% and anti-social behaviour fell 31%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Exmouth town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 67 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 42% of them violent, and Exmouth Town ward records 53.8 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 January.
What is the most common crime in Exmouth?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,017 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (254) and public order (138), with 278 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Exmouth compare with Exeter?
Exeter records 47.6 violent and sexual offences and 14.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Exmouth’s 30.3 and 9.2, 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.