Photo: Colin Park · CC BY-SA 2.0Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Oakham records less crime per resident than 79%
Violence recorded locally dropped 14% in a year. Shoplifting: police recorded 118 in Oakham in the 12 months to August 2026, 9.7 per 1,000 residents against 6.1 in a typical town its size. Its Safety Grade, B−, rests on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: close to the middle of UK towns. The local count comes to 22.8 violent and sexual offences and 9.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Oakham
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 14% less violent crime per resident in Oakham 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 341 UK towns of 9,000 to 16,000 people, Oakham has the 88th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Birstall, Gorseinon and Cambourne, higher than Newport, Barnoldswick and Esher. 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. 11% of Oakham’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Oakham’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 1,185 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Oakham against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
1 in 9 Oakham residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
55% 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.
Oakham’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.
How crime in Oakham 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 -14% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +1% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +16% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -23% (towns its size -4%).
Oakham is 88th of 341 UK towns of 9,000 to 16,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 85 | Newport Shropshire | 14,191 | 24.7 | 7.3 | 9.1 | B− |
| 86 | Barnoldswick Lancashire | 10,915 | 22.6 | 9.4 | 6.1 | B− |
| 87 | Esher Surrey | 9,484 | 20 | 12.3 | 9.9 | B− |
| 88 | Oakham Rutland | 12,159 | 22.8 | 9.7 | 11.4 | B− |
| 89 | Frodsham Cheshire | 9,101 | 24 | 8.6 | 7.7 | B− |
| 90 | Wombourne Staffordshire | 12,810 | 22.4 | 10.2 | 7.7 | B− |
| 91 | Catterick Garrison North Yorkshire | 14,212 | 26.9 | 6.1 | 7.9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 341 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | 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 Oakham, and others in Rutland.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Oakham runs highest on shoplifting (9.7 per 1,000 against 6.1). Burglary and violence & sexual offences sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 233 | 19.2 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 118 | 9.7 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 109 | 9 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 66 | 5.4 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 62 | 5.1 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 50 | 4.1 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 25 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 25 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 19 | 1.6 | 2.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 6 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Other crime | not graded | 5 | 0.4 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 5 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1 | 0.1 | 0.5 |
“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.
Lowest recorded crime in Oakham South, Oakham North West and Oakham North East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakham South | 4,219 | 17.7 | 9.4 | |
| Oakham North West | 3,085 | 23.1 | 8.8 | |
| Oakham North East | 3,265 | 24 | 10.8 | |
| Barleythorpe | 1,590 | 32.5 | 8.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 160 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 139 | 35% violent |
| Petrol stations | 118 | 38% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 110 | 56% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 37 | 65% violent |
| Hospitals | 27 | 37% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Barleythorpe records 1.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Oakham. 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 Oakham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Oakham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of Oakham’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (55% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 2% 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. 449 crimes.
Crime in Oakham 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 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 15 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
No one died in a collision on Oakham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 15 collisions with injuries inside Oakham in five years. 3 people were killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 2 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 Oakham’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Oakham’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Oakham’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 14 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Oakham had 3.
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 Oakham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Oakham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakham | 12,159 | 22.8 | 9.7 | B− |
| Barleythorpe | 1,344 | 14.9 | 3.5 | A |
| Langham | 1,400 | 7.4 | 6.9 | A+ |
| Greetham | 2,807 | 8.3 | 3.3 | A+ |
| Uppingham | 4,272 | 22.9 | 12.6 | C+ |
| South Witham | 1,590 | 19.7 | 6.5 | B+ |
| Ketton | 1,618 | 11.7 | 11.1 | A− |
| Clipsham | 1,150 | 0 | 0 | A+ |
Oakham records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Uppingham records more. Barleythorpe, 0.9 miles away, records 14.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Oakham’s 22.8.
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
- 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 Oakham 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 Oakham
Is Oakham safe?
Police recorded 22.8 violent and sexual offences and 9.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Oakham’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 50% of UK towns. Among 341 UK towns of 9,000 to 16,000 people, Oakham is 88th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Oakham?
By council ward, Oakham South, Oakham North West and Oakham North East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 17.7, 23.1 and 24 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 32.5 in Barleythorpe.
Is crime going up in Oakham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 14%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 16% and anti-social behaviour fell 23%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Oakham?
Violence & sexual offences: 233 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (118) and criminal damage & arson (66), with 109 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Oakham compare with Corby?
Corby records 41.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Oakham’s 22.8 and 9.7, 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.