Photo: Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0Northampton has more crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns
The Safety Grade comes out at D, drawn from crimes police recorded inside Northampton’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026. Robbery runs at 2.6 per 1,000 residents here, against 1.4 in a typical town its size: police recorded 638 in the 12 months to August 2026. Its police logs show 46.1 violent and sexual offences and 19.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Northampton
One ward carries much of the rate
Castle ward recorded 6,844 of Northampton’s 33,677 violent and sexual offences in three years: 127.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Northampton the figure is 39.6. Where in Northampton ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 47 UK towns and cities of 170,000 to 329,000 people, Northampton has the 34th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Newcastle upon Tyne, Wolverhampton and Derby, higher than Plymouth, Milton Keynes and Southend-on-Sea. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
33% of Northampton’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 18% 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 sits behind Northampton’s D
A firm grade. Built on 48,041 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Northampton against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in Hackleton and Grange Park, East Hunsbury and Shelfleys and Duston East; highest in Castle
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hackleton and Grange Park | 5,953 | 16.9 | 5.7 | |
| East Hunsbury and Shelfleys | 11,931 | 21.2 | 6.6 | |
| Duston East | 11,734 | 21.2 | 12.3 | |
| Kingsthorpe North | 12,938 | 23.6 | 12.8 | |
| Nene Valley | 10,815 | 32.4 | 11.5 | |
| Riverside Park | 13,743 | 33.9 | 12.8 | |
| Delapre and Rushmere | 14,785 | 33 | 14.5 | |
| Duston West and St. Crispin | 11,214 | 35 | 12.6 | |
| Boothville and Parklands | 10,734 | 32.8 | 17.5 | |
| Billing and Rectory Farm | 16,377 | 40 | 14.8 | |
| Headlands | 14,800 | 38.3 | 18.3 | |
| Moulton | 1,912 | 43.4 | 19.4 | |
| Sixfields | 17,370 | 46.3 | 19.4 | |
| Kingsthorpe South | 14,361 | 45 | 20.7 | |
| Dallington Spencer | 14,139 | 51.2 | 19.7 | |
| Talavera | 15,769 | 48.7 | 22.3 | |
| Abington and Phippsville | 13,593 | 53.2 | 28.1 | |
| St. George | 13,486 | 75 | 37.6 | |
| Castle | 17,873 | 127.6 | 45.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 4,393 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,857 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 1,729 | 48% violent |
| Shopping areas | 1,701 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 1,293 | 68% violent |
| Car parks | 970 | 30% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 391 | 35% violent |
| Police stations | 312 | 47% violent |
| College and university buildings | 262 | 49% violent |
| Racecourses | 181 | 44% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Castle records 3.2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Northampton. 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 Northampton. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Northampton’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Northampton runs highest on robbery (2.6 per 1,000 against 1.4), anti-social behaviour (28.2 per 1,000 against 17.5) and possession of weapons (1.7 per 1,000 against 1.1).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 9,930 | 40.8 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 6,879 | 28.2 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2,871 | 11.8 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,770 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 1,734 | 7.1 | 6.6 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,723 | 7.1 | 7.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,716 | 7 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1,125 | 4.6 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 900 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 638 | 2.6 | 1.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 458 | 1.9 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 402 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 236 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 121 | 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.
33% of Northampton residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
18% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 33% 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.
Northampton’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 Northampton 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 19 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 20 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Northampton is 34th of 47 UK towns of 170,000 to 329,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 31 | Plymouth Devon | 266,970 | 49.4 | 14.9 | 16.2 | D |
| 32 | Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire | 197,328 | 46.3 | 19.3 | 23.3 | D |
| 33 | Southend-on-Sea Essex | 182,295 | 48.3 | 17.4 | 18.6 | D |
| 34 | Northampton Northamptonshire | 243,527 | 46.1 | 19.7 | 20.2 | D |
| 35 | Tower Hamlets London | 311,072 | 43.3 | 23 | 39.6 | D |
| 36 | Islington London | 216,309 | 44.1 | 24.3 | 54.8 | D |
| 37 | Portsmouth Hampshire | 223,324 | 53.5 | 16.8 | 22.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | 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 Northampton, and others in Northamptonshire.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 -1% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +2% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -6% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +21% (towns its size -2%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 69% of Northampton’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” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 6% 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. 16,938 crimes.
17 people died in collisions on Northampton’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 1,807 collisions with injuries inside Northampton in five years, in which 17 people died (7 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist). 316 people were killed or seriously injured: 102 on foot and 45 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
That is 1.4 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Northampton had 26.0 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). 32% 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 Northampton’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Northampton
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northampton | 243,527 | 46.1 | 19.7 | D |
| Moulton | 4,953 | 41.7 | 15.6 | D |
| Collingtree and Milton Malsor | 1,514 | 39.9 | 15 | C− |
| Cogenhoe | 1,475 | 11.5 | 3.8 | A |
| Kislingbury | 1,323 | 18.1 | 8.8 | B |
| Harpole | 1,349 | 8.2 | 10.6 | A |
| Sywell and Overstone | 1,636 | 11 | 8.4 | A− |
| Blisworth | 1,603 | 19.6 | 6.5 | B+ |
Northampton records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Moulton, 3.2 miles away, records 41.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Northampton’s 46.1.
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 1,293 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Northampton’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 Northampton 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 Northampton
Is Northampton safe?
Police recorded 46.1 violent and sexual offences and 19.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Northampton’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 47 UK towns of 170,000 to 329,000 people, Northampton is 34th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Northampton?
By council ward, Hackleton and Grange Park, East Hunsbury and Shelfleys and Duston East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.9, 21.2 and 21.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 127.6 in Castle.
Is crime going up in Northampton?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 6% and anti-social behaviour rose 21%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Northampton city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 1,729 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 48% of them violent, and Castle ward records 127.6 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 Northampton?
Violence & sexual offences: 9,930 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (2,871) and public order (1,770), with 6,879 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.