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View over Bridport from Allington HillPhoto: David Martin · CC BY-SA 2.0
C+Safety Grade
Safety in Bridport · police.uk, 2023–2026

Compared with UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Bridport has less crime per resident than 67% of them

Violent crime barely moved in a year. Anti-social behaviour: police recorded 263 in Bridport in the 12 months to August 2026, 21.4 per 1,000 residents against 12.4 in a typical town its size. The yearly rates were 28.0 violent and sexual offences and 9.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents.

Violent crime
28
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
9.9
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
10.4
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
19.6
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Bridport

Less crime than many places its size

Of 376 UK towns of 9,000 to 17,000 people, Bridport has the 150th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Shiney Row and Penshaw, Cookstown and Thornbury, higher than Westbury, Whitwick and Darton. Towns its size ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

Bridport’s Safety Grade is C+

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 67% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: less crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (28 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 36% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (9.9 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 47% of UK towns
C+C+

A firm grade. Built on 1,396 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bridport against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

How Bridport’s neighbourhoods rank in England

0%1
0%2
0%3
28%4
24%5
0%6
18%7
5%8
22%9
3%10
Higher crimeLower crime

31% 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.

Bridport’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.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences27.3
Anti-social behaviour21.4
Criminal damage & arson5.3
Shoplifting5
Other theft4.2
Public order4.1
Burglary2.3
Vehicle crime1.4
Drugs1.1
Possession of weapons0.9
Bicycle theft0.7
Other crime0.3
Robbery0.3
Theft from the person0.1
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Bridport runs highest on anti-social behaviour (21.4 per 1,000 against 12.4). Drugs and vehicle crime sit below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent33627.330.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded26321.412.4
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle655.36.2
Shopliftingnot graded6156.1
Other theftnot graded524.24.4
Public ordernot graded504.15.4
BurglaryHome & vehicle282.32.4
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle171.42.8
Drugsnot graded141.11.9
Possession of weaponsViolent110.90.7
Bicycle theftnot graded80.70.3
Other crimenot graded40.31.8
RobberyViolent40.30.5
Theft from the personnot graded10.10.3

“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.

Towns its size

Bridport places 150th of 376 towns its size, the least crime first

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Greasby Merseyside9,17511.33.72.5A
…
5Verwood Dorset13,70612.55.96A
6Corfe Mullen Dorset10,03611.974.4A
…
11Ferndown Dorset13,26713.87.26.8A−
…
35West Moors Dorset10,43216.995.9B+
…
147Westbury Wiltshire16,39426.2116.3C+
148Whitwick Leicestershire10,4552611.67.7C+
149Darton South Yorkshire15,01625.612.25.3C+
150Bridport Dorset12,294289.910.4C+
151Dungannon Mid Ulster16,28227.810.17.2C+
152Buckley Clwyd13,56229.78.29.3C+
153Blandford Forum Dorset11,8052611.910.6C+
…
376Haverfordwest Dyfed12,08891.428.632.3D−

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 Bridport, and others in Dorset.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Bridport per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
351
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
110
homes & vehicles
122
shoplifting & theft
48
of the three, per 1,000

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 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 10 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

Trend · monthly

Violent crime held steady over the year

“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 -3% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -1% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +10% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +23% (towns its size -4%).

What happened next

Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns

Violent crime
Bridport
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Bridport
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 67% of Bridport’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” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 6% 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. 463 crimes.

Where in Bridport

Where in Bridport police recorded crime

Public places police.uk named crimes and ASB, 3 years
At or nearReportsMostly
Car parks25245% anti-social behaviour
Supermarkets15960% shoplifting & theft
Petrol stations10631% anti-social behaviour
Sports and recreation grounds4342% violent
Shopping areas2241% 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 Bridport. We show only these, never streets or homes.

Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.

On the roads

No one died in a collision on Bridport’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 70 collisions with injuries inside Bridport in five years. 24 people were killed or seriously injured: 8 on foot and 6 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 Bridport’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bridport’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Bridport had 38.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).

0
people killed, 2021–2025
24
killed or seriously injured
8
of them on foot
6
of them on a bicycle

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 Bridport’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Bridport

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Bridport12,294289.9C+
Bradpole1,25715.45A−
Beaminster2,99515.76A−
Charmouth1,33715.56.5A−
Lyme Regis3,74123.310B−
Uplyme1,05312.14.1A
Maiden Newton1,12812.18.3A−
Misterton1,0372112.3B−

Bridport records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Bradpole, 1.3 miles away, records 15.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bridport’s 28.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • 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 Bridport 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 Bridport

Is Bridport safe?

Police recorded 28 violent and sexual offences and 9.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bridport’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 39% of UK towns. Among 376 UK towns of 9,000 to 17,000 people, Bridport is 150th from the least crime.

Is crime going up in Bridport?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 10% and anti-social behaviour rose 23%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Bridport?

Violence & sexual offences: 336 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (65) and shoplifting (61), with 263 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Bridport compare with Dorchester?

Dorchester records 27.4 violent and sexual offences and 12.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Bridport’s 28 and 9.9, 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.