Photo: Marathon · CC BY-SA 2.0For burglary, vehicle crime and damage, Tonbridge trails 76% of UK towns per resident
Drugs stands out: 3.3 per 1,000 residents in Tonbridge, against 1.9 in a typical town its size, with 121 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026. Its Safety Grade is C, on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #41 of 87 in Kent. Each year brought 30.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents. Recorded violence fell 8% 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 Tonbridge
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% less violent crime per resident in Tonbridge 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 rose 8% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 186 UK towns of 25,000 to 49,000 people, Tonbridge has the 65th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Broadstairs, Letchworth and Winchester, higher than Beverley, Hoddesdon and Longbenton. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 11% of Tonbridge’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 14% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Tonbridge’s C
A firm grade. Built on 4,707 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Tonbridge 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 Tonbridge identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 53% of Tonbridge’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% 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 9% of violent and 12% 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. 1,676 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Tonbridge runs highest on drugs (3.3 per 1,000 against 1.9), shoplifting (10.5 per 1,000 against 6.1) and criminal damage & arson (8.7 per 1,000 against 6.2). Public order and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 959 | 26.5 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 573 | 15.9 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 379 | 10.5 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 315 | 8.7 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 179 | 5 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 131 | 3.6 | 5.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 121 | 3.3 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 107 | 3 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 67 | 1.9 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 57 | 1.6 | 2.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 25 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 25 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 17 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 11 | 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.
How crime in Tonbridge 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 -8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +8% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +40% (towns its size -4%).
Set against 186 towns its size, Tonbridge is 65th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 24 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 19.1 | 14.8 | 17.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 46 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | 9.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 54 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | 19.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 62 | Beverley East Riding of Yorkshire | 30,933 | 32.1 | 10.9 | 18.5 | C |
| 63 | Hoddesdon Hertfordshire | 40,615 | 29.2 | 13.9 | 15.7 | C |
| 64 | Longbenton Tyne and Wear | 26,882 | 28.3 | 15.4 | 13.2 | C |
| 65 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 17.4 | C |
| 66 | Fareham Hampshire | 42,633 | 34.3 | 10.1 | 14.7 | C |
| 67 | Wigston Leicestershire | 34,728 | 30.7 | 14 | 13.8 | C |
| 68 | Fulwood Lancashire | 34,693 | 32.1 | 12.7 | 9.4 | C |
| 69 | Broadstairs Kent | 25,780 | 31.6 | 13.5 | 15.1 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 186 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Tonbridge, and others in Kent.
1 in 9 Tonbridge residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
16% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 14% 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.
Tonbridge’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 Tonbridge 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 13 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Cage Green, Higham and Judd; highest in Castle
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cage Green | 4,499 | 11.8 | 5.8 | |
| Higham | 4,792 | 20 | 7.5 | |
| Judd | 5,428 | 28.9 | 10.3 | |
| Medway | 7,444 | 32.1 | 15.1 | |
| Vauxhall | 4,916 | 30 | 20.5 | |
| Trench | 4,850 | 43.8 | 14 | |
| Castle | 4,207 | 40.7 | 21.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,033 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 766 | 31% violent |
| Police stations | 459 | 37% homes & vehicles |
| Petrol stations | 105 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 26 | 31% homes & vehicles |
| Shopping areas | 24 | 38% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Trench records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Tonbridge. 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 Tonbridge. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Tonbridge’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 Tonbridge’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 183 collisions with injuries inside Tonbridge in five years, in which one person died. 47 people were killed or seriously injured: 15 on foot and 12 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 Tonbridge’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Tonbridge’s own rate (0.6) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Tonbridge had 26.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 32% 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 Tonbridge’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Tonbridge
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonbridge | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | C |
| Hildenborough | 4,943 | 11.3 | 7.5 | A |
| Leigh | 1,104 | 13.3 | 5.4 | A |
| Hadlow | 3,168 | 19.6 | 8 | B |
| Southborough | 9,632 | 24.6 | 9.8 | B− |
| Five Oak Green | 1,436 | 16.3 | 11.1 | B |
| Plaxtol | 1,137 | 3.8 | 3.2 | A+ |
| Pembury | 5,783 | 36.8 | 11.5 | C− |
Tonbridge records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Pembury records more. Hildenborough, 1.4 miles away, records 11.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Tonbridge’s 30.1.
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
- 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 Tonbridge 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 Tonbridge
Is Tonbridge safe?
Police recorded 30.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Tonbridge’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 29% of UK towns. Among 186 UK towns of 25,000 to 49,000 people, Tonbridge is 65th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Tonbridge?
By council ward, Cage Green, Higham and Judd record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.8, 20 and 28.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 40.7 in Castle.
Is crime going up in Tonbridge?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 8%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 40%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Tonbridge?
Violence & sexual offences: 959 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (379) and criminal damage & arson (315), with 573 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Tonbridge compare with Royal Tunbridge Wells?
Royal Tunbridge Wells records 30.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.1 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Tonbridge’s 30.1 and 13.8, 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.