Photo: John Norris · CC BY-SA 2.0Compared with UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Poole has less crime per resident than nine in ten them
Recorded violence fell 6% in a year. The local count comes to 26.2 violent and sexual offences and 14.4 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Poole
One ward carries much of the rate
Poole Town ward recorded 2,337 of Poole’s 11,069 violent and sexual offences in three years: 61.5 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Poole the figure is 22.6. Where in Poole ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Poole than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 9% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than most places its size
Of 41 UK towns and cities of 99,000 to 190,000 people, Poole has the 2nd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Warrington, Kingswood and Fishponds and Oxford, higher than Kingston upon Thames. 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. 11% of Poole’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 7% 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.
The grade: C for Poole
A fairly firm grade. Built on 17,124 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Poole against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Poole runs highest on bicycle theft (1 per 1,000 against 0.9). Public order and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,367 | 23.9 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2,754 | 19.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 927 | 6.6 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 804 | 5.7 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 620 | 4.4 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 597 | 4.2 | 4.9 |
| Public order | not graded | 470 | 3.3 | 7.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 386 | 2.7 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 181 | 1.3 | 3.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 145 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 88 | 0.6 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 82 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 51 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 41 | 0.3 | 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.
Of 41 towns its size, Poole is 2nd from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kingston upon Thames London | 166,333 | 24.7 | 14 | 20.6 | C+ |
| 2 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | 12.5 | C |
| 3 | Worthing West Sussex | 111,635 | 34.1 | 12.6 | 24.3 | C |
| 4 | Solihull West Midlands | 107,754 | 28.4 | 19.2 | 26.7 | C− |
| 5 | Swindon Wiltshire | 183,687 | 35.7 | 12.3 | 13.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 41 | Middlesbrough North Yorkshire | 148,232 | 70.8 | 40.1 | 30.1 | 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 Poole, and others in Dorset.
Lowest recorded crime in Broadstone, Oakdale and Penn Hill; highest in Poole Town
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadstone | 10,287 | 9.5 | 6.1 | |
| Oakdale | 11,190 | 15.3 | 8.5 | |
| Penn Hill | 11,542 | 17.8 | 13 | |
| Canford Cliffs | 9,043 | 17.7 | 14.4 | |
| Canford Heath | 14,389 | 23.1 | 10.4 | |
| Creekmoor | 9,467 | 23.8 | 11.2 | |
| Talbot & Branksome Woods | 4,112 | 19.1 | 16.4 | |
| Parkstone | 10,683 | 22.2 | 14.4 | |
| Newtown & Heatherlands | 17,732 | 28.9 | 15.4 | |
| Hamworthy | 13,572 | 29.3 | 15 | |
| Alderney & Bourne Valley | 16,319 | 29.2 | 15.6 | |
| Poole Town | 12,673 | 61.5 | 28.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,918 | 32% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 1,528 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 933 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 549 | 30% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 491 | 53% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 345 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 211 | 59% anti-social behaviour |
| College and university buildings | 206 | 27% violent |
| Ferry terminals | 24 | 54% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Poole Town records 2.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Poole. 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 Poole. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Poole’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
1 in 9 Poole residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
30% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 7% 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.
Poole’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.
How crime in Poole has moved
“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 -6% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +4% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +6% (towns its size -2%).
Crime in Poole 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 13 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 12 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 69% of Poole’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (64% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 4% 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. 6,156 crimes.
Six people died in collisions on Poole’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 1,168 collisions with injuries inside Poole in five years, in which six people died (3 were pedestrians). 289 people were killed or seriously injured: 67 on foot and 78 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 Poole’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Poole’s own rate (0.9) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Poole had 41.0 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). 23% 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 Poole’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Poole
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poole | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | C |
| Bearwood | 4,134 | 23.1 | 12.1 | C+ |
| Upton | 8,401 | 19.4 | 10.6 | B |
| Merley | 5,489 | 8.4 | 2.8 | A+ |
| Corfe Mullen | 10,036 | 11.9 | 7 | A |
| Bournemouth | 196,453 | 37.1 | 20.4 | D |
| Wimborne Minster | 16,629 | 22.8 | 9.5 | B− |
| West Parley | 3,665 | 9.1 | 7.8 | A |
Poole records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Bournemouth records more. Bearwood, 2.6 miles away, records 23.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Poole’s 26.2.
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 491 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Poole’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 Poole 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 Poole
Is Poole safe?
Police recorded 26.2 violent and sexual offences and 14.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Poole’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 34% of UK towns. Among 41 UK towns of 99,000 to 190,000 people, Poole is 2nd from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Poole?
By council ward, Broadstone, Oakdale and Penn Hill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9.5, 15.3 and 17.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 61.5 in Poole Town.
Is crime going up in Poole?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Poole?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,367 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (927) and criminal damage & arson (804), with 2,754 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Poole compare with Bournemouth?
Bournemouth records 37.1 violent and sexual offences and 20.4 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Poole’s 26.2 and 14.4, 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.