Photo: Michael Garlick · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Headcorn runs higher than in 88% of UK towns
Counting crimes police recorded inside Headcorn’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #69 of 87 in Kent.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Headcorn
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 24% less violent crime per resident in Headcorn than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 26% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Headcorn grades D for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A fairly firm grade. Built on 584 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Headcorn against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Against the typical town its size, Headcorn runs highest on shoplifting (6.1 per 1,000 against 1.8), anti-social behaviour (21.9 per 1,000 against 8.8) and other theft (7.3 per 1,000 against 3.2).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 108 | 32.8 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 72 | 21.9 | 8.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 32 | 9.7 | 4.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 24 | 7.3 | 3.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 20 | 6.1 | 1.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 9 | 2.7 | 3.6 |
| Other crime | not graded | 9 | 2.7 | 1.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 8 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 8 | 2.4 | 1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 6 | 1.8 | 2 |
| Robbery | Violent | 4 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 2 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| 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.
Violent crime down 24% in a year, while towns its size held steady
Rolling twelve-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 -24% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -26% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour +44% (towns its size +0%).
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
How Headcorn compares with UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Headcorn, and others in Kent.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richhill Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 2,738 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 3 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 30 | Ightham Kent | 2,037 | 6.1 | 7 | 2.8 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 95 | Cuxton Kent | 3,039 | 9.7 | 7.4 | 2.9 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 98 | Cliffe Woods Kent | 2,689 | 11.2 | 6 | 3 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 100 | Istead Rise Kent | 3,398 | 9.7 | 7.6 | 5.9 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 809 | Hersden Kent | 2,118 | 44.2 | 15.4 | 5.8 | D |
| 810 | Chattenden Kent | 2,417 | 40.6 | 19.3 | 7 | D |
| 811 | Tylorstown and Pontygwaith Mid Glamorgan | 3,551 | 46.9 | 13.1 | 5.7 | D |
| 812 | Headcorn Kent | 3,293 | 40.6 | 20.3 | 17.4 | D |
| 813 | Iver Buckinghamshire | 3,267 | 41.2 | 20.1 | 12.1 | D |
| 814 | Perranporth Cornwall | 2,752 | 44 | 17.4 | 14 | D |
| 815 | Caistor Lincolnshire | 2,284 | 45.2 | 16.2 | 6.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 856 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
How Headcorn’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Headcorn’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.
0% 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.
Police in Headcorn identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
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. 212 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 55% of Headcorn’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 6% of household crimes reached court.
For every 1,000 residents, about 35 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 13 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
No one died in a collision on Headcorn’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Headcorn’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 18 collisions with injuries inside Headcorn in five years. 1 person was killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Headcorn is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Headcorn’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 3 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Headcorn had 1.
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.
Crime in the places around Headcorn
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headcorn | 3,293 | 40.6 | 20.3 | D |
| Staplehurst | 6,181 | 25.6 | 12.3 | C+ |
| Sutton Valence | 1,457 | 24 | 13.3 | C+ |
| Biddenden | 1,345 | 24.3 | 11.7 | C+ |
| Kingswood | 1,371 | 10.5 | 10 | A− |
| Lenham and Harrietsham | 4,763 | 35.5 | 16.3 | C− |
| Marden | 3,489 | 24.3 | 16.9 | C |
| Bethersden | 1,008 | 14.9 | 9.6 | B+ |
Headcorn records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Staplehurst, 3.3 miles away, records 25.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Headcorn’s 40.6.
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 Headcorn 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 Headcorn
Is Headcorn safe?
Police recorded 40.6 violent and sexual offences and 20.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Headcorn’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 12% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Headcorn has less crime per resident than 9%.
Is crime going up in Headcorn?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 24%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 26%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 44%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Headcorn?
Violence & sexual offences: 108 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (32) and other theft (24), with 72 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Headcorn compare with Maidstone?
Maidstone records 46.4 violent and sexual offences and 17 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Headcorn’s 40.6 and 20.3, 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.