Photo: Colin Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0Wells stands out for robbery: 4 times the rate of a typical town its size
Wells grades C− for safety overall (#29 of 49 in Somerset): more crime per resident than 77% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. It has more violent crime than 81% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 64%. Still, violent crime was down 8% in a year. Violence and property crime split as 37.3 violent and sexual offences and 11.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Wells
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% less violent crime per resident in Wells 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 ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Wells has the 288th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Kirkham, Bordon and Rothwell, higher than South Merstham, Holbeach and Chepstow. 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 Wells’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 16% 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 Wells’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,770 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Wells 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 Wells identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 1% of Wells’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” (48% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% of violent and 4% 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. 583 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Wells runs highest on robbery (2.1 per 1,000 against 0.5), shoplifting (11.4 per 1,000 against 6.1) and public order (8.5 per 1,000 against 5.4). Drugs and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 409 | 33.8 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 148 | 12.2 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 138 | 11.4 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 103 | 8.5 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 68 | 5.6 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 46 | 3.8 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 42 | 3.5 | 2.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 26 | 2.1 | 0.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 21 | 1.7 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 17 | 1.4 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 15 | 1.2 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 9 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 5 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.2 | 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.
288th of 428: Wells among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 49 | Nailsea Somerset | 15,919 | 18.8 | 8.4 | 8.9 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 153 | Street Somerset | 12,707 | 28.3 | 7.3 | 12.4 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 237 | Midsomer Norton Somerset | 13,749 | 33.1 | 10.1 | 9.2 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 285 | South Merstham Surrey | 9,953 | 32.4 | 16.1 | 13.5 | C− |
| 286 | Holbeach Lincolnshire | 8,757 | 37.8 | 10.7 | 10.8 | C− |
| 287 | Chepstow Gwent | 11,939 | 34.2 | 14.4 | 20 | C− |
| 288 | Wells Somerset | 12,097 | 37.3 | 11.5 | 17.6 | C− |
| 289 | Caldicot Gwent | 9,813 | 34.8 | 14.1 | 9.8 | C− |
| 290 | Ulverston Cumbria | 11,219 | 37.3 | 11.5 | 8.6 | C− |
| 291 | Cheadle Staffordshire | 11,403 | 38.2 | 10.6 | 7.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 296 | Wellington Somerset | 13,815 | 40.8 | 8.8 | 7.9 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 428 | 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 Wells, and others in Somerset.
Crime in Wells 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 11 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 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 Wells 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 -8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +2% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -8% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +6% (towns its size -4%).
1 in 9 Wells residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
40% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 16% 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.
Wells’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.
Where in Wells police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 222 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 133 | 32% violent |
| Nightclubs | 96 | 59% violent |
| Petrol stations | 76 | 70% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 75 | 36% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 44 | 59% violent |
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 Wells. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Wells’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 44 collisions with injuries inside Wells in five years. 13 people were killed or seriously injured: 6 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 Wells’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wells’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Wells had 20.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
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 Wells’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Wells
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wells | 12,097 | 37.3 | 11.5 | C− |
| Pilton | 1,104 | 30.5 | 7.9 | C+ |
| Shepton Mallet | 9,645 | 43.6 | 10.4 | C− |
| Glastonbury | 8,304 | 57.1 | 17.1 | D |
| Draycott | 1,069 | 21.5 | 11.9 | B− |
| Wedmore | 1,424 | 11 | 7 | A |
| Street | 12,707 | 28.3 | 7.3 | C+ |
| Chilcompton | 1,857 | 17.6 | 4.7 | A− |
Wells records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Shepton Mallet and Glastonbury record more. Pilton, 4.1 miles away, records 30.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Wells’s 37.3.
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 Wells 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 Wells
Is Wells safe?
Police recorded 37.3 violent and sexual offences and 11.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Wells’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 23% of UK towns. Among 428 UK towns of 8,000 to 16,000 people, Wells is 288th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
Is crime going up in Wells?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 8% and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Wells town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 96 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 59% of them violent. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in December and was lowest in May.
What is the most common crime in Wells?
Violence & sexual offences: 409 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (138) and public order (103), with 148 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.