Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0More violent crime is recorded per resident in Cirencester than in 76% of UK towns
Of all the kinds of crime, shoplifting is where Cirencester departs most from towns its size: 10.5 per 1,000 against 6.1. The local count comes to 34.1 violent and sexual offences and 10.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year. Its letter for safety is C, worked out from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026: #33 of 48 in Gloucestershire.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Cirencester
One ward carries much of the rate
St Michael's ward, where 43% of Cirencester’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 468 of Cirencester’s 1,459 violent and sexual offences in three years: 65.2 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Cirencester the figure is 21.6. Where in Cirencester ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 333 UK towns of 12,000 to 24,000 people, Cirencester has the 178th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Tewkesbury, South Hayling and Hessle, higher than Wantage, Skipton and Middlewich. 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. 20% of Cirencester’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% 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.
Cirencester: C for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 1,910 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Cirencester 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, Cirencester runs highest on shoplifting (10.5 per 1,000 against 6.1). Vehicle crime and criminal damage & arson sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 251 | 14.2 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 186 | 10.5 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 163 | 9.2 | 12.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 54 | 3 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 47 | 2.7 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 32 | 1.8 | 6.2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 21 | 1.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 18 | 1 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 14 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 13 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Other crime | not graded | 10 | 0.6 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 5 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3 | 0.2 | 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.
1 in 5 Cirencester residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
28% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.
Cirencester’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.
Lowest recorded crime in New Mills, Four Acres and Chesterton; highest in St Michael's
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Mills | 2,849 | 6.1 | 2.6 | |
| Four Acres | 1,819 | 9.3 | 0.9 | |
| Chesterton | 2,435 | 18.5 | 3.4 | |
| Abbey | 1,950 | 25 | 9.1 | |
| The Beeches | 2,729 | 27.7 | 8.2 | |
| Watermoor | 2,982 | 31.7 | 8.4 | |
| Siddington & Cerney Rural | 560 | 57.1 | 14.9 | |
| St Michael's | 2,391 | 65.2 | 25 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 228 | 35% violent |
| Nightclubs | 204 | 35% violent |
| Petrol stations | 137 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 51 | 61% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 33 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so St Michael's records 3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Cirencester. 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 Cirencester. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Cirencester’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in Cirencester identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 76% of Cirencester’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 1% 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. 837 crimes.
Crime in Cirencester 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 4 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.
Towns its size: Cirencester comes 178th of 333
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 44 | Bishop's Cleeve Gloucestershire | 16,323 | 21 | 7.5 | 7 | B |
| 45 | Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne Gloucestershire | 14,969 | 20.3 | 8.5 | 8.6 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 85 | Churchdown Gloucestershire | 13,480 | 27.5 | 6 | 6.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 125 | Thornbury Gloucestershire | 14,483 | 30 | 8.1 | 6.8 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 175 | Wantage Oxfordshire | 13,100 | 33.2 | 10.9 | 10.8 | C |
| 176 | Skipton North Yorkshire | 15,050 | 31.3 | 13.1 | 13 | C |
| 177 | Middlewich Cheshire | 14,428 | 35.5 | 9 | 7.8 | C |
| 178 | Cirencester Gloucestershire | 17,715 | 34.1 | 10.5 | 20 | C |
| 179 | Berwick-upon-Tweed Northumberland | 13,181 | 32.2 | 12.4 | 12.8 | C |
| 180 | Eastwood Nottinghamshire | 18,890 | 29.8 | 14.9 | 22.6 | C |
| 181 | Whittlesey Cambridgeshire | 13,833 | 33 | 11.6 | 8.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 333 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | 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 Cirencester, and others in Gloucestershire.
One person died in collisions on Cirencester’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 70 collisions with injuries inside Cirencester in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 22 people were killed or seriously injured: 7 on foot and 2 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 Cirencester’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cirencester’s own rate (1.1) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Cirencester had 24.8 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).
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 Cirencester’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Cirencester
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cirencester | 17,715 | 34.1 | 10.5 | C |
| Stratton | 2,558 | 9.7 | 6 | A |
| South Cerney | 3,998 | 11.2 | 4 | A |
| Ashton Keynes | 1,425 | 6.6 | 4.2 | A+ |
| Cricklade | 4,030 | 17.9 | 6.5 | B+ |
| Fairford | 4,240 | 14.3 | 6.4 | A− |
| Chalford | 6,665 | 13.5 | 3.8 | A |
| Avening | 1,054 | 11.8 | 3.5 | A |
Cirencester records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Stratton, 1.4 miles away, records 9.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Cirencester’s 34.1.
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
- Some months are short. Gloucestershire Police published February 2026, March 2026, April 2026, May 2026, June 2026, July 2026 and August 2026 only in part or not at all. Those months are left out of the rates, which average the months that were published in full; the raw counts include what was published.
- 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 Cirencester 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 Cirencester
Is Cirencester safe?
Police recorded 34.1 violent and sexual offences and 10.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Cirencester’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 28% of UK towns. Among 333 UK towns of 12,000 to 24,000 people, Cirencester is 178th from the least crime. 20% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Cirencester?
By council ward, New Mills, Four Acres and Chesterton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 6.1, 9.3 and 18.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 65.2 in St Michael's.
What is the most common crime in Cirencester?
Violence & sexual offences: 251 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (186) and other theft (54), with 163 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Cirencester compare with Stroud?
Stroud records 38 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Cirencester’s 34.1 and 10.5, 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.