Photo: Bob Harvey · CC BY-SA 2.0Less crime per resident is recorded in Bourne than in 78% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
Weighing it all, Bourne earns B− for safety (#28 of 61 in Lincolnshire), with close to the middle of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026. Year on year, 25.6 violent and sexual offences and 7.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents. On burglary, vehicle crime and damage it beats 65% of UK towns; on violent crime, only 42%. Violent crime barely moved 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 Bourne
Less crime than many places its size
Of 333 UK towns of 12,000 to 24,000 people, Bourne has the 83rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Penwortham, Alsager and Hersham, higher than Clevedon, Catterick Garrison and Birstall. 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. 16% of Bourne’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 Bourne’s B−
A firm grade. Built on 1,749 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bourne against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
1 in 6 Bourne residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
43% 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.
Bourne’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.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Bourne runs highest on shoplifting (9.1 per 1,000 against 6.1) and anti-social behaviour (15.2 per 1,000 against 12.4). Criminal damage & arson and other theft sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 456 | 26.1 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 266 | 15.2 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 160 | 9.1 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 72 | 4.1 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 67 | 3.8 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 41 | 2.3 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 41 | 2.3 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 33 | 1.9 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 32 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 12 | 0.7 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 11 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 8 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 7 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 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.
Bourne is 83rd of 333 UK towns of 12,000 to 24,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 40 | North Hykeham Lincolnshire | 16,855 | 21.4 | 6.6 | 9.4 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 80 | Clevedon Somerset | 21,084 | 24.2 | 8.5 | 8.8 | B− |
| 81 | Catterick Garrison North Yorkshire | 14,212 | 26.9 | 6.1 | 7.9 | B− |
| 82 | Birstall Leicestershire | 14,317 | 19 | 14.2 | 7.3 | B− |
| 83 | Bourne Lincolnshire | 17,495 | 25.6 | 7.7 | 8.9 | B− |
| 84 | Gorseinon West Glamorgan | 14,114 | 25.7 | 7.7 | 7.2 | B− |
| 85 | Churchdown Gloucestershire | 13,480 | 27.5 | 6 | 6.8 | B− |
| 86 | Hythe Kent | 14,613 | 24.6 | 8.9 | 8.7 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 103 | Stamford Lincolnshire | 20,745 | 27.6 | 8.3 | 13.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 112 | Humberston and New Waltham Lincolnshire | 14,861 | 25.9 | 11 | 6.4 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 226 | Sleaford Lincolnshire | 18,028 | 41.4 | 10.6 | 17.5 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 333 | 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 Bourne, and others in Lincolnshire.
Police in Bourne identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 78% of Bourne’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 16% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (67% 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. 554 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Bourne West, Bourne Austerby and Bourne East; highest in Bourne East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne West | 5,182 | 21.4 | 6.2 | |
| Bourne Austerby | 8,036 | 21.8 | 6.1 | |
| Bourne East | 4,277 | 36.2 | 12.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Petrol stations | 125 | 34% violent |
| Supermarkets | 121 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 98 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 41 | 44% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 39 | 46% violent |
| Car parks | 38 | 34% homes & vehicles |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 34 | 53% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Bourne East records 1.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bourne. 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 Bourne. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bourne’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 +4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +17% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +63% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -1% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Bourne 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 8 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 12 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 Bourne’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 60 collisions with injuries inside Bourne in five years. 16 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 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 Bourne’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bourne’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bourne had 18.4 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 Bourne’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bourne
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bourne | 17,495 | 25.6 | 7.7 | B− |
| Thurlby | 2,139 | 12.3 | 4.7 | A |
| Morton | 2,180 | 18 | 5.4 | B+ |
| Baston | 1,576 | 8.3 | 4.4 | A+ |
| Langtoft | 2,010 | 4.3 | 5.3 | A+ |
| Market Deeping | 6,533 | 24.5 | 8.9 | B− |
| Corby Glen | 1,006 | 27.8 | 9.3 | C+ |
| Ryhall | 1,444 | 10.9 | 4.6 | A |
Bourne records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Market Deeping and Corby Glen record more. Thurlby, 2 miles away, records 12.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bourne’s 25.6.
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 Bourne 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 Bourne
Is Bourne safe?
Police recorded 25.6 violent and sexual offences and 7.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bourne’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 48% of UK towns. Among 333 UK towns of 12,000 to 24,000 people, Bourne is 83rd from the least crime. 16% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Bourne?
By council ward, Bourne West, Bourne Austerby and Bourne East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 21.4, 21.8 and 36.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 36.2 in Bourne East.
Is crime going up in Bourne?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 17%, shoplifting and theft rose 63% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Bourne?
Violence & sexual offences: 456 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (160) and public order (72), with 266 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Bourne compare with Spalding?
Spalding records 39.7 violent and sexual offences and 13.4 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Bourne’s 25.6 and 7.7, 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.