Photo: ITookSomePhotos · CC BY-SA 4.0Weymouth has more violent crime per resident than four in five UK towns
More crime per resident is recorded in 78% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more. Weymouth’s Safety Grade is C−, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. In a usual year, 37.7 violent and sexual offences and 11.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Weymouth
One ward carries much of the rate
Melcombe Regis ward, where 33% of Weymouth’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 1,823 of Weymouth’s 6,266 violent and sexual offences in three years: 141.2 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Weymouth the figure is 28.9. Where in Weymouth ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 121 UK towns and cities of 39,000 to 75,000 people, Weymouth has the 40th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Royal Leamington Spa, Rowley Regis and Newbury, higher than Stourbridge, Neath and Salisbury. 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 Weymouth’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 17% 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’s behind Weymouth’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 8,205 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Weymouth 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, Weymouth runs highest on anti-social behaviour (28.7 per 1,000 against 17.5). Drugs and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,989 | 35.8 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,595 | 28.7 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 507 | 9.1 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 369 | 6.6 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 283 | 5.1 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 230 | 4.1 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 114 | 2.1 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 108 | 1.9 | 3.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 73 | 1.3 | 4.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 42 | 0.8 | 1.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 41 | 0.7 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 40 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 29 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 22 | 0.4 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Winterborne & Broadmayne, Littlemoor & Preston and Upwey & Broadwey; highest in Melcombe Regis
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winterborne & Broadmayne | 513 | 9.1 | 1.9 | |
| Littlemoor & Preston | 9,864 | 23.1 | 6.7 | |
| Upwey & Broadwey | 4,387 | 23.7 | 8.5 | |
| Rodwell & Wyke | 13,919 | 25.2 | 7.1 | |
| Radipole | 9,428 | 31.3 | 12.2 | |
| Westham | 9,501 | 38.1 | 10.5 | |
| Chickerell | 3,624 | 37.5 | 12.6 | |
| Melcombe Regis | 4,304 | 141.2 | 42.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,034 | 44% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 519 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 393 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| College and university buildings | 283 | 36% anti-social behaviour |
| Nightclubs | 174 | 48% violent |
| Petrol stations | 120 | 72% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 46 | 37% anti-social behaviour |
| Hospitals | 36 | 36% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 34 | 32% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Melcombe Regis records 4.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Weymouth. 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 Weymouth. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Weymouth’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in Weymouth identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 53% of Weymouth’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 10% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 13% of violent and 9% 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. 2,927 crimes.
Crime in Weymouth 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 14 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Set against 121 towns its size, Weymouth is 40th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 4 | Christchurch Dorset | 48,973 | 18.1 | 10.4 | 10.1 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 37 | Stourbridge West Midlands | 56,961 | 33 | 16.1 | 16.3 | C− |
| 38 | Neath West Glamorgan | 40,738 | 39.5 | 9.9 | 9.1 | C− |
| 39 | Salisbury Wiltshire | 47,690 | 34.3 | 15.1 | 16.4 | C− |
| 40 | Weymouth Dorset | 55,540 | 37.7 | 11.7 | 14.5 | C− |
| 41 | Bognor Regis West Sussex | 68,443 | 33.6 | 16.3 | 16.6 | C− |
| 42 | Cannock Staffordshire | 63,057 | 39.1 | 10.9 | 12.8 | C− |
| 43 | Macclesfield Cheshire | 54,352 | 40.2 | 10.2 | 14.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 121 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Weymouth, and others in Dorset.
1 in 9 Weymouth residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
23% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 17% 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.
Weymouth’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.
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 -11% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -5% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +5% (towns its size -2%).
Two people died in collisions on Weymouth’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 340 collisions with injuries inside Weymouth in five years, in which two people died (2 were pedestrians). 107 people were killed or seriously injured: 33 on foot and 23 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 Weymouth’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Weymouth’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Weymouth had 38.6 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). 31% 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 Weymouth’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Weymouth
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weymouth | 55,540 | 37.7 | 11.7 | C− |
| Chickerell | 3,973 | 18.8 | 6.3 | B+ |
| Fortuneswell | 4,554 | 38.5 | 10.5 | C− |
| Grove | 1,032 | 64 | 6.5 | D |
| Weston | 5,208 | 28.9 | 11.3 | C+ |
| Southwell | 1,700 | 16.7 | 2 | A |
| Dorchester | 21,358 | 27.4 | 12.3 | C+ |
| Charminster | 1,732 | 15 | 4.8 | A− |
Weymouth records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Grove records more. Chickerell, 1.6 miles away, records 18.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Weymouth’s 37.7.
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
- 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 Weymouth 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 Weymouth
Is Weymouth safe?
Police recorded 37.7 violent and sexual offences and 11.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Weymouth’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 121 UK towns of 39,000 to 75,000 people, Weymouth is 40th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Weymouth?
By council ward, Winterborne & Broadmayne, Littlemoor & Preston and Upwey & Broadwey record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9.1, 23.1 and 23.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 141.2 in Melcombe Regis.
Is crime going up in Weymouth?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 11%, shoplifting and theft fell 5% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Weymouth town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 174 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 48% of them violent, and Melcombe Regis ward records 141.2 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 Weymouth?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,989 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (507) and criminal damage & arson (369), with 1,595 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.