Photo: Steve Daniels · CC BY-SA 2.0Compared with UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Sonning Common has less crime per resident than 86% of them
Violent crime was up 12% in a year. The yearly rates were 16.1 violent and sexual offences and 5.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. On violence it beats 74% of UK towns, and on burglary, vehicle crime and damage 83%.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Sonning Common
Less crime than most places its size
Of 518 UK towns of 4,000 to 7,000 people, Sonning Common has the 63rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Deanshanger, Wynyard and Milford and Witley, higher than Carleton, Denmead and Queen's Hills. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 55% of Sonning Common’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 12% more violent crime per resident in Sonning Common than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Sonning Common: A− for safety, and why
A fairly firm grade. Built on 341 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Sonning Common against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Most Sonning Common residents live in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
100% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.
Sonning Common’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: Sonning Common comes 63rd of 518
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 36 | Kennington Oxfordshire | 4,595 | 12.7 | 6 | 7.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 51 | Benson Oxfordshire | 5,236 | 15.3 | 5.3 | 6.4 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 60 | Carleton Lancashire | 4,793 | 12.3 | 9 | 2.2 | A− |
| 61 | Denmead Hampshire | 6,509 | 16 | 5.3 | 2.1 | A− |
| 62 | Queen's Hills Norfolk | 4,465 | 17.2 | 4.3 | 4.9 | A− |
| 63 | Sonning Common Oxfordshire | 5,264 | 16.1 | 5.5 | 5.4 | A− |
| 64 | Winchcombe Gloucestershire | 4,339 | 13.8 | 8 | 7.2 | A− |
| 65 | Grange-over-Sands Cumbria | 4,047 | 14.2 | 7.7 | 4.5 | A− |
| 66 | Brinsley and Underwood Nottinghamshire | 4,514 | 14.6 | 7.3 | 1.3 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 91 | Bodicote Oxfordshire | 4,752 | 18.2 | 5.3 | 6.7 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 127 | Eynsham Oxfordshire | 5,321 | 18.6 | 7.8 | 6.9 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 518 | Stainforth South Yorkshire | 5,999 | 72.5 | 49.7 | 14.4 | 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 Sonning Common, and others in Oxfordshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Sonning Common runs highest on other crime (3 per 1,000 against 1.5) and shoplifting (2.5 per 1,000 against 1.8). Other theft and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 90 | 17.1 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 23 | 4.4 | 8.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 3 | 1.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 15 | 2.8 | 3.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 13 | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 13 | 2.5 | 3.2 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 9 | 1.7 | 4.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 9 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 5 | 0.9 | 2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 2 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 2 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 1 | 0.2 | 0 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0.4 |
“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
How crime in Sonning Common has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling twelve-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 +12% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -12% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +0% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -4% (towns its size +0%).
Crime in Sonning Common 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 4 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 5 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 68% of Sonning Common’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 14% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 3% of violent and 0% 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. 118 crimes.
No one died in a collision on Sonning Common’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 7 collisions with injuries inside Sonning Common in five years. 1 person was killed or seriously injured: 1 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Sonning Common is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Sonning Common’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 4 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Sonning Common had 1.
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 Sonning Common’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Sonning Common
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonning Common | 5,264 | 16.1 | 5.5 | A− |
| Caversham | 33,038 | 16.7 | 9 | B+ |
| Henley-on-Thames | 11,786 | 25.8 | 14.5 | C |
| Woodcote | 2,198 | 17.4 | 7 | B+ |
| Lower Shiplake | 1,086 | 5.8 | 4 | A+ |
| Sonning | 1,615 | 9.3 | 7.6 | A |
| Reading | 203,789 | 39.6 | 15.5 | C− |
| Pangbourne | 3,279 | 20 | 11.3 | B− |
Sonning Common records more graded crime per resident than 2 of its 7 neighbours. Lower Shiplake, 4.1 miles away, records 5.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Sonning Common’s 16.1.
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
- 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 Sonning Common 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 Sonning Common
Is Sonning Common safe?
Police recorded 16.1 violent and sexual offences and 5.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Sonning Common’s built-up area). That earns an A− for safety: less crime per resident than 79% of UK towns. Among 518 UK towns of 4,000 to 7,000 people, Sonning Common is 63rd from the least crime. 55% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
Is crime going up in Sonning Common?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 12%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 12%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Sonning Common?
Violence & sexual offences: 90 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other crime (16) and public order (15), with 23 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Sonning Common compare with Reading?
Reading records 39.6 violent and sexual offences and 15.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Sonning Common’s 16.1 and 5.5, 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.