Photo: Jim Osley · CC BY-SA 2.0Violent crime per resident is higher in Newton Abbot than in 85% of UK towns
More crime per resident is recorded in 36% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Newton Abbot grades C− for safety on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #35 of 47 in Devon. Violent crime barely moved in a year. Typical years here bring 40.4 violent and sexual offences plus 11.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Newton Abbot
About the middle for a town its size
Of 210 UK towns of 21,000 to 40,000 people, Newton Abbot has the 124th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Evesham and Frome, higher than Leyland, Witham and Kempston. 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. 14% of Newton Abbot’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 10% 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.
What sits behind Newton Abbot’s C−
A firm grade. Built on 4,342 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Newton Abbot against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Police in Newton Abbot identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 54% of Newton Abbot’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” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 7% 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. 1,322 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Newton Abbot runs highest on shoplifting (9.4 per 1,000 against 6.1), violence & sexual offences (39.8 per 1,000 against 30.4) and other theft (5.6 per 1,000 against 4.4). Public order and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,180 | 39.8 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 312 | 10.5 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 280 | 9.4 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 194 | 6.5 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 165 | 5.6 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 131 | 4.4 | 5.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 69 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 66 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 57 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 41 | 1.4 | 2.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 24 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 13 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 12 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 7 | 0.2 | 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.
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.
1 in 7 Newton Abbot residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
31% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 10% 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.
Newton Abbot’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.
Crime in Newton Abbot 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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Ambrook, Bradley and College; highest in Bushell
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambrook | 1,945 | 14.1 | 3.6 | |
| Bradley | 7,612 | 26.5 | 5.6 | |
| College | 5,394 | 35.3 | 10.8 | |
| Buckland & Milber | 8,759 | 35.9 | 12.3 | |
| Bushell | 5,940 | 60.9 | 17.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 402 | 40% violent |
| Shopping areas | 335 | 51% violent |
| Petrol stations | 217 | 36% violent |
| Supermarkets | 132 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 96 | 32% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 29 | 69% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Bushell records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Newton Abbot. 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 Newton Abbot. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Newton Abbot’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
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 +4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +8% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -30% (towns its size -4%).
Newton Abbot against towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 66 | Exmouth Devon | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | 8.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 121 | Leyland Lancashire | 39,281 | 37.3 | 14.2 | 14.3 | C− |
| 122 | Witham Essex | 27,395 | 37.9 | 13.6 | 13.2 | C− |
| 123 | Kempston Bedfordshire | 22,779 | 35.5 | 16 | 18.6 | C− |
| 124 | Newton Abbot Devon | 29,650 | 40.4 | 11.2 | 14.7 | C− |
| 125 | Bingley West Yorkshire | 21,334 | 37 | 14.6 | 10.1 | C− |
| 126 | Epsom Surrey | 35,857 | 34.7 | 17.2 | 18.1 | C− |
| 127 | Rushden Northamptonshire | 31,689 | 36.6 | 15.4 | 21.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 165 | Barnstaple Devon | 31,271 | 48 | 14.6 | 22.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 210 | 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.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Newton Abbot, and others in Devon.
One person died in collisions on Newton Abbot’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 130 collisions with injuries inside Newton Abbot in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 29 people were killed or seriously injured: 11 on foot and 3 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 Newton Abbot’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Newton Abbot’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Newton Abbot had 19.6 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 Newton Abbot’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Newton Abbot
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newton Abbot | 29,650 | 40.4 | 11.2 | C− |
| Abbotskerswell | 1,182 | 6.2 | 4.9 | A+ |
| Kingsteignton | 11,945 | 20 | 8.6 | B |
| Kingskerswell | 3,761 | 25 | 11.3 | C+ |
| Denbury | 1,482 | 38 | 4.7 | C |
| Ipplepen | 2,150 | 10.6 | 5.6 | A |
| Heathfield | 1,496 | 36 | 7.8 | C |
| Bishopsteignton | 2,271 | 10.4 | 4 | A |
Newton Abbot records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Abbotskerswell, 1.6 miles away, records 6.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Newton Abbot’s 40.4.
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
- 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 Newton Abbot 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 Newton Abbot
Is Newton Abbot safe?
Police recorded 40.4 violent and sexual offences and 11.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Newton Abbot’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 20% of UK towns. Among 210 UK towns of 21,000 to 40,000 people, Newton Abbot is 124th from the least crime. 14% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Newton Abbot?
By council ward, Ambrook, Bradley and College record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.1, 26.5 and 35.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 60.9 in Bushell.
Is crime going up in Newton Abbot?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft rose 8% and anti-social behaviour fell 30%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Newton Abbot?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,180 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (280) and criminal damage & arson (194), with 312 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Newton Abbot compare with Paignton?
Paignton records 40.2 violent and sexual offences and 13.7 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Newton Abbot’s 40.4 and 11.2, 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.