Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0Few UK towns record more crime per resident than Sheerness
Violent crime was down 10% in a year. Even so, it has less crime per resident than 0% of the UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, 645 in all. Counting crimes police recorded inside Sheerness’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D− for safety. Per 1,000 residents a year, 87.2 violent and sexual offences and 32.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Sheerness
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 10% less violent crime per resident in Sheerness 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
89% of Sheerness’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 0% 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.
The D− for Sheerness, and how it is built
A firm grade. Built on 4,760 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Sheerness 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
Against the typical town its size, Sheerness runs highest on anti-social behaviour (51.5 per 1,000 against 12.4), shoplifting (22.3 per 1,000 against 6.1) and drugs (6.6 per 1,000 against 1.9).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 971 | 73.3 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 682 | 51.5 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 296 | 22.3 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 284 | 21.4 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 123 | 9.3 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 110 | 8.3 | 5.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 88 | 6.6 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 74 | 5.6 | 1.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 71 | 5.4 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 62 | 4.7 | 2.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 31 | 2.3 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 21 | 1.6 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 8 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 4 | 0.3 | 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.
89% of Sheerness residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 89% 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.
Sheerness’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.
How Sheerness compares with UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 23 | Kings Hill Kent | 9,963 | 15.9 | 8.1 | 5.3 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 63 | Herne Kent | 14,874 | 21.7 | 7.6 | 5 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 78 | Longfield, New Ash Green and Hartley Kent | 16,077 | 17.1 | 13.4 | 10.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 114 | Hythe Kent | 14,613 | 24.6 | 8.9 | 8.7 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 393 | Newtown Powys | 10,882 | 83.1 | 22.6 | 17.3 | D− |
| 394 | Bentley South Yorkshire | 12,044 | 61.7 | 44.8 | 32.7 | D− |
| 395 | Shildon County Durham | 9,650 | 65.8 | 42.4 | 19.9 | D− |
| 396 | Sheerness Kent | 13,253 | 87.2 | 32.8 | 27.3 | D− |
| 397 | 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 Sheerness, and others in Kent.
Crime in Sheerness 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 31 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 33 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police in Sheerness identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 58% of Sheerness’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (72% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% 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. 1,751 crimes.
How crime in Sheerness 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 -10% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -4% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +44% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +49% (towns its size -4%).
Where in Sheerness police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 775 | 31% violent |
| Supermarkets | 540 | 68% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 230 | 31% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 41 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| Bus and coach stations | 28 | 39% violent |
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 Sheerness. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Sheerness’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 121 collisions with injuries inside Sheerness in five years. 36 people were killed or seriously injured: 6 on foot and 2 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 Sheerness’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sheerness’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Sheerness had 54.3 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). 17% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Sheerness’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Sheerness
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheerness | 13,253 | 87.2 | 32.8 | D− |
| Halfway Houses | 4,396 | 25.7 | 10.5 | C+ |
| Queenborough | 3,915 | 49.7 | 23.4 | D |
| Minster (Swale) | 16,735 | 29 | 13 | C |
| Grain | 1,728 | 25.7 | 10.2 | C+ |
| Iwade | 4,533 | 15.2 | 5.7 | A− |
| Eastchurch | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | D− |
| Allhallows | 1,684 | 44.5 | 13.7 | D |
Sheerness records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Eastchurch records more. Halfway Houses, 1 miles away, records 25.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Sheerness’s 87.2.
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 Sheerness 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 Sheerness
Is Sheerness safe?
Police recorded 87.2 violent and sexual offences and 32.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Sheerness’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: behind almost every UK town. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Sheerness has less crime per resident than 0%.
Is crime going up in Sheerness?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 10%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 44% and anti-social behaviour rose 49%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Sheerness?
Violence & sexual offences: 971 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (296) and criminal damage & arson (284), with 682 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Sheerness compare with Southend-on-Sea?
Southend-on-Sea records 48.3 violent and sexual offences and 17.4 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Sheerness’s 87.2 and 32.8, 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.