Photo: Robert Lamb · CC BY-SA 2.0Bath has more crime per resident than 87% of UK towns
The grade is D, built on crimes police recorded inside Bath’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #41 of 49 in Somerset. The local count comes to 41.6 violent and sexual offences and 16.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year. Of all the kinds of crime, shoplifting is where Bath departs most from towns its size: 18.3 per 1,000 against 10.3. Violence recorded locally climbed 7% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bath
One ward carries much of the rate
Kingsmead ward recorded 2,493 of Bath’s 11,675 violent and sexual offences in three years: 126.8 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Bath the figure is 34.8. Where in Bath ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in Bath 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 rose 16% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 75 UK towns and cities of 66,000 to 127,000 people, Bath has the 33rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Derry City, Chelmsford and Nuneaton, higher than Crawley, Chester and High Wycombe. 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. 24% of Bath’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 14% 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 Bath’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 16,435 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bath 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 Bath identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 1% of Bath’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 2% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (50% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% 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. 5,340 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Oldfield Park, Walcot and Lambridge; highest in Kingsmead
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldfield Park | 3,866 | 15 | 10.8 | |
| Walcot | 5,507 | 16.7 | 11 | |
| Lambridge | 5,598 | 17.3 | 10.6 | |
| Westmoreland | 7,525 | 18 | 10.8 | |
| Southdown | 7,080 | 22.6 | 11.7 | |
| Widcombe & Lyncombe | 7,086 | 21.5 | 12.9 | |
| Weston | 5,801 | 29 | 9.8 | |
| Combe Down | 6,611 | 38.2 | 11.4 | |
| Newbridge | 6,273 | 38.2 | 12.4 | |
| Odd Down | 7,306 | 40 | 14.7 | |
| Moorlands | 3,329 | 40.7 | 17.5 | |
| Lansdown | 6,305 | 38.4 | 23.6 | |
| Bathwick | 8,069 | 59.7 | 15.6 | |
| Twerton | 6,890 | 77.5 | 22.8 | |
| Kingsmead | 6,553 | 126.8 | 52.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 2,942 | 77% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 1,384 | 29% violent |
| Nightclubs | 817 | 57% violent |
| Shopping areas | 723 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 715 | 47% violent |
| Petrol stations | 441 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 240 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 193 | 39% violent |
| College and university buildings | 118 | 36% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Kingsmead records 3.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bath. 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 Bath. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bath’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, Bath runs highest on shoplifting (18.3 per 1,000 against 10.3), burglary (5.4 per 1,000 against 3.4) and robbery (2.1 per 1,000 against 1.4). Other crime and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,810 | 40.5 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,927 | 20.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,725 | 18.3 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 986 | 10.5 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 773 | 8.2 | 6.6 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 713 | 7.6 | 7.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 506 | 5.4 | 3.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 470 | 5 | 4.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 196 | 2.1 | 1.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 144 | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 139 | 1.5 | 3.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 98 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 94 | 1 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 65 | 0.7 | 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.
1 in 4 Bath residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
46% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 14% 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.
Bath’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 Bath 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 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 28 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How crime in Bath 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 +7% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +16% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +28% (towns its size -2%).
Among 75 towns its size, Bath ranks 33rd for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Newtownabbey Antrim and Newtownabbey | 67,599 | 21.3 | 9 | 8.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 30 | Crawley West Sussex | 120,567 | 42.7 | 15 | 22.5 | D |
| 31 | Chester Cheshire | 92,756 | 46.9 | 10.8 | 18.9 | D |
| 32 | High Wycombe Buckinghamshire | 83,541 | 40.6 | 17.2 | 22.5 | D |
| 33 | Bath Somerset | 94,080 | 41.6 | 16.9 | 28.3 | D |
| 34 | Burton upon Trent Staffordshire | 76,264 | 45.2 | 13.4 | 14.6 | D |
| 35 | Gillingham Kent | 108,485 | 42.7 | 16.7 | 14.9 | D |
| 36 | Guildford Surrey | 77,870 | 44.3 | 15.2 | 23.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 59 | Weston-super-Mare Somerset | 84,600 | 57.4 | 17.2 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 Bath, and others in Somerset.
No one died in a collision on Bath’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 357 collisions with injuries inside Bath in five years. 118 people were killed or seriously injured: 45 on foot and 30 on a bicycle.
That is fewer than 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 Bath’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bath’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bath had 25.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 38% 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 Bath’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bath
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | 94,080 | 41.6 | 16.9 | D |
| Bathampton | 1,698 | 9.8 | 5.7 | A |
| Newton St Loe | 1,372 | 2.2 | 0.2 | A+ |
| Batheaston | 3,878 | 13.2 | 6.5 | A− |
| Bathford | 1,153 | 12.4 | 7.2 | A− |
| Saltford | 4,133 | 15 | 4.3 | A− |
| Winsley | 1,365 | 6.8 | 4.6 | A+ |
| Peasedown St John | 6,668 | 23.8 | 6 | B |
Bath records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Bathampton, 2.3 miles away, records 9.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bath’s 41.6.
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 715 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Bath’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 Bath 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 Bath
Is Bath safe?
Police recorded 41.6 violent and sexual offences and 16.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bath’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 13% of UK towns. Among 75 UK towns of 66,000 to 127,000 people, Bath is 33rd from the least crime. 24% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Bath?
By council ward, Oldfield Park, Walcot and Lambridge record the least violent and household crime per resident: 15, 16.7 and 17.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 126.8 in Kingsmead.
Is crime going up in Bath?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 16%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 28%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Bath town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 817 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 57% of them violent, and Kingsmead ward records 126.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in November and was lowest in January.
What is the most common crime in Bath?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,810 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,725) and public order (986), with 1,927 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.