Photo: Tony Grist · Public domainLeominster records more violent crime per head than 88% of UK towns
Behind the grade sit 43.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year. The grade is D, built on crimes police recorded inside Leominster’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Public order runs at 9.7 per 1,000 residents locally, against 5.4 in a typical town its size: police recorded 109 in the 12 months to August 2026. Recorded violence fell 9% 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 Leominster
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 9% less violent crime per resident in Leominster than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 34% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 393 UK towns of 8,000 to 15,000 people, Leominster has the 311th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Leatherhead, Atherstone and Launceston, higher than Runwell, Great Harwood and Cudworth and Shafton. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
28% of Leominster’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 20% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Leominster’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,922 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Leominster against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Police in Leominster identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 56% of Leominster’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 9% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (70% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% 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. 649 crimes.
Among 393 towns its size, Leominster ranks 311th for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 162 | Ledbury Herefordshire | 8,344 | 26.7 | 10.8 | 7.6 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 183 | Ross-on-Wye Herefordshire | 10,993 | 28.4 | 11 | 17.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 308 | Runwell Essex | 8,086 | 36.4 | 20 | 10.5 | C− |
| 309 | Great Harwood Lancashire | 11,022 | 39.8 | 17.1 | 11.5 | D |
| 310 | Cudworth and Shafton South Yorkshire | 12,472 | 38.4 | 18.8 | 7.7 | D |
| 311 | Leominster Herefordshire | 11,206 | 43.7 | 13.5 | 19.8 | D |
| 312 | Rochford Essex | 12,617 | 42.2 | 15.3 | 8.2 | D |
| 313 | Brierfield Lancashire | 10,723 | 41.3 | 16.3 | 6.2 | D |
| 314 | Alnwick Northumberland | 8,432 | 42.4 | 15.7 | 15.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 393 | 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 Leominster, and others in Herefordshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Leominster runs highest on public order (9.7 per 1,000 against 5.4), shoplifting (10.8 per 1,000 against 6.1) and possession of weapons (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.7).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 441 | 39.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 171 | 15.3 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 121 | 10.8 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 109 | 9.7 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 86 | 7.7 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 48 | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 30 | 2.7 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 27 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 26 | 2.3 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 12 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 9 | 0.8 | 0.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 8 | 0.7 | 2.8 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 5 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 1 | 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.
Crime in Leominster 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 16 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How crime in Leominster has moved
“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 -9% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -34% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -28% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -30% (towns its size -4%).
28% of Leominster residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
20% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 28% 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.
Leominster’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 Leominster West, Leominster North & Rural and Leominster South; highest in Leominster East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leominster West | 2,765 | 18.8 | 7.2 | |
| Leominster North & Rural | 1,929 | 30.4 | 8.3 | |
| Leominster South | 2,718 | 41.9 | 11.8 | |
| Leominster East | 3,794 | 69.7 | 22.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 269 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 215 | 74% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 132 | 42% violent |
| Petrol stations | 131 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 59 | 56% violent |
| Hospitals | 50 | 48% violent |
| Shopping areas | 38 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Leominster East records 2.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Leominster. 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 Leominster. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Leominster’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 Leominster’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 38 collisions with injuries inside Leominster in five years, in which one person died. 16 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 on foot and 3 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 Leominster’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Leominster’s own rate (1.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Leominster had 28.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above 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 Leominster’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Leominster
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leominster | 11,206 | 43.7 | 13.5 | D |
| Weobley | 1,273 | 26.2 | 12.1 | C+ |
| Tenbury Wells | 3,936 | 30.5 | 10.8 | C |
| Credenhill | 2,334 | 15.9 | 3.4 | A− |
| Ludlow | 10,037 | 31 | 16.1 | C |
| Bromyard | 3,816 | 37.9 | 19.7 | D |
| Presteigne | 1,929 | 34.6 | 14.3 | C− |
| Bartestree | 1,655 | 12.5 | 2.2 | A |
Leominster records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Bromyard records more. Weobley, 7.1 miles away, records 26.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Leominster’s 43.7.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 50 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Leominster’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Leominster 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 Leominster
Is Leominster safe?
Police recorded 43.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Leominster’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 14% of UK towns. Among 393 UK towns of 8,000 to 15,000 people, Leominster is 311th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Leominster?
By council ward, Leominster West, Leominster North & Rural and Leominster South record the least violent and household crime per resident: 18.8, 30.4 and 41.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 69.7 in Leominster East.
Is crime going up in Leominster?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 9%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 34%, shoplifting and theft fell 28% and anti-social behaviour fell 30%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Leominster?
Violence & sexual offences: 441 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (121) and public order (109), with 171 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Leominster compare with Hereford?
Hereford records 41.7 violent and sexual offences and 11.1 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Leominster’s 43.7 and 13.5, 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.