Guest, Sign inJoin
Glenrothes Aerial PicturePhoto: Yoostar · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
Safety in Glenrothes · Scottish Government, SIMD

Recorded crime in the Fife council area is about Scotland’s rate

Police Scotland doesn’t publish crimes street by street, so Glenrothes has no Safety Grade and no overall grade until the 2026 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation brings neighbourhood crime figures. What Scotland does publish: crime for the whole Fife council area (545 crimes per 10,000 people in 2025-26), and how Glenrothes’s own neighbourhoods rank for crime.

Crimes, Fife
545
per 10,000 people, 2025-26
Scotland 569
Violence
141
non-sexual violent crimes per 10,000
Scotland 136
Cleared up
66%
of recorded crimes, 2025-26
Scotland 57%
SIMD crimes in Glenrothes
310
per 10,000 residents, 2017/18
Scotland 276
What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Glenrothes

Crime up over ten years

Recorded crime across the Fife council area went from 489 to 545 per 10,000 people between 2016-17 and 2025-26; across Scotland it moved +3%. Ten years ↓

A mix of neighbourhoods

20% of Glenrothes’s residents live in the fifth of Scotland’s small areas with the most crime on SIMD 2020, and 10% in the fifth with the least. Its rate of SIMD crimes, 310 per 10,000 in 2017/18, is 12% above Scotland’s. Neighbourhood ranks ↓

Written from the Scottish Government’s recorded crime and SIMD figures on this page.

Where in Glenrothes

Fewest SIMD crimes in Coul, Finglassie South and Formonthills; most in Auchmuty Dovecot and Town Centre

AreaResidentsPer 10,000
Coul6760
Finglassie South5430
Formonthills6230
Newcastle West53456
Newcastle East52757
Prestonhall78664
Balgeddie North66276
Warout506514
Auchmuty West856643
Macedonia West728797
Rimbleton East488799
Auchmuty North West643809
Finglassie North and Southfield4791,127
Auchmuty Dovecot and Town Centre9211,846
Below Scotland’s rateAt or above it

20 of Glenrothes’s 54 areas are at or above Scotland’s rate of 276 (orange bars). SIMD counts crimes where they were recorded, so an area with a town centre, a station or a hospital records more than its own residents suffer.

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, by small area (2011 data zones, grouped by the names the Scottish Government gives them), fewest first. The seven lowest and seven highest of 54.

By type

What police recorded in the Fife council area in 2025-26

Common assault119
Shoplifting104
Vandalism64
Fraud27
Housebreaking13
Car theft8
Domestic abuse6
Serious assault5
Drug supply5
Robbery2
Violent & sexualHomes, cars & damageOtherScotland

Robbery and drug supply sit below Scotland’s rate.

Show every crime group as a table
GroupRecordedPer 10,000Scotland
Non-sexual crimes of violence5,299141136
Sexual crimes1,3493630
Crimes of dishonesty (theft, housebreaking, fraud)7,853210213
Damage and reckless behaviour (vandalism, fire-raising)2,7567469
Crimes against society (drugs, weapons, justice)3,18085121
Antisocial offences (disorder, threatening behaviour)2,8157593

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26: crimes and offences by council area. Groups 1 to 5 are crimes; group 6, antisocial offences, is offences.

Per 10,000 people. The tick on each bar is Scotland’s rate. Every town in the council area shares these figures.

Ten years · yearly

Recorded crime up 11% since 2016-17

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2016-17 to the newest year. Since April 2019 violence includes the new crime of domestic abuse under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

Per 10,000 people each year, the Fife council area against Scotland. 2016-17 to 2025-26: all crimes +11% (Scotland +3%), violence +4%.

Cleared up

66% of crimes in the Fife council area were cleared up, more than Scotland’s 57%

All crimes66%
Violence80%
Sexual crimes73%
Dishonesty53%
Damage41%
Against society91%
Violent & sexualHomes, cars & damageOtherScotland

Violence and drugs crimes are cleared up most often, because they are usually recorded with a suspect in view; housebreaking, theft and vandalism least.

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26: crime clear-up rates by council area.

Share of crimes recorded in 2025-26 that were cleared up: a suspect identified and enough evidence to report them to the procurator fiscal. The tick is Scotland.

Neighbourhoods · Scotland-wide rank

How Glenrothes’s neighbourhoods rank in Scotland

9%1
11%2
5%3
23%4
9%5
12%6
14%7
7%8
5%9
5%10
Higher crimeLower crime

17% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Scotland’s neighbourhoods, and 20% in the highest-crime 20%. Glenrothes counted 310 SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, 12% above Scotland’s 276; three years before, 353 (-12%, Scotland -9%).

Scottish Government, SIMD 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (crimes of violence, sexual crimes, domestic housebreaking, vandalism, drugs offences and common assault, 2014/15 and 2017/18). Residents from Scotland’s Census 2022 output areas.

Glenrothes’s residents by the crime decile of their small area (2011 data zone, about 800 people) in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of Scotland’s 6,976 data zones and 10 the lowest.

Towns its size

Glenrothes is 15th of 34 Scottish towns of 19,488 to 56,053

#TownPeopleSIMD crimes per 10,000In the most crime-deprived fifth
1Newton Mearns East Renfrewshire28,447990%
2Bearsden East Dunbartonshire28,5071080%
…
12Musselburgh East Lothian21,47630320%
13Perth Perth and Kinross47,88530418%
14Rutherglen South Lanarkshire31,18530523%
15Glenrothes Fife37,46631020%
16Irvine North Ayrshire34,00531622%
17Ayr South Ayrshire46,20931825%
18Bathgate West Lothian22,22931814%
…
33Inverness Highland48,25745030%
34Falkirk Falkirk34,63754742%

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, counting from the fewest: the towns either side of Glenrothes, and the ends of the list. Described, not graded.

1,000 people · one year

For every 1,000 people in the Fife council area, about 18 violent or sexual crimes in 2025-26

Violent & sexualHousebreaking, car theft & damageOther theft & fraud
6,648
violent and sexual crimes, Fife, 2025-26
3,553
housebreaking, car theft & damage
7,056
other theft & fraud
47
of the three, per 1,000

A crime isn’t a victim: one person can suffer several, and crimes in a city centre often involve visitors rather than residents.

And about 10 housebreakings, car thefts or acts of vandalism and fire-raising, plus 19 other thefts and frauds. Each dot is one person; each coloured dot is one recorded crime. These are council-wide figures: every town in the Fife council area shares them.

On the roads

Two people died in collisions on Glenrothes’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 110 collisions with injuries inside Glenrothes in five years, in which two people died. 43 people were killed or seriously injured: 8 on foot and 4 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 Glenrothes’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Glenrothes’s own rate (1.1) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Glenrothes had 23.0 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). 19% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.

2
people killed, 2021–2025
43
killed or seriously injured
8
of them on foot
4
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; the towns its size are England and Wales’s. There’s no national rate here: more than two thirds of Scotland’s road deaths (70%) happen outside every town’s locality boundary. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.

Collisions police recorded inside Glenrothes’s locality, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Glenrothes

Fewest quarterSecondThirdMost SIMD crime
TownPeopleSIMD crimes per 10,000Most crime-deprived fifth
Glenrothes37,46631020%
Leslie2,8881710%
Cardenden and Auchterderran5,26621413%
Kirkcaldy and Dysart51,13538341%
Kennoway4,66548282%
Buckhaven4,41353771%
Methil10,71250957%
Ballingry5,82340937%

Glenrothes counted more SIMD crime per resident than 2 of its 7 neighbours. Leslie, 1.5 miles away, counted 171 per 10,000, against Glenrothes’s 310.

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18. The map colours each town by the quarter of Scotland’s towns it falls in; they are not grades. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Council areas, not towns. Recorded crime and clear-up rates are published for each of Scotland’s 32 council areas, so every town in the Fife council area shares them. A city centre and a quiet village in the same council show the same figures.
  • SIMD crime is town-level, but old. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation counts selected crimes (violence, sexual crimes, domestic housebreaking, vandalism, drugs offences and common assault) in each small area. SIMD 2020 uses crimes from 2017/18; SIMD 2026, due at the end of 2026, will bring newer figures; we plan to grade Scottish safety on them.
  • Not a grade. Nothing on this page is graded. The towns-its-size ranking and the neighbours’ colours describe SIMD crime rates; they aren’t a Safety Grade and don’t feed one.
  • Recorded, not experienced. Recorded crime is what the police record. It moves with reporting and policing as well as with crime; the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey asks people directly, for Scotland as a whole.

Questions about safety in Glenrothes

Is Glenrothes safe?

Police Scotland recorded 545 crimes per 10,000 people across the Fife council area in 2025-26, about the same as Scotland’s 569. Within Glenrothes, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation counted 310 of its selected crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, against 276 across Scotland; 20% of residents live in the fifth of Scotland’s neighbourhoods with the most crime. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Glenrothes has no Safety Grade.

How many crimes are solved in the Fife council area?

66% of crimes recorded in 2025-26 were cleared up (someone was identified and there was enough evidence to report them to the procurator fiscal), against 57% across Scotland.

Why doesn’t Glenrothes have a Safety Grade?

Our Safety Grade counts crimes inside each town’s boundary. Police Scotland doesn’t publish crimes by location for reuse, so Scottish towns can’t be measured the same way. The 2026 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation will bring newer neighbourhood crime figures.

Sources: Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (crimes, offences and clear-up rates by council area, 2016-17 to 2025-26); Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (2014/15, 2017/18), 2011 data zones with Census 2022 residents · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the NRS 2022 locality 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.