Photo: Hugh Venables · CC BY-SA 2.0Haverhill sees more violent crime per resident than four in five UK towns
For its size, it sits below 40% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident. From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside Haverhill’s built-up area put it at C− for safety: #28 of 34 in Suffolk. Recorded violence rose 6% in a year. The yearly rates were 37.2 violent and sexual offences and 12.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 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 Haverhill
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% more violent crime per resident in Haverhill 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 ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 229 UK towns of 19,000 to 36,000 people, Haverhill has the 124th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Totton, Windsor and March, higher than Retford, Daventry and Rugeley. 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 Haverhill’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 29% 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 Haverhill’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 3,961 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Haverhill against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Haverhill runs highest on possession of weapons (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.7), other crime (2.6 per 1,000 against 1.8) and other theft (5.8 per 1,000 against 4.4). Shoplifting and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 966 | 36.2 | 30.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 194 | 7.3 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 155 | 5.8 | 4.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 145 | 5.4 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 132 | 4.9 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 113 | 4.2 | 6.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 76 | 2.8 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 69 | 2.6 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 60 | 2.2 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 58 | 2.2 | 2.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 37 | 1.4 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 17 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 7 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 6 | 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.
1 in 9 Haverhill residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
18% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 29% 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.
Haverhill’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 Haverhill 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 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 11 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 Haverhill South East, Haverhill West and Haverhill Central; highest in Haverhill East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haverhill South East | 2,485 | 9 | 5.4 | |
| Haverhill West | 5,392 | 17.8 | 6.1 | |
| Haverhill Central | 3,106 | 35.6 | 14.5 | |
| Haverhill South | 6,455 | 41.2 | 10.6 | |
| Haverhill North | 4,651 | 44.1 | 17.6 | |
| Haverhill East | 4,294 | 61 | 18.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 252 | 36% violent |
| Petrol stations | 179 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 52 | 52% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Haverhill East records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Haverhill. 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 Haverhill. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Haverhill’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Haverhill 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 +6% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +4% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +23% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +11% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 65% of Haverhill’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 6% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 6% 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. 1,332 crimes.
Set against 229 towns its size, Haverhill is 124th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 54 | Felixstowe Suffolk | 24,218 | 28.1 | 7.9 | 10.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 83 | Stowmarket Suffolk | 21,537 | 31.7 | 8.1 | 10.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 121 | Retford Nottinghamshire | 23,735 | 32.9 | 16.2 | 17.1 | C− |
| 122 | Daventry Northamptonshire | 27,783 | 35.5 | 13.8 | 9.2 | C− |
| 123 | Rugeley Staffordshire | 26,149 | 37 | 12.3 | 12.1 | C− |
| 124 | Haverhill Suffolk | 26,704 | 37.2 | 12.3 | 8.9 | C− |
| 125 | Bideford Devon | 19,493 | 37.9 | 11.6 | 15.1 | C− |
| 126 | Sudbury Suffolk | 23,922 | 37.9 | 11.8 | 12.7 | C− |
| 127 | Sunbury-on-Thames Surrey | 21,476 | 31.9 | 18 | 11.1 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 229 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Haverhill, and others in Suffolk.
No one died in a collision on Haverhill’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 88 collisions with injuries inside Haverhill in five years. 26 people were killed or seriously injured: 11 on foot and 3 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 Haverhill’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Haverhill’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Haverhill had 19.5 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below 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 Haverhill’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Haverhill
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haverhill | 26,704 | 37.2 | 12.3 | C− |
| Kedington | 1,778 | 9.8 | 5.1 | A |
| Steeple Bumpstead | 1,376 | 15.3 | 6.3 | A− |
| Cock and End | 1,346 | 80.8 | 3.5 | D− |
| Balsham | 1,625 | 13.3 | 5.3 | A |
| Clare | 2,278 | 18 | 7.5 | B+ |
| Linton | 4,452 | 20 | 6.9 | B |
| Great Yeldham | 1,824 | 23.6 | 11 | B− |
Haverhill records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Cock and End records more. Kedington, 2.5 miles away, records 9.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Haverhill’s 37.2.
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
- 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 Haverhill 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 Haverhill
Is Haverhill safe?
Police recorded 37.2 violent and sexual offences and 12.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Haverhill’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 229 UK towns of 19,000 to 36,000 people, Haverhill is 124th from the least crime. 11% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Haverhill?
By council ward, Haverhill South East, Haverhill West and Haverhill Central record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9, 17.8 and 35.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 61 in Haverhill East.
Is crime going up in Haverhill?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 23% and anti-social behaviour rose 11%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Haverhill?
Violence & sexual offences: 966 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (194) and other theft (155), with 145 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.