Photo: Stavros1 · CC BY 3.0Lowestoft sees more crime per resident than 86% of UK towns
Behind the grade sit 40.6 violent and sexual offences and 17.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year. Violence recorded locally climbed 9% in a year. Add to that, its Safety Grade is D, on crimes police recorded inside Lowestoft’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Lowestoft
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 9% more violent crime per resident in Lowestoft than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage rose 27% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 108 UK towns and cities of 50,000 to 96,000 people, Lowestoft has the 54th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Bath, Burton upon Trent and Sittingbourne, higher than Stafford, Durham and Loughborough. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
32% of Lowestoft’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 29% 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’s behind Lowestoft’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 12,311 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Lowestoft 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, Lowestoft runs highest on criminal damage & arson (10.7 per 1,000 against 7.5), bicycle theft (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.9) and possession of weapons (1.3 per 1,000 against 1.1). Anti-social behaviour and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,753 | 38.6 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 784 | 11 | 17.5 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 761 | 10.7 | 7.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 515 | 7.2 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 354 | 5 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 348 | 4.9 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 318 | 4.5 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 217 | 3 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 154 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 142 | 2 | 3.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 93 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 88 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 44 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 38 | 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.
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.
32% of Lowestoft residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
29% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 32% 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.
Lowestoft’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 Lowestoft 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 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 14 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 Lowestoft has moved
“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 +9% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +27% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -1% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +28% (towns its size -2%).
Lowest recorded crime in Carlton Colville, Oulton Broad and Carlton & Whitton; highest in Harbour & Normanston
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlton Colville | 8,607 | 16.8 | 6.5 | |
| Oulton Broad | 12,745 | 22 | 11 | |
| Carlton & Whitton | 10,689 | 28.4 | 12.1 | |
| Gunton & St Margarets | 9,714 | 36.2 | 13.4 | |
| Kirkley & Pakefield | 13,313 | 41 | 17.4 | |
| Harbour & Normanston | 15,901 | 78.1 | 32 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 925 | 41% violent |
| Shopping areas | 880 | 78% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 751 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 238 | 66% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 228 | 36% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 58 | 48% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Harbour & Normanston records 2.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Lowestoft. 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 Lowestoft. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Lowestoft’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 69% of Lowestoft’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” (59% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 7% 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. 4,463 crimes.
Among 108 towns its size, Lowestoft ranks 54th for 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− |
| … | ||||||
| 51 | Stafford Staffordshire | 71,695 | 43.8 | 12.8 | 16 | C− |
| 52 | Durham County Durham | 50,502 | 40.6 | 16.7 | 29.4 | D |
| 53 | Loughborough Leicestershire | 64,850 | 35.6 | 22 | 26.2 | D |
| 54 | Lowestoft Suffolk | 71,308 | 40.6 | 17 | 14.3 | D |
| 55 | Chester Cheshire | 92,756 | 46.9 | 10.8 | 18.9 | D |
| 56 | High Wycombe Buckinghamshire | 83,541 | 40.6 | 17.2 | 22.5 | D |
| 57 | Widnes Cheshire | 59,938 | 45.3 | 13 | 12 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 108 | 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 Lowestoft, and others in Suffolk.
One person died in collisions on Lowestoft’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 467 collisions with injuries inside Lowestoft in five years, in which one person died (1 was a cyclist). 118 people were killed or seriously injured: 21 on foot and 25 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 Lowestoft’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Lowestoft’s own rate (0.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Lowestoft had 33.1 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). 18% 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 Lowestoft’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Lowestoft
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowestoft | 71,308 | 40.6 | 17 | D |
| Corton | 1,134 | 14.7 | 11.8 | B+ |
| Kessingland | 4,242 | 20.5 | 9.4 | B |
| Hopton on Sea | 2,575 | 29.9 | 11.4 | C |
| Worlingham | 3,618 | 10.3 | 4.4 | A |
| Beccles | 9,807 | 29.1 | 13.8 | C |
| Gorleston-on-Sea | 24,474 | 39.2 | 14.2 | C− |
| Belton | 3,603 | 17.8 | 7.1 | B+ |
Lowestoft records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Corton, 3.3 miles away, records 14.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Lowestoft’s 40.6.
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 Lowestoft 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 Lowestoft
Is Lowestoft safe?
Police recorded 40.6 violent and sexual offences and 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Lowestoft’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 14% of UK towns. Among 108 UK towns of 50,000 to 96,000 people, Lowestoft is 54th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Lowestoft?
By council ward, Carlton Colville, Oulton Broad and Carlton & Whitton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.8, 22 and 28.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 78.1 in Harbour & Normanston.
Is crime going up in Lowestoft?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 9%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 27%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 28%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Lowestoft?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,753 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (761) and shoplifting (515), with 784 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.