Photo: DS Pugh · CC BY-SA 2.0Taunton records more crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns
Of all the kinds of crime, bicycle theft is where Taunton departs most from towns its size: 1.7 per 1,000 against 0.9. The Safety Grade comes out at D, drawn from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #44 of 49 in Somerset. Each year brought 56.2 violent and sexual offences and 15.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Taunton
More crime than many places its size
Of 116 UK towns and cities of 43,000 to 83,000 people, Taunton has the 90th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Willenhall, Chesterfield and Margate, higher than Cwmbrân, Tipton and Smethwick. 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. 15% of Taunton’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 30% 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.
Inside Taunton’s D for safety
A firm grade. Built on 13,152 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Taunton 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 Taunton identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 1% of Taunton’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” (56% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 9% 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. 4,441 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Taunton runs highest on bicycle theft (1.7 per 1,000 against 0.9), shoplifting (17.8 per 1,000 against 10.3) and robbery (2.2 per 1,000 against 1.4). Vehicle crime and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,319 | 53.8 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,220 | 19.8 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,097 | 17.8 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 725 | 11.8 | 7.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 534 | 8.7 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 426 | 6.9 | 6.6 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 237 | 3.8 | 3.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 196 | 3.2 | 4.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 140 | 2.3 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 137 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 103 | 1.7 | 0.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 67 | 1.1 | 3.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 45 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 14 | 0.2 | 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.
Of 116 towns its size, Taunton is 90th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 73 | Yeovil Somerset | 50,170 | 49.2 | 12.8 | 24.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 87 | Cwmbrân Gwent | 47,075 | 50.5 | 19.9 | 21.4 | D |
| 88 | Tipton West Midlands | 47,202 | 49.1 | 21.6 | 12 | D |
| 89 | Smethwick West Midlands | 56,343 | 51.1 | 20.1 | 10.7 | D |
| 90 | Taunton Somerset | 61,667 | 56.2 | 15.1 | 24.5 | D |
| 91 | South Shields Tyne and Wear | 73,326 | 49.1 | 22.9 | 26.4 | D |
| 92 | Carlisle Cumbria | 77,729 | 55.4 | 16.6 | 19.3 | D |
| 93 | Oldbury West Midlands | 45,188 | 49.6 | 22.7 | 17.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 116 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Taunton, and others in Somerset.
Crime in Taunton 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 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 27 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
1 in 7 Taunton residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
28% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 30% 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.
Taunton’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.
Lowest recorded crime in Comeytrowe & Trull, Taunton South and Rowbarton & Staplegrove; highest in Taunton East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comeytrowe & Trull | 7,974 | 16.6 | 5.1 | |
| Taunton South | 11,282 | 32.9 | 8.7 | |
| Rowbarton & Staplegrove | 9,316 | 48.8 | 11.8 | |
| Taunton North | 10,502 | 52.3 | 13.6 | |
| Bishop's Hull & Taunton West | 10,583 | 58.5 | 16.6 | |
| Taunton East | 12,010 | 110.8 | 29.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 1,291 | 34% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 1,239 | 56% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 865 | 34% violent |
| Petrol stations | 547 | 47% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 500 | 51% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 223 | 43% violent |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 138 | 33% violent |
| Nightclubs | 123 | 74% violent |
| College and university buildings | 70 | 53% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 67 | 37% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Taunton East records 2.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Taunton. 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 Taunton. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Taunton’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 +1% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +25% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +16% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +0% (towns its size -2%).
Four people died in collisions on Taunton’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 311 collisions with injuries inside Taunton in five years, in which four people died (3 were pedestrians). 79 people were killed or seriously injured: 23 on foot and 20 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
That is about what 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 Taunton’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Taunton’s own rate (1.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Taunton had 25.7 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). 29% 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 Taunton’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Taunton
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taunton | 61,667 | 56.2 | 15.1 | D |
| Trull | 1,427 | 10 | 5.4 | A |
| Norton Fitzwarren | 3,770 | 32.9 | 9.9 | C |
| Monkton Heathfield | 4,584 | 38.2 | 9.4 | C− |
| Ruishton | 1,476 | 27.4 | 21.2 | C− |
| Creech St Michael | 2,327 | 26.8 | 4 | B− |
| Cotford St Luke | 2,411 | 27.7 | 9.3 | C+ |
| Bishops Lydeard | 2,050 | 24.6 | 8.8 | B− |
Taunton records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Trull, 1.8 miles away, records 10 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Taunton’s 56.2.
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 500 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Taunton’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 Taunton 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 Taunton
Is Taunton safe?
Police recorded 56.2 violent and sexual offences and 15.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Taunton’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 7% of UK towns. Among 116 UK towns of 43,000 to 83,000 people, Taunton is 90th from the least crime. 15% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Taunton?
By council ward, Comeytrowe & Trull, Taunton South and Rowbarton & Staplegrove record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.6, 32.9 and 48.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 110.8 in Taunton East.
Is crime going up in Taunton?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 25%, shoplifting and theft rose 16% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Taunton town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 123 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 74% of them violent, and Taunton East ward records 110.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in March and was lowest in June.
What is the most common crime in Taunton?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,319 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,097) and public order (725), with 1,220 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.