Photo: Jeff Gogarty · CC BY-SA 2.0Bognor Regis sees more burglary, vehicle crime and damage per resident than 84% of UK towns
Set against the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, it has less crime per resident than 77% of them. Behind the grade sit 33.6 violent and sexual offences and 16.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year. Recorded violence held steady in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bognor Regis
One ward carries much of the rate
Hotham ward recorded 1,473 of Bognor Regis’s 6,882 violent and sexual offences in three years: 80.3 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Bognor Regis the figure is 28.9. Where in Bognor Regis ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 106 UK towns and cities of 48,000 to 92,000 people, Bognor Regis has the 32nd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Macclesfield, Royal Leamington Spa and Tamworth, higher than Eastleigh, Stourbridge and Weymouth. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Bognor Regis grades C− for safety
A firm grade. Built on 10,214 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bognor Regis against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in Felpham East, Middleton-on-Sea and Aldwick West; highest in Hotham
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Felpham East | 5,910 | 11.9 | 4.3 | |
| Middleton-on-Sea | 4,919 | 14 | 6.5 | |
| Aldwick West | 6,276 | 13.8 | 7.1 | |
| Aldwick East | 5,173 | 13 | 9.5 | |
| Pagham | 4,396 | 15.5 | 7.6 | |
| Bersted | 9,891 | 26.9 | 15.7 | |
| Pevensey | 5,570 | 36 | 15.1 | |
| Felpham West | 6,258 | 39.5 | 13 | |
| Orchard | 6,775 | 37.6 | 20.5 | |
| Marine | 7,160 | 66.1 | 32.4 | |
| Hotham | 6,115 | 80.3 | 38.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,053 | 32% violent |
| Supermarkets | 993 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 533 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 254 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 105 | 42% violent |
| Nightclubs | 78 | 49% violent |
| Police stations | 69 | 42% homes & vehicles |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 22 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Hotham records 2.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bognor Regis. 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 Bognor Regis. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bognor Regis’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
32nd of 106: Bognor Regis among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 11 | Horsham West Sussex | 50,211 | 25.6 | 10.8 | 17.8 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 29 | Eastleigh Hampshire | 48,355 | 37.8 | 10.7 | 12.2 | C− |
| 30 | Stourbridge West Midlands | 56,961 | 33 | 16.1 | 16.3 | C− |
| 31 | Weymouth Dorset | 55,540 | 37.7 | 11.7 | 14.5 | C− |
| 32 | Bognor Regis West Sussex | 68,443 | 33.6 | 16.3 | 16.6 | C− |
| 33 | Cannock Staffordshire | 63,057 | 39.1 | 10.9 | 12.8 | C− |
| 34 | Shrewsbury Shropshire | 76,013 | 37.4 | 12.6 | 19.1 | C− |
| 35 | Wallasey Merseyside | 85,619 | 38.2 | 12 | 7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 106 | 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 Bognor Regis, and others in West Sussex.
Police in Bognor Regis identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 76% of Bognor Regis’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 18% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (58% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 2% 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. 3,239 crimes.
Crime in Bognor Regis 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 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Bognor Regis’s neighbourhoods rank in England
33% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 14% 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.
Bognor Regis’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 police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Bognor Regis runs highest on criminal damage & arson (9.3 per 1,000 against 7.5) and shoplifting (12 per 1,000 against 10.3). Vehicle crime and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,211 | 32.3 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,344 | 19.6 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 823 | 12 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 637 | 9.3 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 473 | 6.9 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 401 | 5.9 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 278 | 4.1 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 235 | 3.4 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 210 | 3.1 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 121 | 1.8 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 90 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 83 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 53 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 19 | 0.3 | 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.
How crime in Bognor Regis 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 +4% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -1% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +12% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +40% (towns its size -2%).
Five people died in collisions on Bognor Regis’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 347 collisions with injuries inside Bognor Regis in five years, in which five people died (2 were pedestrians). 95 people were killed or seriously injured: 23 on foot and 24 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 Bognor Regis’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bognor Regis’s own rate (1.5) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bognor Regis had 27.8 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). 24% 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 Bognor Regis’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bognor Regis
Bognor Regis records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Yapton and Westhampnett record more. Pagham, 3 miles away, records 30.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bognor Regis’s 33.6.
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 Bognor Regis 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 Bognor Regis
Is Bognor Regis safe?
Police recorded 33.6 violent and sexual offences and 16.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bognor Regis’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 106 UK towns of 48,000 to 92,000 people, Bognor Regis is 32nd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Bognor Regis?
By council ward, Felpham East, Middleton-on-Sea and Aldwick West record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.9, 14 and 13.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 80.3 in Hotham.
Is crime going up in Bognor Regis?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 12% and anti-social behaviour rose 40%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Bognor Regis town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 78 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 49% of them violent, and Hotham ward records 80.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in May and was lowest in December.
What is the most common crime in Bognor Regis?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,211 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (823) and criminal damage & arson (637), with 1,344 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.