War Memorial · Photo: Peter Broster · CC BY-SA 4.0Oadby records bicycle theft at 3.7 times the rate of a typical town its size
For its size, it sits below 80% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident. The overall Safety Grade is B− (#14 of 50 in Leicestershire), which means close to the middle of UK towns, judged on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Behind the grade sit 21.8 violent and sexual offences and 10.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Oadby
Less crime than most places its size
Of 226 UK towns of 17,000 to 32,000 people, Oadby has the 34th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Clevedon, Wickford and Bourne, higher than Rickmansworth, Forest Town and Willerby and Anlaby. 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 Oadby’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% 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 Oadby’s B−
A firm grade. Built on 2,330 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Oadby 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, Oadby runs highest on bicycle theft (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.3) and burglary (3.2 per 1,000 against 2.4). Anti-social behaviour and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 504 | 21 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 187 | 7.8 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 117 | 4.9 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 102 | 4.2 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 86 | 3.6 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 78 | 3.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 58 | 2.4 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 37 | 1.5 | 1.9 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 30 | 1.2 | 0.3 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 29 | 1.2 | 6.1 |
| Other crime | not graded | 18 | 0.7 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 10 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 9 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 0.4 | 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.
1 in 9 Oadby residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
55% 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.
Oadby’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.
Of 226 towns its size, Oadby is 34th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 31 | Rickmansworth Hertfordshire | 26,290 | 22.5 | 9.8 | 16.5 | B− |
| 32 | Forest Town Nottinghamshire | 19,015 | 23.7 | 8.5 | 9.3 | B− |
| 33 | Willerby and Anlaby East Riding of Yorkshire | 19,269 | 21.9 | 10.3 | 11.9 | B− |
| 34 | Oadby Leicestershire | 24,039 | 21.8 | 10.5 | 7.7 | B− |
| 35 | Romsey Hampshire | 19,923 | 21.6 | 10.7 | 13.6 | B− |
| 36 | Belper Derbyshire | 19,076 | 25.6 | 6.7 | 9 | B− |
| 37 | Calne Wiltshire | 19,725 | 25.9 | 6.5 | 5.3 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 63 | Market Harborough Leicestershire | 24,162 | 25.1 | 12.2 | 14.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 130 | Melton Mowbray Leicestershire | 27,451 | 35.1 | 15.7 | 17.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 185 | Coalville Leicestershire | 21,975 | 45.4 | 18.3 | 17.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 226 | 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 Oadby, and others in Leicestershire.
Police in Oadby identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 78% of Oadby’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 22% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (48% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 2% 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. 795 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Oadby Uplands, Oadby Woodlands and Oadby Grange; highest in Oadby St Peter's
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oadby Uplands | 4,523 | 14.7 | 6.6 | |
| Oadby Woodlands | 4,633 | 16.3 | 5.8 | |
| Oadby Grange | 6,053 | 17 | 10.8 | |
| Oadby Brocks Hill | 4,272 | 28.2 | 10 | |
| Oadby St Peter's | 4,558 | 34.7 | 19.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 303 | 34% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 225 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 70 | 69% violent |
| Petrol stations | 60 | 37% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Oadby St Peter's records 1.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Oadby. 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 Oadby. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Oadby’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 -2% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +0% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -22% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +38% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Oadby 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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 6 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
One person died in collisions on Oadby’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 82 collisions with injuries inside Oadby in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 20 people were killed or seriously injured: 7 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 Oadby’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Oadby’s own rate (0.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Oadby had 17.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
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 Oadby’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Oadby
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oadby | 24,039 | 21.8 | 10.5 | B− |
| Wigston | 34,728 | 30.7 | 14 | C |
| Great Glen | 4,062 | 16.3 | 10 | B+ |
| Leicester | 406,612 | 49 | 23.2 | D |
| Houghton on the Hill | 1,738 | 12.5 | 17.1 | B |
| Countesthorpe | 7,674 | 18.7 | 8.3 | B |
| Fleckney | 4,926 | 23.2 | 10.6 | B− |
| Blaby and Whetstone | 14,072 | 24.7 | 11.8 | C+ |
Oadby records more graded crime per resident than 3 of its 7 neighbours. Great Glen, 2.3 miles away, records 16.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Oadby’s 21.8.
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 Oadby 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 Oadby
Is Oadby safe?
Police recorded 21.8 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 Oadby’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 50% of UK towns. Among 226 UK towns of 17,000 to 32,000 people, Oadby is 34th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Oadby?
By council ward, Oadby Uplands, Oadby Woodlands and Oadby Grange record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.7, 16.3 and 17 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 34.7 in Oadby St Peter's.
Is crime going up in Oadby?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 22% and anti-social behaviour rose 38%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Oadby?
Violence & sexual offences: 504 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (117) and criminal damage & arson (102), with 187 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Oadby compare with Leicester?
Leicester records 49 violent and sexual offences and 23.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Oadby’s 21.8 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.