Photo: Jonathan Thacker · CC BY-SA 2.0Grantham sees more crime per resident than 84% of UK towns
Typical years here bring 39.6 violent and sexual offences plus 15.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Violence recorded locally climbed 10% in a year. On the record of crimes police recorded inside Grantham’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it takes C− for safety: #49 of 61 in Lincolnshire. Police recorded 677 cases of shoplifting in the town in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 15.1 per 1,000 against a typical 6.1.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Grantham
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 10% more violent crime per resident in Grantham 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 8% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 161 UK towns of 31,000 to 61,000 people, Grantham has the 93rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Bedworth, Durham and Kirkby, higher than Swadlincote, Redhill and Pudsey. 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. 20% of Grantham’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 27% 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 Grantham’s C−
A firm grade. Built on 7,428 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Grantham 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, Grantham runs highest on shoplifting (15.1 per 1,000 against 6.1), robbery (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.5) and anti-social behaviour (24.9 per 1,000 against 12.4).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,753 | 39 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,118 | 24.9 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 677 | 15.1 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 419 | 9.3 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 386 | 8.6 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 204 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 155 | 3.5 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 134 | 3 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 122 | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 77 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 53 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 40 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 38 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 5 | 0.1 | 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.
Crime in Grantham 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 15 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 21 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 Grantham Arnoldfield, Belmont and Grantham Barrowby Gate; highest in Grantham St Wulfram's
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grantham Arnoldfield | 5,667 | 11.2 | 4.2 | |
| Belmont | 4,203 | 15.4 | 10.9 | |
| Grantham Barrowby Gate | 4,804 | 20.5 | 7.5 | |
| Grantham Harrowby | 4,791 | 37 | 11.5 | |
| Grantham St Vincent's | 7,551 | 42 | 19.4 | |
| Grantham Earlesfield | 6,725 | 47 | 17.4 | |
| Grantham Springfield | 5,573 | 51.5 | 23.4 | |
| Grantham St Wulfram's | 5,385 | 79 | 25.4 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 487 | 33% violent |
| Car parks | 473 | 31% violent |
| Police stations | 245 | 42% violent |
| Supermarkets | 230 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 195 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 71 | 45% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Grantham St Wulfram's records 2.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Grantham. 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 Grantham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Grantham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Grantham 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 -8% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +3% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +3% (towns its size -4%).
1 in 5 Grantham residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
35% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 27% 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.
Grantham’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.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Grantham’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” (64% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 8% 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. 2,518 crimes.
Grantham places 93rd of 161 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 90 | Swadlincote Derbyshire | 34,569 | 40.6 | 12.7 | 14.7 | C− |
| 91 | Redhill Surrey | 32,516 | 40.6 | 13.4 | 15.9 | C− |
| 92 | Pudsey West Yorkshire | 34,853 | 34.8 | 20.3 | 21.2 | C− |
| 93 | Grantham Lincolnshire | 44,906 | 39.6 | 15.7 | 20.5 | C− |
| 94 | Barry South Glamorgan | 56,589 | 40.2 | 15.3 | 20.9 | C− |
| 95 | Borehamwood Hertfordshire | 39,760 | 38.1 | 18 | 21.8 | C− |
| 96 | Grays Essex | 44,340 | 37.3 | 19.3 | 20.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 130 | Boston Lincolnshire | 45,347 | 50.7 | 17.6 | 26.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 161 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Grantham, and others in Lincolnshire.
Four people died in collisions on Grantham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 322 collisions with injuries inside Grantham in five years, in which four people died (1 was a pedestrian). 69 people were killed or seriously injured: 23 on foot and 14 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 Grantham’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Grantham’s own rate (1.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Grantham had 30.7 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). 33% 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 Grantham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Grantham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grantham | 44,906 | 39.6 | 15.7 | C− |
| Great Gonerby | 1,880 | 20 | 8.5 | B |
| Barrowby | 2,041 | 14.5 | 8.2 | A− |
| Bottesford | 3,046 | 18 | 12.7 | B− |
| Long Bennington | 2,149 | 9 | 7.6 | A |
| Colsterworth | 1,296 | 28.6 | 26 | C− |
| Corby Glen | 1,006 | 27.8 | 9.3 | C+ |
| Claypole | 1,352 | 13.3 | 4.7 | A |
Grantham records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Great Gonerby, 1.8 miles away, records 20 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Grantham’s 39.6.
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 Grantham 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 Grantham
Is Grantham safe?
Police recorded 39.6 violent and sexual offences and 15.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Grantham’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 16% of UK towns. Among 161 UK towns of 31,000 to 61,000 people, Grantham is 93rd from the least crime. 20% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Grantham?
By council ward, Grantham Arnoldfield, Belmont and Grantham Barrowby Gate record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.2, 15.4 and 20.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 79 in Grantham St Wulfram's.
Is crime going up in Grantham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 10%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 8%, shoplifting and theft held steady 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 Grantham?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,753 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (677) and public order (419), with 1,118 reports of anti-social behaviour.
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.