Photo: habiloid · CC BY-SA 2.0Dereham records more violent crime per head than 81% of UK towns
From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Dereham’s built-up area put it at C− for safety: #46 of 51 in Norfolk. The typical town its size sees 0.7 cases of possession of weapons per 1,000 residents; Dereham sees 1.4, or 29 in the 12 months to August 2026. Behind the grade sit 37.3 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 Dereham
About the middle for a town its size
Of 252 UK towns of 15,000 to 28,000 people, Dereham has the 143rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Rawtenstall, Retford and Daventry, higher than Ossett, Antrim and Guisborough. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Dereham’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 2,979 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dereham against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Police in Dereham identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 48% of Dereham’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 7% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (70% 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. 1,095 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Dereham runs highest on possession of weapons (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.7), shoplifting (11.4 per 1,000 against 6.1) and drugs (3.2 per 1,000 against 1.9). Burglary and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 713 | 34.3 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 237 | 11.4 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 231 | 11.1 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 127 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 111 | 5.3 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 95 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 67 | 3.2 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 52 | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 29 | 1.4 | 0.7 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 25 | 1.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 24 | 1.2 | 2.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 11 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 7 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 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.
How Dereham’s neighbourhoods rank in England
35% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 11% 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.
Dereham’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.
Crime in Dereham 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 16 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 Shipdham-with-Scarning, Dereham Withburga and Dereham Toftwood; highest in Dereham Neatherd
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shipdham-with-Scarning | 2,286 | 11.8 | 3.5 | |
| Dereham Withburga | 5,921 | 24.5 | 6.4 | |
| Dereham Toftwood | 5,900 | 27.3 | 7.2 | |
| Dereham Neatherd | 6,681 | 62.5 | 18.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 572 | 73% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 291 | 69% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 265 | 55% violent |
| Car parks | 118 | 39% violent |
| Shopping areas | 57 | 46% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 45 | 53% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Dereham Neatherd records 2.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Dereham. 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 Dereham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Dereham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Set against 252 towns its size, Dereham is 143rd
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Streetly West Midlands | 16,790 | 11.2 | 9 | 5.3 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 139 | Wymondham Norfolk | 16,334 | 38.3 | 9 | 10.1 | C |
| 140 | Ossett West Yorkshire | 21,854 | 33.8 | 13.6 | 9.9 | C |
| 141 | Antrim Antrim and Newtownabbey | 25,606 | 33.7 | 13.6 | 8.7 | C |
| 142 | Guisborough North Yorkshire | 18,091 | 31 | 16.6 | 20.8 | C− |
| 143 | Dereham Norfolk | 20,788 | 37.3 | 10.5 | 16 | C− |
| 144 | Devizes Wiltshire | 19,491 | 35.8 | 12.4 | 13.7 | C− |
| 145 | Newmarket Suffolk | 18,857 | 34.6 | 13.6 | 16.9 | C− |
| 146 | Nantwich Cheshire | 18,741 | 39.5 | 8.8 | 14.1 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 176 | Gorleston-on-Sea Norfolk | 24,474 | 39.2 | 14.2 | 12.5 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 200 | Thetford Norfolk | 25,502 | 43.9 | 15.7 | 12.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 252 | 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 Dereham, and others in Norfolk.
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 -18% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -19% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -4% (towns its size -4%).
Two people died in collisions on Dereham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 94 collisions with injuries inside Dereham in five years, in which two people died (2 were pedestrians). 32 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 7 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 Dereham’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Dereham’s own rate (1.9) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Dereham had 30.8 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 Dereham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Dereham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dereham | 20,788 | 37.3 | 10.5 | C− |
| Swanton Morley | 2,175 | 15.8 | 3.5 | A− |
| Shipdham | 2,459 | 15.2 | 4.1 | A− |
| Mattishall | 2,203 | 12.7 | 7.3 | A− |
| North Elmham | 1,172 | 11.4 | 5.1 | A |
| Hingham | 2,304 | 18.1 | 4.8 | A− |
| Necton | 1,742 | 13.4 | 4.8 | A |
| Foulsham | 1,025 | 21.1 | 3.6 | B+ |
Dereham records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Swanton Morley, 3.2 miles away, records 15.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Dereham’s 37.3.
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 Dereham 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 Dereham
Is Dereham safe?
Police recorded 37.3 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 Dereham’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 24% of UK towns. Among 252 UK towns of 15,000 to 28,000 people, Dereham is 143rd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Dereham?
By council ward, Shipdham-with-Scarning, Dereham Withburga and Dereham Toftwood record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.8, 24.5 and 27.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 62.5 in Dereham Neatherd.
Is crime going up in Dereham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 18%, shoplifting and theft fell 19% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Dereham town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 265 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 55% of them violent, and Dereham Neatherd ward records 62.5 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 February.
What is the most common crime in Dereham?
Violence & sexual offences: 713 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (237) and criminal damage & arson (127), with 231 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.