Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0Clitheroe beats 75% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident
Taking everything together, Clitheroe scores B− (#23 of 65 in Lancashire): close to the middle of UK towns, measured on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026. Add to that, violent crime was up 6% in a year. Typical years here bring 24.3 violent and sexual offences plus 10.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Clitheroe
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% more violent crime per resident in Clitheroe 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 fell 11% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 307 UK towns of 12,000 to 22,000 people, Clitheroe has the 86th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Omagh, Abbots Langley and Kings Langley and St Ives, higher than Knaresborough, Garforth and Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Clitheroe’s B−
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,731 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Clitheroe against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How Clitheroe’s neighbourhoods rank in England
44% 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.
Clitheroe’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.
Towns its size: Clitheroe comes 86th of 307
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 35 | Euxton Lancashire | 17,519 | 21 | 6.9 | 4.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 80 | Penwortham Lancashire | 20,489 | 24.8 | 8.8 | 6.7 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 83 | Knaresborough North Yorkshire | 15,781 | 23.6 | 10.2 | 7 | B− |
| 84 | Garforth West Yorkshire | 15,148 | 23 | 10.9 | 7.9 | B− |
| 85 | Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe Leicestershire | 13,847 | 20.6 | 13.8 | 8.7 | B− |
| 86 | Clitheroe Lancashire | 16,626 | 24.3 | 10.5 | 8.8 | B− |
| 87 | Biggleswade Bedfordshire | 21,945 | 23.8 | 11 | 13.9 | B− |
| 88 | Honley West Yorkshire | 14,399 | 26.4 | 8.6 | 5.3 | B− |
| 89 | Newport Pagnell Buckinghamshire | 15,250 | 24 | 11 | 9.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 120 | Thornton Lancashire | 19,263 | 27.6 | 10.9 | 7.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 144 | Poulton-le-Fylde Lancashire | 12,792 | 30.5 | 11 | 15.2 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 307 | 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 Clitheroe, and others in Lancashire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Clitheroe runs highest on anti-social behaviour (16.8 per 1,000 against 12.4). Drugs and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 404 | 24.3 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 280 | 16.8 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 77 | 4.6 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 69 | 4.2 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 63 | 3.8 | 6.1 |
| Other theft | not graded | 62 | 3.7 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 40 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 34 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 28 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 21 | 1.3 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 7 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 6 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 3 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3 | 0.2 | 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.
Police in Clitheroe identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 63% of Clitheroe’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” (56% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% 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. 607 crimes.
How crime in Clitheroe 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 +6% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -11% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +8% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -23% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in St Mary's, Edisford & Low Moor and Salthill; highest in Littlemoor
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Mary's | 3,022 | 11.4 | 5.7 | |
| Edisford & Low Moor | 3,080 | 19.8 | 7 | |
| Salthill | 3,549 | 24.7 | 9.7 | |
| Primrose | 3,764 | 25.4 | 14 | |
| Littlemoor | 3,211 | 38.8 | 14.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 153 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 110 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 79 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| Shopping areas | 31 | 39% violent |
| Police stations | 27 | 33% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Littlemoor records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Clitheroe. 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 Clitheroe. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Clitheroe’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Clitheroe 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 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 8 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Clitheroe’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 81 collisions with injuries inside Clitheroe in five years. 32 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 4 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 Clitheroe’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Clitheroe’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Clitheroe had 38.5 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). 38% 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 Clitheroe’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Clitheroe
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clitheroe | 16,626 | 24.3 | 10.5 | B− |
| Waddington | 1,005 | 4 | 4 | A+ |
| Barrow | 1,388 | 28.8 | 13 | C |
| Chatburn | 1,125 | 13.9 | 9.8 | B+ |
| Whalley | 3,411 | 39.9 | 14.7 | C− |
| Sabden | 1,582 | 20.2 | 12 | B− |
| Billington | 1,743 | 10.7 | 7.3 | A |
| Old Langho | 1,072 | 7.8 | 1.9 | A+ |
Clitheroe records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Barrow and Whalley record more. Waddington, 1.4 miles away, records 4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Clitheroe’s 24.3.
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 Clitheroe 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 Clitheroe
Is Clitheroe safe?
Police recorded 24.3 violent and sexual offences and 10.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Clitheroe’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 45% of UK towns. Among 307 UK towns of 12,000 to 22,000 people, Clitheroe is 86th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Clitheroe?
By council ward, St Mary's, Edisford & Low Moor and Salthill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.4, 19.8 and 24.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 38.8 in Littlemoor.
Is crime going up in Clitheroe?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 11%, shoplifting and theft rose 8% and anti-social behaviour fell 23%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Clitheroe?
Violence & sexual offences: 404 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (77) and public order (69), with 280 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Clitheroe compare with Burnley?
Burnley records 52.7 violent and sexual offences and 26.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Clitheroe’s 24.3 and 10.5, 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.