Photo: Mr Ignavy · CC BY-SA 2.0For its size, Farnborough has less crime per resident than 86% of UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more
Each year brought 32.0 violent and sexual offences and 12.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents. It has more violent crime than 72% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 72%. Still, violent crime was down 17% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Farnborough
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% less violent crime per resident in Farnborough 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 9% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 121 UK towns and cities of 42,000 to 82,000 people, Farnborough has the 28th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Bexhill-on-Sea, Hinckley and Welwyn Garden City, higher than Brentwood, Rugby and Fareham. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: C for Farnborough
A firm grade. Built on 8,139 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Farnborough against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Farnborough 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 -17% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +17% (towns its size -2%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Anti-social behaviour and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,655 | 27.3 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 576 | 9.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 500 | 8.2 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 374 | 6.2 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 329 | 5.4 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 277 | 4.6 | 4.9 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 267 | 4.4 | 7.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 143 | 2.4 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 107 | 1.8 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 84 | 1.4 | 2.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 56 | 0.9 | 0.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 47 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 44 | 0.7 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 30 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
“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.
Set against 121 towns its size, Farnborough is 28th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 25 | Brentwood Essex | 55,339 | 26.9 | 17 | 17.8 | C |
| 26 | Rugby Warwickshire | 78,130 | 32 | 12.1 | 11.9 | C |
| 27 | Fareham Hampshire | 42,633 | 34.3 | 10.1 | 14.7 | C |
| 28 | Farnborough Hampshire | 60,665 | 32 | 12.8 | 16.7 | C |
| 29 | Winchester Hampshire | 48,486 | 35 | 10.4 | 18.4 | C |
| 30 | Bracknell Berkshire | 78,662 | 31.9 | 13.5 | 18.4 | C |
| 31 | Trowbridge Wiltshire | 43,753 | 33.5 | 12 | 15.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 36 | Eastleigh Hampshire | 48,355 | 37.8 | 10.7 | 12.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Andover Hampshire | 48,484 | 41.5 | 10.3 | 12.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 59 | Gosport Hampshire | 70,120 | 43.6 | 13 | 13.5 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 101 | Havant Hampshire | 46,964 | 59.2 | 16.8 | 18.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 121 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Farnborough, and others in Hampshire.
Police in Farnborough identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 78% of Farnborough’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (59% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% of violent and 2% 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. 2,847 crimes.
How Farnborough’s neighbourhoods rank in England
25% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 10% 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.
Farnborough’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.
Crime in Farnborough 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 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 15 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Empress, Fernhill and St John's; highest in Cove and Southwood
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empress | 6,564 | 19.2 | 10.8 | |
| Fernhill | 7,037 | 24.3 | 9.4 | |
| St John's | 7,066 | 26.9 | 10.4 | |
| Blackwater and Hawley | 724 | 22.1 | 16.6 | |
| St Mark's | 8,495 | 32.1 | 10.1 | |
| Knellwood | 7,427 | 31.5 | 14 | |
| West Heath | 6,837 | 33 | 14 | |
| Cherrywood | 8,807 | 41.1 | 14.1 | |
| Cove and Southwood | 7,354 | 45.1 | 19 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol stations | 897 | 79% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 719 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 668 | 33% violent |
| Shopping areas | 575 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 108 | 48% violent |
| College and university buildings | 51 | 51% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live. 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 Farnborough. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Farnborough’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
One person died in collisions on Farnborough’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 360 collisions with injuries inside Farnborough in five years, in which one person died. 66 people were killed or seriously injured: 14 on foot and 16 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 Farnborough’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Farnborough’s own rate (0.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Farnborough had 21.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 21% 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 Farnborough’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Farnborough
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farnborough | 60,665 | 32 | 12.8 | C |
| Frimley | 15,101 | 26.4 | 9.7 | C+ |
| Hawley | 2,581 | 13.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| Minley | 1,041 | 6.7 | 2.6 | A+ |
| Deepcut | 2,163 | 23.9 | 18.8 | C |
| Blackwater | 7,170 | 21.4 | 9.4 | B− |
| Ash and Ash Vale | 24,284 | 21.7 | 11.9 | B− |
| Camberley | 36,787 | 27.7 | 10.8 | C+ |
Farnborough records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Frimley, 1.8 miles away, records 26.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Farnborough’s 32.
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 Farnborough 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 Farnborough
Is Farnborough safe?
Police recorded 32 violent and sexual offences and 12.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Farnborough’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 28% of UK towns. Among 121 UK towns of 42,000 to 82,000 people, Farnborough is 28th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Farnborough?
By council ward, Empress, Fernhill and St John's record the least violent and household crime per resident: 19.2, 24.3 and 26.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 45.1 in Cove and Southwood.
Is crime going up in Farnborough?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 17%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Farnborough?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,655 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (500) and public order (374), with 576 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.