Photo: Howard Hudson · CC BY 2.5Walton-on-Thames stands out for bicycle theft: 4.1 times the rate of a typical town its size
Violent crime here is higher than in 65% of UK towns; burglary, vehicle crime and damage, higher than in 72%. Overall, Walton-on-Thames grades C for safety (#47 of 65 in Surrey): more crime per resident than 67% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Recorded violence rose 15% in a year. Year on year, 28.5 violent and sexual offences and 12.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur 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 Walton-on-Thames
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 15% more violent crime per resident in Walton-on-Thames 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 fell 25% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 229 UK towns of 19,000 to 36,000 people, Walton-on-Thames has the 90th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Waterlooville, Stourport-on-Severn and Beverley, higher than Whitstable, St Neots and Stratton St Margaret. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Walton-on-Thames’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 3,331 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Walton-on-Thames 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, Walton-on-Thames runs highest on bicycle theft (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.3), drugs (4.3 per 1,000 against 1.9) and robbery (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.5). Other crime and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 821 | 30.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 295 | 10.9 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 218 | 8.1 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 216 | 8 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 164 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 124 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 116 | 4.3 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 75 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 48 | 1.8 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 43 | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 37 | 1.4 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 29 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 28 | 1 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 10 | 0.4 | 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.
How crime in Walton-on-Thames 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 +15% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -25% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +3% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +1% (towns its size -4%).
How Walton-on-Thames’s neighbourhoods rank in England
26% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 10% 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.
Walton-on-Thames’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.
Walton-on-Thames is 90th of 229 UK towns of 19,000 to 36,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 7 | Great Bookham and Fetcham Surrey | 21,655 | 15.3 | 7.5 | 5.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 21 | New Haw, West Byfleet and Sheerwater Surrey | 33,035 | 18.5 | 9.5 | 8.1 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 25 | Reigate Surrey | 23,774 | 20 | 9.8 | 11.9 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 29 | Farnham Surrey | 20,499 | 21.8 | 9.9 | 13 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 87 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | 19.4 | C |
| 88 | St Neots Cambridgeshire | 33,262 | 26.8 | 13.8 | 10.7 | C |
| 89 | Stratton St Margaret Wiltshire | 20,689 | 29.5 | 11.8 | 12.7 | C |
| 90 | Walton-on-Thames Surrey | 27,016 | 28.5 | 12.9 | 13.7 | C |
| 91 | Bromsgrove Worcestershire | 34,759 | 30.9 | 10.8 | 12.9 | C |
| 92 | Falmouth Cornwall | 24,066 | 29.4 | 12.5 | 16.5 | C |
| 93 | Hertford Hertfordshire | 28,807 | 29.8 | 12.1 | 17.4 | 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 Walton-on-Thames, and others in Surrey.
Crime in Walton-on-Thames 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 11 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.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 71% of Walton-on-Thames’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 14% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% 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. 1,015 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Walton South, Walton North and Walton Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walton South | 9,065 | 25.2 | 13.3 | |
| Walton North | 8,991 | 29.9 | 9.9 | |
| Walton Central | 8,478 | 31.3 | 15.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 566 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 441 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 115 | 26% drugs, public order & other |
| Parks and open spaces | 99 | 34% violent |
| Supermarkets | 88 | 32% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live. 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 Walton-on-Thames. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Walton-on-Thames’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
One person died in collisions on Walton-on-Thames’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 192 collisions with injuries inside Walton-on-Thames in five years, in which one person died (1 was a cyclist). 46 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 8 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 Walton-on-Thames’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Walton-on-Thames’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Walton-on-Thames had 34.1 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). 26% 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 Walton-on-Thames’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Walton-on-Thames
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walton-on-Thames | 27,016 | 28.5 | 12.9 | C |
| Hersham | 12,622 | 24 | 9.8 | B− |
| Upper Halliford | 2,337 | 23.7 | 11.3 | B− |
| Shepperton | 5,917 | 23.6 | 13.7 | C+ |
| Weybridge | 15,918 | 20.6 | 10.3 | B− |
| Esher | 9,484 | 20 | 12.3 | B− |
| Sunbury-on-Thames | 21,476 | 31.9 | 18 | C− |
| Shepperton Green | 4,358 | 19.8 | 7.8 | B |
Walton-on-Thames records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Sunbury-on-Thames records more. Hersham, 1.2 miles away, records 24 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Walton-on-Thames’s 28.5.
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 Walton-on-Thames 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 Walton-on-Thames
Is Walton-on-Thames safe?
Police recorded 28.5 violent and sexual offences and 12.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Walton-on-Thames’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 33% of UK towns. Among 229 UK towns of 19,000 to 36,000 people, Walton-on-Thames is 90th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Walton-on-Thames?
By council ward, Walton South, Walton North and Walton Central record the least violent and household crime per resident: 25.2, 29.9 and 31.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 31.3 in Walton Central.
Is crime going up in Walton-on-Thames?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 15%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 25%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Walton-on-Thames?
Violence & sexual offences: 821 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (218) and shoplifting (216), with 295 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Walton-on-Thames compare with Richmond upon Thames?
Richmond upon Thames records 18.8 violent and sexual offences and 17.9 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Walton-on-Thames’s 28.5 and 12.9, 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.