Photo: Kicior99 · CC BY-SA 3.0Violence recorded in Westward Ho! is up 73% in a year, while towns its size held steady
Westward Ho! grades C for safety overall (#29 of 47 in Devon): more crime per resident than 68% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Westward Ho!
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 73% more violent crime per resident in Westward Ho! than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 1,089 UK towns of 2,000 to 5,000 people, Westward Ho! has the 841st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Mancetter and Witherley, Maesycwmmer and Hanslope, higher than Crowle, Blidworth and Clayton West and Scissett. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Westward Ho! 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 414 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Westward Ho! against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Violent crime up 73% in a year, while towns its size held steady
Rolling twelve-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 +73% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +8% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -3% (towns its size +0%).
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 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
How Westward Ho!’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Westward Ho!’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.
68% 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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Against the typical town its size, Westward Ho! runs highest on violence & sexual offences (45.6 per 1,000 against 22.4), shoplifting (3.5 per 1,000 against 1.8) and criminal damage & arson (6.3 per 1,000 against 4.5).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 158 | 45.6 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 35 | 10.1 | 8.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 22 | 6.3 | 4.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 12 | 3.5 | 1.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 12 | 3.5 | 3.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 8 | 2.3 | 3.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 7 | 2 | 2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 4 | 1.2 | 1 |
| Other crime | not graded | 4 | 1.2 | 1.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 2 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.6 | 0 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0.4 |
“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.
Westward Ho! is 841st of 1,089 UK towns of 2,000 to 5,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Westward Ho!, and others in Devon.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 26 | Yealmpton Devon | 2,007 | 8.3 | 3.8 | 3.1 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Bishopsteignton Devon | 2,271 | 10.4 | 4 | 2.6 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 82 | Ipplepen Devon | 2,150 | 10.6 | 5.6 | 4.4 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 113 | Landkey Devon | 2,001 | 13.3 | 4 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 838 | Crowle Lincolnshire | 3,969 | 30.2 | 11.4 | 7 | C |
| 839 | Blidworth Nottinghamshire | 4,295 | 29.5 | 12.1 | 24.7 | C |
| 840 | Clayton West and Scissett West Yorkshire | 4,382 | 29.9 | 11.8 | 10.5 | C |
| 841 | Westward Ho! Devon | 3,468 | 33.2 | 8.6 | 6.8 | C |
| 842 | Amlwch Gwynedd | 3,148 | 34.3 | 7.5 | 4.2 | C |
| 843 | Llanfairfechan Clwyd | 3,547 | 33.6 | 8.3 | 5.2 | C |
| 844 | Fishbourne West Sussex | 3,368 | 28.8 | 13.1 | 13.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 1089 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | 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 46 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 7 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.
No one died in a collision on Westward Ho!’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Westward Ho!’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 12 collisions with injuries inside Westward Ho! in five years. 1 person was killed or seriously injured: 1 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Westward Ho! is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Westward Ho!’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 3 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Westward Ho! had 1.
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 Westward Ho!
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Westward Ho! | 3,468 | 33.2 | 8.6 | C |
| Northam | 5,191 | 14 | 6.2 | A− |
| Appledore | 1,711 | 18.1 | 9.8 | B |
| Bideford | 19,493 | 37.9 | 11.6 | C− |
| 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+ |
| Bickington | 2,105 | 17.8 | 5.7 | B+ |
Westward Ho! records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Bideford records more. Northam, 0.9 miles away, records 14 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Westward Ho!’s 33.2.
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 Westward Ho! 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 Westward Ho!
Is Westward Ho! safe?
Police recorded 33.2 violent and sexual offences and 8.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Westward Ho!’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 32% of UK towns. Among 1,089 UK towns of 2,000 to 5,000 people, Westward Ho! is 841st from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Westward Ho!?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 73%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft rose 8% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Westward Ho!?
Violence & sexual offences: 158 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (22) and shoplifting (12), with 35 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Westward Ho! compare with Barnstaple?
Barnstaple records 48 violent and sexual offences and 14.6 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Westward Ho!’s 33.2 and 8.6, 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.