Photo: Michael Garlick · CC BY-SA 2.0Sudbury records more violent crime per head than 82% of UK towns
Police recorded 85 cases of drugs in Sudbury in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 3.6 per 1,000 against a typical 1.9. Overall, it grades C− for safety (#28 of 34 in Suffolk). Out of every 1,000 residents, 37.9 violent and sexual offences and 11.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Sudbury
One ward carries much of the rate
Sudbury South East ward, where 35% of Sudbury’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 554 of Sudbury’s 2,723 violent and sexual offences in three years: 80.7 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Sudbury the figure is 33.1. Where in Sudbury ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 226 UK towns of 17,000 to 32,000 people, Sudbury has the 125th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than March, Melton Mowbray and Tonypandy, higher than Rugeley, Haverhill and Bideford. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
26% of Sudbury’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 14% 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.
Sudbury: C− for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 3,570 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Sudbury 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, Sudbury runs highest on drugs (3.6 per 1,000 against 1.9), possession of weapons (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.7) and criminal damage & arson (8.7 per 1,000 against 6.2). Anti-social behaviour and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 903 | 37.7 | 30.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 208 | 8.7 | 6.2 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 166 | 6.9 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 131 | 5.5 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 112 | 4.7 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 104 | 4.3 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 85 | 3.6 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 59 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 40 | 1.7 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 28 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 26 | 1.1 | 2.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 12 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 8 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 7 | 0.3 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Sudbury South West, Sudbury North East and Great Cornard; highest in Sudbury South East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sudbury South West | 2,842 | 16.7 | 7.7 | |
| Sudbury North East | 3,151 | 25.6 | 5.6 | |
| Great Cornard | 9,950 | 27.3 | 6.6 | |
| Sudbury North West | 5,342 | 57.1 | 18.8 | |
| Sudbury South East | 2,289 | 80.7 | 30.4 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Nightclubs | 275 | 41% violent |
| Petrol stations | 227 | 68% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 213 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 179 | 36% violent |
| Shopping areas | 28 | 54% violent |
| Police stations | 20 | 60% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Sudbury South East records 2.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Sudbury. 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 Sudbury. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Sudbury’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
26% of Sudbury residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
14% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 26% 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.
Sudbury’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 Sudbury 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.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Sudbury’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 8% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (73% 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. 1,154 crimes.
Set against 226 towns its size, Sudbury is 125th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 53 | Felixstowe Suffolk | 24,218 | 28.1 | 7.9 | 10.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 80 | Stowmarket Suffolk | 21,537 | 31.7 | 8.1 | 10.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 116 | Newmarket Suffolk | 18,857 | 34.6 | 13.6 | 16.9 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 122 | Rugeley Staffordshire | 26,149 | 37 | 12.3 | 12.1 | C− |
| 123 | Haverhill Suffolk | 26,704 | 37.2 | 12.3 | 8.9 | C− |
| 124 | Bideford Devon | 19,493 | 37.9 | 11.6 | 15.1 | C− |
| 125 | Sudbury Suffolk | 23,922 | 37.9 | 11.8 | 12.7 | C− |
| 126 | Sunbury-on-Thames Surrey | 21,476 | 31.9 | 18 | 11.1 | C− |
| 127 | Totton Hampshire | 28,093 | 35.3 | 14.7 | 15.1 | C− |
| 128 | Windsor Berkshire | 31,569 | 34 | 16.3 | 21.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 226 | 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 Sudbury, and others in Suffolk.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 +1% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +17% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -15% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +8% (towns its size -4%).
No one died in a collision on Sudbury’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 131 collisions with injuries inside Sudbury in five years. 38 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 4 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 Sudbury’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Sudbury’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Sudbury had 31.8 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 32% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Sudbury’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Sudbury
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sudbury | 23,922 | 37.9 | 11.8 | C− |
| Great Waldingfield | 1,377 | 20.1 | 3.6 | B+ |
| Acton | 1,666 | 15 | 4 | A |
| Long Melford | 3,895 | 15.2 | 7.9 | A− |
| Bures | 1,183 | 19.4 | 14.1 | B− |
| Glemsford | 3,693 | 18.8 | 4.5 | B+ |
| Lavenham | 1,224 | 22.9 | 8.4 | B− |
| Castle Hedingham | 1,045 | 14.4 | 8.6 | A− |
Sudbury records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Great Waldingfield, 2.1 miles away, records 20.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Sudbury’s 37.9.
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 Sudbury 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 Sudbury
Is Sudbury safe?
Police recorded 37.9 violent and sexual offences and 11.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Sudbury’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 226 UK towns of 17,000 to 32,000 people, Sudbury is 125th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Sudbury?
By council ward, Sudbury South West, Sudbury North East and Great Cornard record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.7, 25.6 and 27.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 80.7 in Sudbury South East.
Is crime going up in Sudbury?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 17%, shoplifting and theft fell 15% and anti-social behaviour rose 8%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Sudbury town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 275 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 41% of them violent, and Sudbury South East ward records 80.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in March and was lowest in April.
What is the most common crime in Sudbury?
Violence & sexual offences: 903 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (208) and shoplifting (131), with 166 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.