Photo: Colin Vosper · CC BY-SA 2.0Burglary, vehicle crime and damage per resident is higher in Bournemouth than in 92% of UK towns
Violence and property crime split as 37.1 violent and sexual offences and 20.4 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year. With 5,658 cases in the 12 months to August 2026, anti-social behaviour reaches 28.8 per 1,000 residents in Bournemouth, well above the typical 17.5. Its Safety Grade, D, rests on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: more crime per resident than 86% of UK towns.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bournemouth
One ward carries much of the rate
Bournemouth Central ward recorded 5,518 of Bournemouth’s 21,827 violent and sexual offences in three years: 113.4 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Bournemouth the figure is 30.2. Where in Bournemouth ↓
About the middle for a city its size
Of 42 UK towns and cities of 138,000 to 265,000 people, Bournemouth has the 19th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham and Haringey, higher than Reading, Ipswich and Norwich. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
29% of Bournemouth’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 12% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D for Bournemouth
A firm grade. Built on 33,822 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bournemouth against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in East Southbourne & Tuckton, Redhill & Northbourne and Moordown; highest in Bournemouth Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Southbourne & Tuckton | 8,811 | 11.7 | 8.3 | |
| Redhill & Northbourne | 9,872 | 18.3 | 11 | |
| Moordown | 10,525 | 18.6 | 11.1 | |
| West Southbourne | 10,446 | 18.2 | 13 | |
| Littledown & Iford | 9,909 | 25 | 15.1 | |
| Queen's Park | 11,392 | 22.6 | 17.9 | |
| Boscombe East & Pokesdown | 11,188 | 27.7 | 16.4 | |
| Wallisdown & Winton West | 10,823 | 28.2 | 16 | |
| Muscliff & Strouden Park | 16,747 | 28.8 | 15.5 | |
| Talbot & Branksome Woods | 9,561 | 25.1 | 19.3 | |
| Winton East | 11,826 | 32.5 | 17.9 | |
| East Cliff & Springbourne | 17,208 | 37.2 | 21.8 | |
| Kinson | 17,794 | 40.8 | 19.3 | |
| Bearwood & Merley | 3,222 | 35.1 | 27.6 | |
| Boscombe West | 10,589 | 53.1 | 24.6 | |
| Westbourne & West Cliff | 10,318 | 48.1 | 34.9 | |
| Bournemouth Central | 16,222 | 113.4 | 47.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 4,643 | 31% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 4,341 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 2,437 | 45% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 1,808 | 40% violent |
| Petrol stations | 889 | 28% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 636 | 50% violent |
| Hospitals | 496 | 41% violent |
| College and university buildings | 490 | 33% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 314 | 41% anti-social behaviour |
| Bus and coach stations | 165 | 48% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Bournemouth Central records 3.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bournemouth. 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 Bournemouth. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bournemouth’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Bournemouth 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 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 18 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Bournemouth runs highest on anti-social behaviour (28.8 per 1,000 against 17.5), vehicle crime (7.2 per 1,000 against 4.9) and bicycle theft (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.9). Drugs and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 6,614 | 33.7 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 5,658 | 28.8 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,973 | 10 | 10.3 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,406 | 7.2 | 4.9 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,385 | 7.1 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 1,281 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,124 | 5.7 | 7.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 751 | 3.8 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 616 | 3.1 | 3.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 244 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 236 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 175 | 0.9 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 143 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 132 | 0.7 | 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.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
29% of Bournemouth residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
12% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 29% 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.
Bournemouth’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.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Bournemouth’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (62% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% 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. 12,263 crimes.
Bournemouth is 19th of 42 UK towns of 138,000 to 265,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 5 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | 12.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 16 | Reading Berkshire | 203,789 | 39.6 | 15.5 | 28 | C− |
| 17 | Ipswich Suffolk | 151,566 | 41 | 14.9 | 20.1 | C− |
| 18 | Norwich Norfolk | 200,744 | 42.7 | 14.8 | 23 | D |
| 19 | Bournemouth Dorset | 196,453 | 37.1 | 20.4 | 19.8 | D |
| 20 | Telford Shropshire | 156,890 | 44.8 | 13 | 17.6 | D |
| 21 | Swansea West Glamorgan | 170,090 | 42.6 | 15.6 | 21.1 | D |
| 22 | Barking and Dagenham London | 218,236 | 40.5 | 20 | 17.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 42 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | 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 Bournemouth, and others in Dorset.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -2% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -9% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +6% (towns its size -2%).
Eight people died in collisions on Bournemouth’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 1,674 collisions with injuries inside Bournemouth in five years, in which eight people died (2 were pedestrians). 417 people were killed or seriously injured: 123 on foot and 91 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: at their median rate (1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Bournemouth’s size would see about 11 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bournemouth’s own rate (0.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bournemouth had 42.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 29% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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 Bournemouth’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bournemouth
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bournemouth | 196,453 | 37.1 | 20.4 | D |
| West Parley | 3,665 | 9.1 | 7.8 | A |
| Bearwood | 4,134 | 23.1 | 12.1 | C+ |
| Poole | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | C |
| Ferndown | 13,267 | 13.8 | 7.2 | A− |
| Christchurch | 48,973 | 18.1 | 10.4 | B |
| Merley | 5,489 | 8.4 | 2.8 | A+ |
| West Moors | 10,432 | 16.9 | 9 | B+ |
Bournemouth records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. West Parley, 3.5 miles away, records 9.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bournemouth’s 37.1.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 496 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Bournemouth’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Bournemouth 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 Bournemouth
Is Bournemouth safe?
Police recorded 37.1 violent and sexual offences and 20.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bournemouth’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 14% of UK towns. Among 42 UK towns of 138,000 to 265,000 people, Bournemouth is 19th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Bournemouth?
By council ward, East Southbourne & Tuckton, Redhill & Northbourne and Moordown record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.7, 18.3 and 18.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 113.4 in Bournemouth Central.
Is crime going up in Bournemouth?
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 fell 9% and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Bournemouth city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 1,808 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 40% of them violent, and Bournemouth Central ward records 113.4 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 February.
What is the most common crime in Bournemouth?
Violence & sexual offences: 6,614 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,973) and vehicle crime (1,406), with 5,658 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.