Photo: Account Inactive · CC BY-SA 2.0On violent crime, Stevenage has a higher rate per resident than 87% of UK towns
Police recorded 125 cases of bicycle theft in Stevenage in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 1.3 per 1,000 against a typical 0.9. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 42.1 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 13.3. Overall, it grades C− for safety (#46 of 50 in Hertfordshire).
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Stevenage
One ward carries much of the rate
Bedwell ward recorded 2,216 of Stevenage’s 11,891 violent and sexual offences in three years: 91.7 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Stevenage the figure is 37.3. Where in Stevenage ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% more violent crime per resident in Stevenage 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 rose 13% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 75 UK towns and cities of 66,000 to 128,000 people, Stevenage has the 26th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Crawley, Chester and High Wycombe, higher than Corby, Basingstoke and Ashford. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Stevenage’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 15,663 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Stevenage against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Violent crime up 17% in a year, while towns its size held steady
“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 +13% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +8% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -10% (towns its size -2%).
How Stevenage’s neighbourhoods rank in England
14% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 5% 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.
Stevenage’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 Chesfield, Manor and Bandley Hill; highest in Bedwell
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chesfield | 5,735 | 18.5 | 4.2 | |
| Manor | 6,434 | 17.6 | 6.4 | |
| Bandley Hill | 6,882 | 24.5 | 7 | |
| Longmeadow | 6,020 | 26.8 | 7.6 | |
| St Nicholas | 8,142 | 26.1 | 9.9 | |
| Martins Wood | 6,424 | 33.7 | 9.8 | |
| Symonds Green | 5,869 | 32.5 | 12.5 | |
| Chells | 6,826 | 35.9 | 10.4 | |
| Shephall | 6,473 | 37.7 | 10.7 | |
| Pin Green | 6,497 | 37.1 | 15.1 | |
| Roebuck | 7,127 | 55.4 | 18.6 | |
| Old Town | 8,580 | 56.6 | 19.2 | |
| Woodfield | 5,399 | 82.4 | 16.4 | |
| Bedwell | 8,054 | 91.7 | 32.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 3,418 | 43% violent |
| Supermarkets | 1,868 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,011 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 949 | 42% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 569 | 44% violent |
| Hospitals | 503 | 61% violent |
| Nightclubs | 494 | 33% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 335 | 33% violent |
| College and university buildings | 260 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Parks and open spaces | 80 | 43% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Bedwell records 2.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Stevenage. 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 Stevenage. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Stevenage’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Stevenage 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 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 20 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Stevenage runs highest on bicycle theft (1.3 per 1,000 against 0.9), violence & sexual offences (46.6 per 1,000 against 38.6) and other crime (2.5 per 1,000 against 2.1). Robbery and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 4,403 | 46.6 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,879 | 19.9 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 933 | 9.9 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 772 | 8.2 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 721 | 7.6 | 6.6 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 718 | 7.6 | 7.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 436 | 4.6 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 397 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 232 | 2.5 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 214 | 2.3 | 3.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 125 | 1.3 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 103 | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 100 | 1.1 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 70 | 0.7 | 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.
Police in Stevenage identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 62% of Stevenage’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 10% 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 10% of violent and 7% 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. 4,538 crimes.
Stevenage places 26th of 75 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Newtownabbey Antrim and Newtownabbey | 67,599 | 21.3 | 9 | 8.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 3 | St Albans Hertfordshire | 75,544 | 25.3 | 15.2 | 21 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 21 | Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire | 95,995 | 36.3 | 17.1 | 19.9 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 23 | Corby Northamptonshire | 68,164 | 41.1 | 13.2 | 16.4 | C− |
| 24 | Basingstoke Hampshire | 117,211 | 41.3 | 13.1 | 13.5 | C− |
| 25 | Ashford Kent | 82,143 | 40.4 | 14.6 | 20.2 | C− |
| 26 | Stevenage Hertfordshire | 94,462 | 42.1 | 13.3 | 18.4 | C− |
| 27 | Gosport Hampshire | 70,120 | 43.6 | 13 | 13.5 | C− |
| 28 | Stafford Staffordshire | 71,695 | 43.8 | 12.8 | 16 | C− |
| 29 | Lowestoft Suffolk | 71,308 | 40.6 | 17 | 14.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 Stevenage, and others in Hertfordshire.
Three people died in collisions on Stevenage’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 469 collisions with injuries inside Stevenage in five years, in which three people died. 90 people were killed or seriously injured: 24 on foot and 12 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 Stevenage’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Stevenage’s own rate (0.6) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Stevenage had 19.1 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). 27% 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 Stevenage’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Stevenage
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stevenage | 94,462 | 42.1 | 13.3 | C− |
| Walkern | 1,367 | 22.2 | 8.3 | B |
| Little Wymondley | 1,003 | 29.6 | 11 | C |
| Knebworth | 4,191 | 17.2 | 12.4 | B |
| Woolmer Green | 1,409 | 21.5 | 7.6 | B |
| Datchworth | 1,179 | 8.8 | 5.4 | A+ |
| Oaklands | 3,960 | 10.9 | 5.9 | A |
| Watton at Stone | 2,614 | 12.9 | 5.4 | A |
Stevenage records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Walkern, 2.4 miles away, records 22.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Stevenage’s 42.1.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 503 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Stevenage’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 Stevenage 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 Stevenage
Is Stevenage safe?
Police recorded 42.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Stevenage’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 16% of UK towns. Among 75 UK towns of 66,000 to 128,000 people, Stevenage is 26th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Stevenage?
By council ward, Chesfield, Manor and Bandley Hill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 18.5, 17.6 and 24.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 91.7 in Bedwell.
Is crime going up in Stevenage?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 13%, shoplifting and theft rose 8% and anti-social behaviour fell 10%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Stevenage town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 494 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 29% of them violent, and Bedwell ward records 91.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Stevenage?
Violence & sexual offences: 4,403 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (933) and public order (772), with 1,879 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.