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Martlesham HeathPhoto: Bluewave at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
DSafety Grade
Safety in Martlesham Heath · police.uk, 2023–2026

Martlesham Heath has more crime per resident than 95% of UK towns

It has more violent crime than 97% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 77%. The grade is D, built on crimes police recorded inside Martlesham Heath’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Violent crime was down 12% in a year. Year on year, 61.5 violent and sexual offences and 13.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents.

Violent crime
61.5
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
13.9
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
36.4
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
8.7
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Martlesham Heath

Violent crime fell over the year

In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 12% less violent crime per resident in Martlesham Heath than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓

Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally

The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 40% of Martlesham Heath’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% 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.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Martlesham Heath’s grade

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 4% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people: more crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (61.5 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 3% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (13.9 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 23% of UK towns
D−D

A fairly firm grade. Built on 618 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Martlesham Heath against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences52.7
Other crime39.9
Shoplifting26.4
Other theft16.1
Public order9.2
Drugs7
Criminal damage & arson6.6
Anti-social behaviour6.6
Vehicle crime1.8
Burglary1.5
Possession of weapons1.1
Bicycle theft0.7
Robbery0.7
Theft from the person0.7
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Martlesham Heath runs highest on other crime (39.9 per 1,000 against 1.5), shoplifting (26.4 per 1,000 against 1.8) and drugs (7 per 1,000 against 1). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent14452.722.4
Other crimenot graded10939.91.5
Shopliftingnot graded7226.41.8
Other theftnot graded4416.13.2
Public ordernot graded259.23.6
Drugsnot graded1971
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle186.64.5
Anti-social behaviournot graded186.68.8
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle51.82
BurglaryHome & vehicle41.51.9
Possession of weaponsViolent31.10.4
Bicycle theftnot graded20.70.1
RobberyViolent20.70.2
Theft from the personnot graded20.70

“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

A third of Martlesham Heath residents live in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods

0%1
0%2
0%3
0%4
0%5
14%6
0%7
46%8
0%9
40%10
Higher crimeLower crime

86% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.

Martlesham Heath’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 happened next

Police in Martlesham Heath identify a suspect more often than across UK towns

Violent crime
Martlesham Heath
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Martlesham Heath
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 40% of Martlesham Heath’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% 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 9% of violent and 21% 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. 233 crimes.

Towns its size

How Martlesham Heath compares with UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Richhill Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon2,7386.22.83A+
…
47Worlingham Suffolk3,61810.34.42A
…
89Stanton Suffolk2,31613.43.54.3A
90Debenham Suffolk2,29413.43.52.3A
…
109Trimley St Mary Suffolk3,73613.74.23.2A
…
830Queenborough Kent3,91549.723.423.4D
831Keresley Newlands Warwickshire3,63136.436.810.7D
832Carlton South Yorkshire2,12545.327.939.5D
833Martlesham Heath Suffolk2,73061.513.936.4D
834Llanrwst Clwyd2,46358.217.614.8D
835Lampeter Dyfed2,50557.518.919.2D−
836Chapel St Leonards Lincolnshire3,43558.61815.6D−
…
856Eastchurch Kent3,38113213.93.5D−

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 Martlesham Heath, and others in Suffolk.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Martlesham Heath per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
149
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
27
homes & vehicles
120
shoplifting & theft
109
of the three, per 1,000

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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 44 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

Trend · monthly

How crime in Martlesham Heath has moved

“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).

Rolling twelve-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 -12% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -31% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +18% (towns its size +2%).

On the roads

No one died in a collision on Martlesham Heath’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 25 collisions with injuries inside Martlesham Heath in five years. 7 people were killed or seriously injured: 1 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.

Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Martlesham Heath is one of them.

Counting serious injuries too, a town of Martlesham Heath’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 2 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Martlesham Heath had 7.

0
people killed, 2021–2025
7
killed or seriously injured
1
of them on foot
0
of them on a bicycle

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 Martlesham Heath’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Martlesham Heath

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Martlesham Heath2,73061.513.9D
Martlesham1,97626.810.5C+
Kesgrave14,947133.3A
Woodbridge10,14620.79.6B
Grundisburgh1,42412.44A
Melton1,60823.69.5B−
Kirton1,24510.43.8A+
Sutton Common1,26291.3A+

Martlesham Heath records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Martlesham, 0.7 miles away, records 26.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Martlesham Heath’s 61.5.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

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 Martlesham Heath 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 Martlesham Heath

Is Martlesham Heath safe?

Police recorded 61.5 violent and sexual offences and 13.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Martlesham Heath’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Martlesham Heath has less crime per resident than 4%. 40% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.

Is crime going up in Martlesham Heath?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 12%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 31%, shoplifting and theft rose 18% and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Martlesham Heath?

Violence & sexual offences: 144 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other crime (109) and shoplifting (72), with 18 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Martlesham Heath compare with Ipswich?

Ipswich records 41 violent and sexual offences and 14.9 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Martlesham Heath’s 61.5 and 13.9, over the same three years.

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.