Photo: Dillydillyston at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Nailsea has less crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people
The yearly rates were 18.8 violent and sexual offences and 8.4 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Violent crime was up 5% 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 Nailsea
Less crime than most places its size
Of 341 UK towns of 11,000 to 21,000 people, Nailsea has the 31st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Ballymoney, Euxton and North Hykeham, higher than Tadley, Crowthorne and Knowle and Dorridge. 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. 45% of Nailsea’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 5% more violent crime per resident in Nailsea 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 6% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Nailsea’s B
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,301 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Nailsea against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A third of Nailsea residents live in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
82% 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.
Nailsea’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.
Police in Nailsea identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 1% of Nailsea’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 1% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (54% 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. 408 crimes.
Towns its size: Nailsea comes 31st of 341
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 28 | Tadley Hampshire | 14,767 | 19.6 | 7.4 | 6.6 | B |
| 29 | Crowthorne Berkshire | 15,196 | 20.3 | 6.7 | 10.8 | B |
| 30 | Knowle and Dorridge West Midlands | 19,323 | 15.1 | 12 | 7.1 | B |
| 31 | Nailsea Somerset | 15,919 | 18.8 | 8.4 | 8.9 | B |
| 32 | Flitwick Bedfordshire | 13,668 | 16.2 | 11.2 | 9.4 | B |
| 33 | Chalfont St Peter Buckinghamshire | 13,654 | 15.6 | 11.9 | 5.8 | B |
| 34 | Tring Hertfordshire | 11,961 | 17.4 | 10.2 | 9.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 108 | Street Somerset | 12,707 | 28.3 | 7.3 | 12.4 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 174 | Midsomer Norton Somerset | 13,749 | 33.1 | 10.1 | 9.2 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 217 | Wells Somerset | 12,097 | 37.3 | 11.5 | 17.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 222 | Wellington Somerset | 13,815 | 40.8 | 8.8 | 7.9 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 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 Nailsea, and others in Somerset.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Other crime and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 309 | 19.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 188 | 11.8 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 90 | 5.7 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 71 | 4.5 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 65 | 4.1 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 64 | 4 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 41 | 2.6 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 20 | 1.3 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 18 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 14 | 0.9 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 10 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 8 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.3 |
“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.
How crime in Nailsea 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 +6% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +18% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +92% (towns its size -4%).
Crime in Nailsea 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 8 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 10 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Long Ashton, Nailsea Youngwood and Nailsea Golden Valley; highest in Nailsea Yeo
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Ashton | 613 | 10.9 | 7.6 | |
| Nailsea Youngwood | 4,056 | 13.6 | 5.2 | |
| Nailsea Golden Valley | 4,262 | 14.4 | 7 | |
| Nailsea West End | 3,020 | 24.2 | 7.6 | |
| Nailsea Yeo | 3,968 | 26.1 | 14 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 314 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 105 | 28% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 88 | 89% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 36 | 31% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 36 | 58% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Nailsea Yeo records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Nailsea. 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 Nailsea. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Nailsea’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Nailsea’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 27 collisions with injuries inside Nailsea in five years. 9 people were killed or seriously injured: 2 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 Nailsea’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Nailsea’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Nailsea’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 19 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Nailsea had 9.
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 Nailsea’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Nailsea
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nailsea | 15,919 | 18.8 | 8.4 | B |
| Backwell | 4,347 | 13.5 | 7.1 | A− |
| Portishead | 26,351 | 27.9 | 8.3 | C+ |
| Yatton | 7,704 | 26.6 | 8.9 | C+ |
| Clevedon | 21,084 | 24.2 | 8.5 | B− |
| Long Ashton | 5,184 | 21.5 | 13.1 | B− |
| Pill | 4,956 | 34.2 | 14.1 | C− |
| Congresbury | 2,795 | 33.4 | 10.7 | C |
Nailsea records more graded crime per resident than 1 of its 7 neighbours. Backwell, 1.4 miles away, records 13.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Nailsea’s 18.8.
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 Nailsea 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 Nailsea
Is Nailsea safe?
Police recorded 18.8 violent and sexual offences and 8.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Nailsea’s built-up area). That earns a B for safety: less crime per resident than 63% of UK towns. Among 341 UK towns of 11,000 to 21,000 people, Nailsea is 31st from the least crime. 45% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Nailsea?
By council ward, Long Ashton, Nailsea Youngwood and Nailsea Golden Valley record the least violent and household crime per resident: 10.9, 13.6 and 14.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 26.1 in Nailsea Yeo.
Is crime going up in Nailsea?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 5%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 6%, shoplifting and theft rose 18% and anti-social behaviour rose 92%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Nailsea?
Violence & sexual offences: 309 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (90) and criminal damage & arson (71), with 188 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Nailsea compare with Bristol?
Bristol records 55.3 violent and sexual offences and 25.9 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Nailsea’s 18.8 and 8.4, 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.