Photo: Geof Sheppard · CC BY-SA 4.0Weston-super-Mare has more crime per resident than 95% of UK towns
With 116 cases in the 12 months to August 2026, bicycle theft reaches 1.4 per 1,000 residents in Weston-super-Mare, well above the typical 0.9. Counting crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #46 of 49 in Somerset. Violence and property crime split as 57.4 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 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 Weston-super-Mare
One ward carries much of the rate
Weston-super-Mare Central ward, where 39% of Weston-super-Mare’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 4,163 of Weston-super-Mare’s 14,552 violent and sexual offences in three years: 152.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Weston-super-Mare the figure is 45.9. Where in Weston-super-Mare ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 85 UK towns and cities of 59,000 to 114,000 people, Weston-super-Mare has the 67th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Burnley, West Bromwich and Scunthorpe, higher than Chesterfield, Margate and Chatham. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
31% of Weston-super-Mare’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 19% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Weston-super-Mare’s D
A firm grade. Built on 18,904 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Weston-super-Mare 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 Weston-super-Mare identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 2% of Weston-super-Mare’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” (57% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% 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. 6,323 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Weston-super-Mare North Worle, Weston-super-Mare Uphill and Wick St Lawrence & St Georges; highest in Weston-super-Mare Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weston-super-Mare North Worle | 8,459 | 24 | 5.9 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Uphill | 7,941 | 27.5 | 9.8 | |
| Wick St Lawrence & St Georges | 4,683 | 29.5 | 7.9 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Mid Worle | 3,904 | 28.9 | 9.6 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Kewstoke | 6,633 | 28.1 | 10.4 | |
| Weston-super-Mare South Worle | 6,575 | 36 | 12.3 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Milton | 9,630 | 40.7 | 13.8 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Winterstoke | 9,222 | 43.2 | 12.4 | |
| Hutton & Locking | 563 | 65.1 | 22.5 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Hillside | 8,375 | 66.1 | 22.6 | |
| Weston-super-Mare South | 9,523 | 103.6 | 28 | |
| Weston-super-Mare Central | 9,092 | 152.6 | 42.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,562 | 63% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 628 | 29% violent |
| Car parks | 625 | 42% violent |
| Shopping areas | 578 | 33% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 326 | 58% violent |
| Nightclubs | 202 | 56% violent |
| College and university buildings | 182 | 36% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 114 | 40% violent |
| Police stations | 68 | 46% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 35 | 37% homes & vehicles |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Weston-super-Mare Central records 3.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Weston-super-Mare. 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 Weston-super-Mare. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Weston-super-Mare’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
67th of 85: Weston-super-Mare among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bangor Ards and North Down | 64,596 | 18.9 | 6.4 | 5.4 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 39 | Bath Somerset | 94,080 | 41.6 | 16.9 | 28.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 61 | Taunton Somerset | 61,667 | 56.2 | 15.1 | 24.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 64 | Chesterfield Derbyshire | 76,394 | 56.2 | 17.1 | 21.8 | D |
| 65 | Margate Kent | 63,315 | 56.1 | 17.5 | 17.1 | D |
| 66 | Chatham Kent | 76,956 | 54 | 20.6 | 20.8 | D |
| 67 | Weston-super-Mare Somerset | 84,600 | 57.4 | 17.2 | 20.8 | D |
| 68 | Lincoln Lincolnshire | 104,553 | 56.1 | 18.9 | 33.3 | D |
| 69 | Scarborough North Yorkshire | 59,505 | 58.8 | 17.2 | 22.9 | D |
| 70 | Mansfield Nottinghamshire | 63,448 | 56.4 | 22.2 | 33.5 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 85 | 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 Weston-super-Mare, and others in Somerset.
Crime in Weston-super-Mare 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 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
31% of Weston-super-Mare residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
19% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 31% 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.
Weston-super-Mare’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.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Weston-super-Mare runs highest on bicycle theft (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.9), public order (11.3 per 1,000 against 7.4) and violence & sexual offences (54.2 per 1,000 against 38.6). Vehicle crime and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 4,585 | 54.2 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,477 | 17.5 | 17.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 955 | 11.3 | 7.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 852 | 10.1 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 811 | 9.6 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 630 | 7.4 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 348 | 4.1 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 307 | 3.6 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 231 | 2.7 | 2.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 205 | 2.4 | 3.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 154 | 1.8 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 116 | 1.4 | 0.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 104 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 21 | 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.
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 +0% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +3% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -12% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +0% (towns its size -2%).
Four people died in collisions on Weston-super-Mare’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 419 collisions with injuries inside Weston-super-Mare in five years, in which four people died. 120 people were killed or seriously injured: 32 on foot and 26 on a bicycle.
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 Weston-super-Mare’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Weston-super-Mare’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Weston-super-Mare had 28.5 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 27% 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 Weston-super-Mare’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Weston-super-Mare
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weston-super-Mare | 84,600 | 57.4 | 17.2 | D |
| Kewstoke | 1,609 | 95.5 | 10.8 | D− |
| Hutton | 1,686 | 12.1 | 8.9 | A− |
| Locking | 3,819 | 44.6 | 11.8 | C− |
| West Wick | 2,425 | 31.8 | 6.2 | C+ |
| Banwell | 2,178 | 27.2 | 10.6 | C+ |
| Winscombe and Sandford | 4,605 | 18.8 | 7.7 | B+ |
| Berrow and Brean | 2,252 | 44.3 | 11.7 | C− |
Weston-super-Mare records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Kewstoke records more. Hutton, 1.8 miles away, records 12.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Weston-super-Mare’s 57.4.
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 326 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Weston-super-Mare’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 Weston-super-Mare 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 Weston-super-Mare
Is Weston-super-Mare safe?
Police recorded 57.4 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Weston-super-Mare’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among 85 UK towns of 59,000 to 114,000 people, Weston-super-Mare is 67th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Weston-super-Mare?
By council ward, Weston-super-Mare North Worle, Weston-super-Mare Uphill and Wick St Lawrence & St Georges record the least violent and household crime per resident: 24, 27.5 and 29.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 152.6 in Weston-super-Mare Central.
Is crime going up in Weston-super-Mare?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 12% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Weston-super-Mare town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 202 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 56% of them violent, and Weston-super-Mare Central ward records 152.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in May and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Weston-super-Mare?
Violence & sexual offences: 4,585 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (955) and shoplifting (852), with 1,477 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.