Photo: Gareth James · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Ipswich runs higher than in 85% of UK towns
Counting crimes police recorded inside Ipswich’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades C− for safety: #32 of 34 in Suffolk.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Ipswich
One ward carries much of the rate
Alexandra ward recorded 3,534 of Ipswich’s 18,632 violent and sexual offences in three years: 110.1 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Ipswich the figure is 35.6. Where in Ipswich ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 44 UK towns and cities of 106,000 to 205,000 people, Ipswich has the 16th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Telford, Swansea and Gillingham, higher than York, Basingstoke and Reading. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Ipswich grades C− for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 25,412 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Ipswich against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
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.
Against the typical town its size, Ipswich runs highest on shoplifting (16.1 per 1,000 against 10.3) and possession of weapons (1.3 per 1,000 against 1.1). Drugs and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 5,875 | 38.8 | 38.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2,442 | 16.1 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,112 | 7.3 | 7.5 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 969 | 6.4 | 17.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 954 | 6.3 | 6.6 |
| Public order | not graded | 892 | 5.9 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 683 | 4.5 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 376 | 2.5 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 341 | 2.2 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 320 | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 196 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 150 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 129 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 82 | 0.5 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Rushmere St Andrew, Martlesham & Purdis Farm and Castle Hill; highest in Alexandra
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Ipswich’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rushmere St Andrew | 4,411 | 6.3 | 2.9 | |
| Martlesham & Purdis Farm | 2,108 | 10 | 4 | |
| Castle Hill | 7,436 | 19.5 | 10.4 | |
| Rushmere | 8,481 | 22.3 | 7.6 | |
| Sproughton & Pinewood | 4,769 | 22.9 | 9.9 | |
| St Margaret's | 8,384 | 21.6 | 11.2 | |
| Bixley | 7,446 | 25.1 | 8.7 | |
| Holywells | 8,122 | 25 | 16.6 | |
| St John's | 9,699 | 32.7 | 9.8 | |
| Whitton | 8,287 | 36.6 | 10.3 | |
| Sprites | 6,773 | 36.7 | 11.4 | |
| Whitehouse | 9,103 | 36.7 | 12.3 | |
| Priory Heath | 9,651 | 37.2 | 18.1 | |
| Stoke Park | 7,279 | 44.6 | 11.2 | |
| Gainsborough | 8,849 | 41.2 | 18.5 | |
| Bridge | 9,841 | 45.5 | 16.8 | |
| Gipping | 9,402 | 62.9 | 19.7 | |
| Westgate | 10,193 | 62.5 | 23.5 | |
| Alexandra | 10,696 | 110.1 | 32.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 3,878 | 70% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 1,092 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 876 | 39% violent |
| Nightclubs | 440 | 39% violent |
| Hospitals | 433 | 61% violent |
| Petrol stations | 388 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 353 | 66% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 322 | 48% violent |
| College and university buildings | 190 | 44% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 42 | 69% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Alexandra records 3.1× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Ipswich. 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 Ipswich. We show only these, never streets or homes.
For every 1,000 residents, about 41 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 24 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
Police in Ipswich identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
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. 8,703 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 61% of Ipswich’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 11% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (62% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 8% of household crimes reached court.
Ipswich is 16th of 44 UK towns of 106,000 to 205,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Ipswich, and others in Suffolk.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 13 | York North Yorkshire | 141,696 | 38 | 15.5 | 25.3 | C− |
| 14 | Basingstoke Hampshire | 117,211 | 41.3 | 13.1 | 13.5 | C− |
| 15 | Reading Berkshire | 203,789 | 39.6 | 15.5 | 28 | C− |
| 16 | Ipswich Suffolk | 151,566 | 41 | 14.9 | 20.1 | C− |
| 17 | Norwich Norfolk | 200,744 | 42.7 | 14.8 | 23 | D |
| 18 | Bournemouth Dorset | 196,453 | 37.1 | 20.4 | 19.8 | D |
| 19 | Crawley West Sussex | 120,567 | 42.7 | 15 | 22.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 44 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Violent crime held steady over the year
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +3% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -9% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +28% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -10% (towns its size -2%).
“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).
How Ipswich’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Ipswich’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.
22% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 23% 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.
Four people died in collisions on Ipswich’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Ipswich’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 1,149 collisions with injuries inside Ipswich in five years, in which four people died (1 was a cyclist). 243 people were killed or seriously injured: 71 on foot and 51 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 Ipswich’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Ipswich’s own rate (0.5) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Ipswich had 32.1 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). 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.
Crime in the places around Ipswich
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ipswich | 151,566 | 41 | 14.9 | C− |
| Bramford | 2,335 | 22.4 | 6.3 | B |
| Kesgrave | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | A |
| Claydon | 3,140 | 17.1 | 5.6 | A− |
| Great Blakenham | 2,188 | 16.8 | 12 | B |
| Martlesham Heath | 2,730 | 61.5 | 13.9 | D |
| Holbrook | 2,146 | 14.9 | 3.7 | A |
| Martlesham | 1,976 | 26.8 | 10.5 | C+ |
Ipswich records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Martlesham Heath records more. Bramford, 3 miles away, records 22.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Ipswich’s 41.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 433 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Ipswich’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 Ipswich 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 Ipswich
Is Ipswich safe?
Police recorded 41 violent and sexual offences and 14.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Ipswich’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 15% of UK towns. Among 44 UK towns of 106,000 to 205,000 people, Ipswich is 16th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Ipswich?
By council ward, Rushmere St Andrew, Martlesham & Purdis Farm and Castle Hill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 6.3, 10 and 19.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 110.1 in Alexandra.
Is crime going up in Ipswich?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 9%, shoplifting and theft rose 28% and anti-social behaviour fell 10%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Ipswich city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 440 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 39% of them violent, and Alexandra ward records 110.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Ipswich?
Violence & sexual offences: 5,875 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (2,442) and criminal damage & arson (1,112), with 969 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.