Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0Burglary, vehicle crime and damage per resident is lower in Ruardean than in 96% of UK towns
Ruardean’s overall Safety Grade is B+: less crime per resident than 73% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. For its size, it sits below 54% of the 1,541 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people on crime per resident. Annual rates stand at 20.8 violent and sexual offences and 3.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every thousand residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Ruardean
About the middle for a village its size
Of 1,214 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,000 people, Ruardean has the 590th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Stoke, Audlem and Kingswood, higher than Painswick, Shamley Green and Minster Lovell. 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. 27% of Ruardean’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.
The grade: B+ for Ruardean
A fairly firm grade. Built on 69 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Ruardean against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Crime in Ruardean 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 1 burglary, vehicle crime or act of criminal damage, plus 4 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 1,214 towns its size, Ruardean is 590th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clipsham Rutland | 1,150 | 0 | 0 | 0 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 18 | Beachley Gloucestershire | 1,120 | 5.8 | 1.9 | 0.7 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 32 | Amberley Gloucestershire | 1,300 | 5.7 | 3.2 | 1.6 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 36 | Olveston Gloucestershire | 1,009 | 6.6 | 2.6 | 1.3 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 192 | Avening Gloucestershire | 1,054 | 11.8 | 3.5 | 3.1 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 587 | Painswick Gloucestershire | 1,833 | 16.7 | 7.2 | 2.3 | B+ |
| 588 | Shamley Green Surrey | 1,200 | 18.3 | 5.6 | 0.6 | B+ |
| 589 | Minster Lovell Oxfordshire | 1,270 | 14.4 | 9.5 | 3.2 | B+ |
| 590 | Ruardean Gloucestershire | 1,195 | 20.8 | 3.1 | 3.5 | B+ |
| 591 | Kirkby Lonsdale Cumbria | 1,965 | 18.8 | 5.1 | 6.3 | B+ |
| 592 | Cowbit Lincolnshire | 1,366 | 17.3 | 6.6 | 2.4 | B+ |
| 593 | Welland Worcestershire | 1,309 | 19.9 | 4.1 | 2 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 1214 | Ingoldmells Lincolnshire | 1,928 | 259 | 64.7 | 57.2 | 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 Ruardean, and others in Gloucestershire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 8 | 6.7 | 16.6 |
| Other theft | not graded | 5 | 4.2 | 2.5 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2 | 1.7 | 5.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1 | 0.8 | 3.2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1 | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| Other crime | not graded | 1 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Public order | not graded | 0 | 0 | 2.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 0 | 0 | 1.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 0 | 0 | 1.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
“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 1,000 to 2,500 people.
No one died in a collision on Ruardean’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 2 collisions with injuries inside Ruardean in five years. 0 people were killed or seriously injured.
Most UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people (94%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Ruardean is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Ruardean’s size at the median for UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people would see about 1 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Ruardean had 0.
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 Ruardean’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Ruardean
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruardean | 1,195 | 20.8 | 3.1 | B+ |
| Drybrook | 2,572 | 29 | 7.4 | C+ |
| Welsh Bicknor | 1,988 | 17.1 | 7.5 | B+ |
| Mitcheldean | 2,163 | 28.9 | 9 | C+ |
| Cinderford | 8,778 | 44.7 | 11.6 | C− |
| Ruspidge | 2,431 | 24 | 7 | B− |
| Berry Hill | 2,211 | 29.8 | 15.2 | C |
| Ross-on-Wye | 10,993 | 28.4 | 11 | C+ |
Ruardean records less graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table.
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 Ruardean 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 Ruardean
Is Ruardean safe?
Police recorded 20.8 violent and sexual offences and 3.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Ruardean’s built-up area). That earns a B+ for safety: less crime per resident than 73% of UK towns. Among 1,214 UK towns of 1,000 to 2,000 people, Ruardean is 590th from the least crime. 27% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What is the most common crime in Ruardean?
Violence & sexual offences: 8 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other theft (5) and criminal damage & arson (1), with 2 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.