Photo: habiloid · CC BY-SA 2.0Skegness records more crime per resident than almost every UK town
The typical town its size sees 0.5 cases of robbery per 1,000 residents; Skegness sees 3, or 63 in the 12 months to August 2026. In a usual year, 79.4 violent and sexual offences and 27.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants. Graded on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it scores D− for safety: #59 of 61 in Lincolnshire. Violence recorded locally held about level 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 Skegness
Neighbourhood ranks
64% of Skegness’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 0% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Skegness: D− for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 6,641 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Skegness 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, Skegness runs highest on robbery (3 per 1,000 against 0.5), shoplifting (30.9 per 1,000 against 6.1) and theft from the person (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.3).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,566 | 75.6 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 855 | 41.3 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 639 | 30.9 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 351 | 17 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 331 | 16 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 259 | 12.5 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 109 | 5.3 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 98 | 4.7 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 78 | 3.8 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 77 | 3.7 | 1.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 63 | 3 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 39 | 1.9 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 22 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 12 | 0.6 | 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.
64% of Skegness residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 64% 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.
Skegness’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.
How Skegness compares with UK towns of 14,000 to 28,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 29 | North Hykeham Lincolnshire | 16,855 | 21.4 | 6.6 | 9.4 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 70 | Bourne Lincolnshire | 17,495 | 25.6 | 7.7 | 8.9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 90 | Stamford Lincolnshire | 20,745 | 27.6 | 8.3 | 13.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 102 | Humberston and New Waltham Lincolnshire | 14,861 | 25.9 | 11 | 6.4 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 299 | Milford Haven Dyfed | 14,251 | 74.9 | 22.6 | 12.7 | D− |
| 300 | Gainsborough Lincolnshire | 21,899 | 66.4 | 32 | 30.1 | D− |
| 301 | Llandudno Clwyd | 14,699 | 78.4 | 23.6 | 36.7 | D− |
| 302 | Skegness Lincolnshire | 20,701 | 79.4 | 27.6 | 41.7 | D− |
| 303 | Rhyl Clwyd | 26,982 | 89.1 | 22.9 | 29 | 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 Skegness, and others in Lincolnshire.
Crime in Skegness 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 25 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 45 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 65% of Skegness’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 9% 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. 2,282 crimes.
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 -9% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -3% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +6% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Winthorpe, St Clement's and Scarbrough & Seacroft; highest in Scarbrough & Seacroft
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winthorpe | 5,899 | 56.1 | 22.9 | |
| St Clement's | 5,436 | 60.4 | 19.9 | |
| Scarbrough & Seacroft | 9,366 | 104.7 | 34.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,057 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 941 | 52% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 707 | 34% violent |
| Petrol stations | 399 | 34% violent |
| Police stations | 311 | 49% violent |
| College and university buildings | 146 | 34% anti-social behaviour |
| Nightclubs | 104 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 50 | 40% anti-social behaviour |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 38 | 53% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 20 | 40% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Scarbrough & Seacroft records 1.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Skegness. 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 Skegness. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Skegness’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Skegness’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 223 collisions with injuries inside Skegness in five years. 54 people were killed or seriously injured: 21 on foot and 10 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 Skegness’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Skegness’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Skegness had 52.4 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). 39% 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 Skegness’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Skegness
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skegness | 20,701 | 79.4 | 27.6 | D− |
| Ingoldmells | 1,928 | 259 | 64.7 | D− |
| Burgh le Marsh | 2,159 | 17.1 | 5.7 | A− |
| Wainfleet All Saints | 1,802 | 34 | 13 | C |
| Chapel St Leonards | 3,435 | 58.6 | 18 | D− |
| Wainfleet St Mary | 1,045 | 15.3 | 6.4 | A− |
| Alford | 3,831 | 31.2 | 11.7 | C |
| Spilsby | 3,671 | 40.4 | 13.5 | C− |
Skegness records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Ingoldmells records more. Burgh le Marsh, 3.8 miles away, records 17.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Skegness’s 79.4.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 50 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Skegness’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Skegness 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 Skegness
Is Skegness safe?
Police recorded 79.4 violent and sexual offences and 27.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Skegness’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: behind almost every UK town. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Skegness has less crime per resident than 1%.
What are the safest areas of Skegness?
By council ward, Winthorpe, St Clement's and Scarbrough & Seacroft record the least violent and household crime per resident: 56.1, 60.4 and 104.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 104.7 in Scarbrough & Seacroft.
Is crime going up in Skegness?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Skegness town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 104 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 18% of them violent, and Scarbrough & Seacroft ward records 104.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in January.
What is the most common crime in Skegness?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,566 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (639) and public order (351), with 855 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Skegness compare with Boston?
Boston records 50.7 violent and sexual offences and 17.6 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Skegness’s 79.4 and 27.6, 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.