Photo: Auntalys at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Rayleigh has less crime per resident than 78% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Violent crime barely moved in a year. Taking everything together, Rayleigh scores B− (#27 of 81 in Essex): close to the middle of UK towns, measured on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026. Drugs: police recorded 95 in the town in the 12 months to August 2026, 2.9 per 1,000 residents against 1.9 in a typical town its size. Per 1,000 residents a year, 23.4 violent and sexual offences and 9.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Rayleigh
Less crime than most places its size
Of 196 UK towns of 23,000 to 44,000 people, Rayleigh has the 29th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than East Grinstead, Hitchin and Chippenham, higher than Oadby, Whitley Bay and Wickford. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Rayleigh’s B−
A firm grade. Built on 3,193 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Rayleigh against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Rayleigh is 29th of 196 UK towns of 23,000 to 44,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 11 | Billericay Essex | 34,068 | 16.9 | 9.1 | 8.8 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 26 | Oadby Leicestershire | 24,039 | 21.8 | 10.5 | 7.7 | B− |
| 27 | Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear | 36,876 | 21.7 | 11 | 18.5 | B− |
| 28 | Wickford Essex | 27,533 | 19.8 | 13 | 8.1 | B− |
| 29 | Rayleigh Essex | 32,383 | 23.4 | 9.8 | 9.3 | B− |
| 30 | Ash and Ash Vale Surrey | 24,284 | 21.7 | 11.9 | 6.1 | B− |
| 31 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 19.1 | 14.8 | 17.1 | B− |
| 32 | Lancing and Sompting West Sussex | 27,924 | 25.6 | 9.1 | 15.5 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 44 | Stanford-le-Hope Essex | 29,527 | 23.7 | 13.3 | 11.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 76 | Maldon Essex | 23,389 | 33.1 | 10.3 | 10.8 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 87 | Canvey Island Essex | 38,004 | 33.6 | 12.6 | 9.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 196 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Rayleigh, and others in Essex.
How Rayleigh’s neighbourhoods rank in England
64% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 4% 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.
Rayleigh’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.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Rayleigh runs highest on drugs (2.9 per 1,000 against 1.9) and vehicle crime (3.9 per 1,000 against 2.8). Criminal damage & arson and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 773 | 23.9 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 223 | 6.9 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 153 | 4.7 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 125 | 3.9 | 2.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 122 | 3.8 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 111 | 3.4 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 99 | 3.1 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 95 | 2.9 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 58 | 1.8 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 37 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 14 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 12 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 8 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
“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.
Lowest recorded crime in Trinity, Lodge and Sweyne Park and Grange; highest in Wheatley
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity | 6,953 | 14.7 | 7.4 | |
| Lodge | 5,841 | 14.7 | 10.2 | |
| Sweyne Park and Grange | 6,769 | 20.9 | 8.4 | |
| Downhall and Rawreth | 6,285 | 25.2 | 8.9 | |
| Wheatley | 6,535 | 37.7 | 11.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol stations | 379 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 289 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 164 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 151 | 68% violent |
| Police stations | 140 | 60% violent |
| Car parks | 139 | 29% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Wheatley records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Rayleigh. 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 Rayleigh. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Rayleigh’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
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 +5% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +12% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -7% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +97% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 72% of Rayleigh’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 11% of violent and 3% 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. 1,054 crimes.
Crime in Rayleigh 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 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 8 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Rayleigh’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 153 collisions with injuries inside Rayleigh in five years. 39 people were killed or seriously injured: 9 on foot and 8 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 Rayleigh’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Rayleigh’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Rayleigh had 24.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 23% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Rayleigh’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Rayleigh
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rayleigh | 32,383 | 23.4 | 9.8 | B− |
| Thundersley and South Benfleet | 49,886 | 20.9 | 10.6 | B− |
| Hullbridge | 5,709 | 23 | 8.4 | B− |
| Hockley and Hawkwell | 15,430 | 14 | 7.9 | A− |
| North Benfleet | 1,765 | 30 | 18.5 | C− |
| Ashingdon | 6,490 | 12 | 6.7 | A |
| Wickford | 27,533 | 19.8 | 13 | B− |
| South Woodham Ferrers | 16,029 | 17.9 | 6.3 | B+ |
Rayleigh records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only North Benfleet records more. Thundersley and South Benfleet, 2.2 miles away, records 20.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Rayleigh’s 23.4.
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 Rayleigh 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 Rayleigh
Is Rayleigh safe?
Police recorded 23.4 violent and sexual offences and 9.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Rayleigh’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 49% of UK towns. Among 196 UK towns of 23,000 to 44,000 people, Rayleigh is 29th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Rayleigh?
By council ward, Trinity, Lodge and Sweyne Park and Grange record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.7, 14.7 and 20.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 37.7 in Wheatley.
Is crime going up in Rayleigh?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 12%, shoplifting and theft fell 7% and anti-social behaviour rose 97%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Rayleigh town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 151 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 68% of them violent, and Wheatley ward records 37.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in August and was lowest in January.
What is the most common crime in Rayleigh?
Violence & sexual offences: 773 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (153) and vehicle crime (125), with 223 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Rayleigh compare with Southend-on-Sea?
Southend-on-Sea records 48.3 violent and sexual offences and 17.4 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Rayleigh’s 23.4 and 9.8, 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.