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Clifton Green and dovecotePhoto: John Sutton · CC BY-SA 2.0
DSafety Grade
Safety in Clifton · police.uk, 2023–2026

Crime per resident in Clifton runs higher than in 89% of UK towns

Recorded violence rose 5% in a year. Measured on crimes police recorded inside Clifton’s built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026, it earns a Safety Grade of D: #44 of 49 in Nottinghamshire. At 2.4 per 1,000 residents, robbery here runs well past the 0.5 of a typical town its size (56 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026). Its police logs show 43.7 violent and sexual offences and 18.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.

Violent crime
43.7
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
18.5
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
21
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
21.2
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Clifton

Violent crime rose over the year

In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 5% more violent crime per resident in Clifton 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 rose 14% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓

More crime than many places its size

Of 251 UK towns of 16,000 to 31,000 people, Clifton has the 201st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than St Austell, Coalville and Goole, higher than Northwich, Heanor and Tiverton. Towns its size ↓

Neighbourhood ranks

57% of Clifton’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.

Safety Grade

The D for Clifton, and how it is built

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 20% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: more crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (43.7 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 12% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (18.5 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 11% of UK towns
DD

A firm grade. Built on 4,279 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Clifton against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences41.1
Anti-social behaviour18.8
Criminal damage & arson12.3
Shoplifting11.8
Public order8.6
Other theft5.3
Other crime4.8
Vehicle crime4.3
Burglary3.7
Drugs3.2
Robbery2.4
Possession of weapons2.1
Bicycle theft1
Theft from the person0.7
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Clifton runs highest on robbery (2.4 per 1,000 against 0.5), possession of weapons (2.1 per 1,000 against 0.7) and other crime (4.8 per 1,000 against 1.8).

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent94341.130.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded43218.812.4
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle28112.36.2
Shopliftingnot graded27111.86.1
Public ordernot graded1988.65.4
Other theftnot graded1215.34.4
Other crimenot graded1094.81.8
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle994.32.8
BurglaryHome & vehicle853.72.4
Drugsnot graded743.21.9
RobberyViolent562.40.5
Possession of weaponsViolent482.10.7
Bicycle theftnot graded2210.3
Theft from the personnot graded160.70.3

“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.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

57% of Clifton residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods

6%1
50%2
13%3
20%4
0%5
10%6
0%7
0%8
0%9
0%10
Higher crimeLower crime

0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 57% 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.

Clifton’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.

Towns its size

Among 251 towns its size, Clifton ranks 201st for the least graded crime

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Heswall Merseyside29,08214.35.53.8A−
…
40Forest Town Nottinghamshire19,01523.78.59.3B−
…
92Mansfield Woodhouse Nottinghamshire19,52129.310.410.6C+
…
116Eastwood Nottinghamshire18,89029.814.922.6C
…
141Retford Nottinghamshire23,73532.916.217.1C−
…
198Northwich Cheshire18,64649.411.719.9D
199Heanor Derbyshire24,26445.31614.2D
200Tiverton Devon19,71045.41613.2D
201Clifton Nottinghamshire22,93643.718.521D
202Ryde Isle of Wight24,09450.911.413.2D
203Harwich Essex20,21947.614.811.7D
204Selby North Yorkshire19,48048.214.721.6D
…
251Great Yarmouth Norfolk28,97910532.933.7D−

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 Clifton, and others in Nottinghamshire.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Clifton per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
1,047
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
465
homes & vehicles
430
shoplifting & theft
85
of the three, per 1,000

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 20 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

Trend · monthly

How crime in Clifton 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 +5% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +14% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +17% (towns its size -4%).

What happened next

Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns

Violent crime
Clifton
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Clifton
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 72% of Clifton’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” (63% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 5% 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. 1,362 crimes.

Where in Clifton

Where in Clifton police recorded crime

Public places police.uk named crimes and ASB, 3 years
At or nearReportsMostly
Supermarkets76039% shoplifting & theft
Shopping areas60967% shoplifting & theft
Police stations19246% violent
Sports and recreation grounds2339% violent

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 Clifton. We show only these, never streets or homes.

Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.

On the roads

No one died in a collision on Clifton’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 102 collisions with injuries inside Clifton in five years. 30 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 on foot and 4 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 Clifton’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Clifton’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Clifton had 26.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as 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.

0
people killed, 2021–2025
30
killed or seriously injured
10
of them on foot
4
of them on a bicycle

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 Clifton’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Clifton

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Clifton22,93643.718.5D
Ruddington7,4912311.6B−
Wilford4,84919.311.6B−
Beeston52,35924.611.4C+
West Bridgford36,48916.69B+
Edwalton4,762289.7C+
Gotham1,56615.511.3B+
Tollerton1,9765.22.9A+

Clifton records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Ruddington, 1.4 miles away, records 23 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Clifton’s 43.7.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

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 Clifton 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 Clifton

Is Clifton safe?

Police recorded 43.7 violent and sexual offences and 18.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Clifton’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 11% of UK towns. Among 251 UK towns of 16,000 to 31,000 people, Clifton is 201st from the least crime.

Is crime going up in Clifton?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 5%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 14%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 17%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Clifton?

Violence & sexual offences: 943 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (281) and shoplifting (271), with 432 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Clifton compare with Nottingham?

Nottingham records 53.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Clifton’s 43.7 and 18.5, 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.