Photo: Thomas Tolkien · CC BY 2.0Scarborough records more crime per resident than 95% of UK towns
Police recorded 2,728 cases of anti-social behaviour in Scarborough in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 45.8 per 1,000 against a typical 17.5. Violence recorded locally climbed 17% in a year. On the record of crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it takes D for safety: #50 of 54 in North Yorkshire. Per 1,000 residents a year, 58.8 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Scarborough
One ward carries much of the rate
Castle ward, where 56% of Scarborough’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 3,793 of Scarborough’s 10,473 violent and sexual offences in three years: 152.1 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Scarborough the figure is 43.5. Where in Scarborough ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% more violent crime per resident in Scarborough than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 119 UK towns and cities of 42,000 to 80,000 people, Scarborough has the 101st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Clacton-on-Sea, Bootle and Llanelli, higher than Margate, Chatham and Havant. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
45% of Scarborough’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 20% 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.
What’s behind Scarborough’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 13,539 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Scarborough 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 Scarborough identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 41% of Scarborough’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 5% 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 14% of violent and 17% 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. 4,654 crimes.
45% of Scarborough residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
20% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 45% 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.
Scarborough’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, Scarborough runs highest on anti-social behaviour (45.8 per 1,000 against 17.5), shoplifting (16.8 per 1,000 against 10.3) and criminal damage & arson (12.2 per 1,000 against 7.5). Burglary and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,592 | 60.4 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2,728 | 45.8 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,000 | 16.8 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 727 | 12.2 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 572 | 9.6 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 378 | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 340 | 5.7 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 145 | 2.4 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 139 | 2.3 | 2.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 108 | 1.8 | 4.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 104 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 56 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 37 | 0.6 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 27 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
“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 and cities of 50,000 or more.
How crime in Scarborough has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +17% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +3% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +7% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +7% (towns its size -2%).
Of 119 towns its size, Scarborough is 101st from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 14 | Harrogate North Yorkshire | 75,522 | 27.3 | 10.5 | 13.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 98 | Margate Kent | 63,315 | 56.1 | 17.5 | 17.1 | D |
| 99 | Chatham Kent | 76,956 | 54 | 20.6 | 20.8 | D |
| 100 | Havant Hampshire | 46,964 | 59.2 | 16.8 | 18.7 | D |
| 101 | Scarborough North Yorkshire | 59,505 | 58.8 | 17.2 | 22.9 | D |
| 102 | Bloxwich West Midlands | 51,891 | 52.3 | 25.8 | 20.9 | D− |
| 103 | Mansfield Nottinghamshire | 63,448 | 56.4 | 22.2 | 33.5 | D− |
| 104 | Burnley Lancashire | 78,266 | 52.7 | 26.2 | 23.4 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 119 | 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 Scarborough, and others in North Yorkshire.
Lowest recorded crime in Seamer, Cayton and Newby; highest in Castle
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seamer | 2,354 | 18.5 | 8.8 | |
| Cayton | 3,225 | 25.8 | 6.6 | |
| Newby | 6,286 | 28.3 | 6 | |
| Scalby & the Coast | 1,501 | 30.9 | 6.2 | |
| Woodlands | 7,450 | 46.2 | 12.6 | |
| Weaponness & Ramshill | 7,559 | 44.2 | 14.9 | |
| Falsgrave & Stepney | 8,253 | 45.9 | 18.2 | |
| Northstead | 7,391 | 54.4 | 15.1 | |
| Eastfield | 7,176 | 58.1 | 16.9 | |
| Castle | 8,310 | 152.1 | 41.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,477 | 32% violent |
| Shopping areas | 698 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 432 | 60% violent |
| Police stations | 432 | 39% drugs, public order & other |
| Nightclubs | 424 | 39% violent |
| College and university buildings | 312 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 289 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 158 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 145 | 37% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 83 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Castle records 3.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Scarborough. 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 Scarborough. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Scarborough’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Scarborough 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 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 24 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Five people died in collisions on Scarborough’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 359 collisions with injuries inside Scarborough in five years, in which five people died (2 were pedestrians). 86 people were killed or seriously injured: 38 on foot and 12 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: at their median rate (1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Scarborough’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Scarborough’s own rate (1.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Scarborough had 28.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 44% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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 Scarborough’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Scarborough
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarborough | 59,505 | 58.8 | 17.2 | D |
| Scalby | 1,790 | 12.9 | 3.9 | A |
| Seamer (Scarborough) | 2,120 | 14.8 | 3.8 | A |
| East Ayton and West Ayton | 2,809 | 17.8 | 4.3 | A− |
| Burniston | 1,470 | 12 | 3.2 | A |
| Filey | 6,664 | 25.9 | 7.5 | B− |
| Hunmanby | 2,900 | 20.6 | 7.7 | B |
Scarborough records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Scalby, 2.3 miles away, records 12.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Scarborough’s 58.8.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 432 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Scarborough’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 Scarborough 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 Scarborough
Is Scarborough safe?
Police recorded 58.8 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Scarborough’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among 119 UK towns of 42,000 to 80,000 people, Scarborough is 101st from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Scarborough?
By council ward, Seamer, Cayton and Newby record the least violent and household crime per resident: 18.5, 25.8 and 28.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 152.1 in Castle.
Is crime going up in Scarborough?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 7% and anti-social behaviour rose 7%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Scarborough town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 424 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 39% of them violent, and Castle ward records 152.1 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 Scarborough?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,592 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,000) and criminal damage & arson (727), with 2,728 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.