Photo: Mike Pennington · CC BY-SA 2.0Basildon has more crime per resident than 96% of UK towns
Drugs stands out: 6.1 per 1,000 residents in Basildon, against 3.8 in a typical town its size, with 713 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026. A Safety Grade of D− follows from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area over the years September 2023 to August 2026: #77 of 81 in Essex. Violence recorded locally climbed 5% in a year. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 54.2 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 24.2.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Basildon
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 5% more violent crime per resident in Basildon 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 20% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 57 UK towns and cities of 81,000 to 157,000 people, Basildon has the 45th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Preston, Hartlepool and Wakefield, higher than Lincoln, Gloucester and Huddersfield. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
55% of Basildon’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 7% 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 Basildon
A firm grade. Built on 27,170 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Basildon against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
55% of Basildon residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
7% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 55% 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.
Basildon’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.
Basildon places 45th of 57 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | 12.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 25 | Chelmsford Essex | 110,612 | 44.5 | 15.2 | 21 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 33 | Harlow Essex | 93,570 | 45.5 | 20.5 | 19.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 36 | Colchester Essex | 130,259 | 51.1 | 17.1 | 20.6 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 42 | Lincoln Lincolnshire | 104,553 | 56.1 | 18.9 | 33.3 | D |
| 43 | Gloucester Gloucestershire | 118,562 | 58.3 | 17.1 | 26.2 | D |
| 44 | Huddersfield West Yorkshire | 141,683 | 57.1 | 18.5 | 18.2 | D |
| 45 | Basildon Essex | 115,935 | 54.2 | 24.2 | 19.8 | D− |
| 46 | West Bromwich West Midlands | 103,099 | 54.4 | 24.7 | 17.4 | D− |
| 47 | Newport Gwent | 130,882 | 55.8 | 25.6 | 26.1 | D− |
| 48 | Scunthorpe Lincolnshire | 81,286 | 58 | 24.6 | 26.4 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 57 | 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 Basildon, and others in Essex.
Crime in Basildon 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 20 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 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, Basildon runs highest on drugs (6.1 per 1,000 against 3.8), vehicle crime (7 per 1,000 against 4.9) and violence & sexual offences (52 per 1,000 against 38.6). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 6,024 | 52 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,579 | 13.6 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,143 | 9.9 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,090 | 9.4 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 969 | 8.4 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 897 | 7.7 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 810 | 7 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 713 | 6.1 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 413 | 3.6 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 276 | 2.4 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 166 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 160 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 89 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 87 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
“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 Langdon Hills, Crouch and Laindon Park; highest in St Martin's
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Langdon Hills | 8,843 | 19.1 | 11.5 | |
| Crouch | 5,754 | 24.8 | 11.9 | |
| Laindon Park | 13,401 | 36.4 | 19 | |
| Lee Chapel North | 15,063 | 45.3 | 24.1 | |
| Nethermayne | 13,788 | 55.9 | 20.2 | |
| Vange | 10,399 | 60.2 | 20.9 | |
| Pitsea North West | 12,961 | 54.7 | 30.7 | |
| Fryerns | 15,125 | 60.1 | 30.1 | |
| Pitsea South East | 10,233 | 74.5 | 30.5 | |
| St Martin's | 10,169 | 96.6 | 33.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 2,612 | 30% violent |
| Hospitals | 1,408 | 65% violent |
| Police stations | 1,307 | 53% violent |
| Supermarkets | 1,306 | 42% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,215 | 68% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 839 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 463 | 77% shoplifting & theft |
| Parks and open spaces | 433 | 40% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 300 | 46% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so St Martin's records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Basildon. 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 Basildon. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Basildon’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Basildon 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 +5% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -20% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +2% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +5% (towns its size -2%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 72% of Basildon’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 16% 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 9% of violent and 5% 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. 9,597 crimes.
Six people died in collisions on Basildon’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 599 collisions with injuries inside Basildon in five years, in which six people died (1 was a pedestrian). 183 people were killed or seriously injured: 53 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 Basildon’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Basildon’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Basildon had 31.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as 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 Basildon’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Basildon
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basildon | 115,935 | 54.2 | 24.2 | D− |
| Crays Hill | 1,218 | 23.3 | 17 | C+ |
| North Benfleet | 1,765 | 30 | 18.5 | C− |
| Wickford | 27,533 | 19.8 | 13 | B− |
| Stanford-le-Hope | 29,527 | 23.7 | 13.3 | C+ |
| Billericay | 34,068 | 16.9 | 9.1 | B+ |
| Runwell | 8,086 | 36.4 | 20 | C− |
| Horndon on the Hill | 1,510 | 15.5 | 7.3 | A− |
Basildon records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Crays Hill, 2 miles away, records 23.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Basildon’s 54.2.
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 1,408 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Basildon’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 Basildon 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 Basildon
Is Basildon safe?
Police recorded 54.2 violent and sexual offences and 24.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Basildon’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 4% of UK towns. Among 57 UK towns of 81,000 to 157,000 people, Basildon is 45th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Basildon?
By council ward, Langdon Hills, Crouch and Laindon Park record the least violent and household crime per resident: 19.1, 24.8 and 36.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 96.6 in St Martin's.
Is crime going up in Basildon?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 5%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 20%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Basildon?
Violence & sexual offences: 6,024 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,143) and criminal damage & arson (1,090), with 1,579 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.