Photo: DS Pugh · CC BY-SA 2.0Compared with UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Royal Tunbridge Wells has less crime per resident than 88% of them
Violent crime here is higher than in 70% of UK towns; burglary, vehicle crime and damage, higher than in 73%. Police counts work out at 30.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually. Violence recorded locally dropped 11% 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 11% less violent crime per resident in Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 126 UK towns and cities of 36,000 to 69,000 people, Royal Tunbridge Wells has the 30th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Farnborough, Winchester and Trowbridge, higher than Crosby, Cheshunt and Hoddesdon. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Royal Tunbridge Wells’s Safety Grade is C
A firm grade. Built on 6,681 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Royal Tunbridge Wells against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Burglary and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,281 | 25 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 908 | 17.7 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 530 | 10.3 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 358 | 7 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 299 | 5.8 | 6.6 |
| Public order | not graded | 184 | 3.6 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 138 | 2.7 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 117 | 2.3 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 94 | 1.8 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 89 | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 46 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 30 | 0.6 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 29 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 22 | 0.4 | 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.
Of 126 towns its size, Royal Tunbridge Wells is 30th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 27 | Crosby Merseyside | 50,218 | 31.2 | 11.4 | 8.9 | C |
| 28 | Cheshunt Hertfordshire | 43,694 | 29.7 | 13.1 | 21.9 | C |
| 29 | Hoddesdon Hertfordshire | 40,615 | 29.2 | 13.9 | 15.7 | C |
| 30 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| 31 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 17.4 | C |
| 32 | Brentwood Essex | 55,339 | 26.9 | 17 | 17.8 | C |
| 33 | Fareham Hampshire | 42,633 | 34.3 | 10.1 | 14.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 82 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 93 | Folkestone Kent | 51,987 | 49.7 | 17.2 | 22 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 96 | Gravesend Kent | 58,105 | 45.1 | 23.1 | 17.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 126 | 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells, and others in Kent.
How crime in Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 -11% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -1% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +28% (towns its size -2%).
Police in Royal Tunbridge Wells identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 63% of Royal Tunbridge Wells’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” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 4% 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. 2,614 crimes.
How Royal Tunbridge Wells’s neighbourhoods rank in England
28% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 13% 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.
Royal Tunbridge Wells’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 Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 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 St John's, Pantiles and St Mark's and St James'; highest in Sherwood
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St John's | 7,419 | 19.9 | 7.8 | |
| Pantiles and St Mark's | 6,771 | 23 | 11.2 | |
| St James' | 6,413 | 27.3 | 9.7 | |
| Broadwater | 4,609 | 25.8 | 11.9 | |
| Culverden | 8,425 | 35.6 | 13.7 | |
| Southborough and High Brooms | 1,776 | 33.2 | 18.2 | |
| Park | 7,443 | 40.6 | 13.7 | |
| Sherwood | 8,359 | 36.7 | 19.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 1,167 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 985 | 34% violent |
| Petrol stations | 329 | 71% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 288 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 102 | 50% violent |
| Nightclubs | 24 | 33% 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Royal Tunbridge Wells’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 Royal Tunbridge Wells’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 321 collisions with injuries inside Royal Tunbridge Wells in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 77 people were killed or seriously injured: 30 on foot and 11 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Royal Tunbridge Wells’s own rate (0.4) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Royal Tunbridge Wells had 30.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 39% 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Royal Tunbridge Wells
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Tunbridge Wells | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | C |
| Southborough | 9,632 | 24.6 | 9.8 | B− |
| Rusthall and Langton Green | 7,783 | 21.8 | 8.1 | B |
| Pembury | 5,783 | 36.8 | 11.5 | C− |
| Groombridge | 1,077 | 6.5 | 4.3 | A+ |
| Tonbridge | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | C |
| Leigh | 1,104 | 13.3 | 5.4 | A |
| Five Oak Green | 1,436 | 16.3 | 11.1 | B |
Royal Tunbridge Wells records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Pembury and Tonbridge record more. Southborough, 1.5 miles away, records 24.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Royal Tunbridge Wells’s 30.7.
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
- 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells 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 Royal Tunbridge Wells
Is Royal Tunbridge Wells safe?
Police recorded 30.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Royal Tunbridge Wells’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 29% of UK towns. Among 126 UK towns of 36,000 to 69,000 people, Royal Tunbridge Wells is 30th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Royal Tunbridge Wells?
By council ward, St John's, Pantiles and St Mark's and St James' record the least violent and household crime per resident: 19.9, 23 and 27.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 36.7 in Sherwood.
Is crime going up in Royal Tunbridge Wells?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 11%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 28%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Royal Tunbridge Wells?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,281 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (530) and criminal damage & arson (358), with 908 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.