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Wickbourne Centre, Wick, LittlehamptonPhoto: The Voice of Hassocks · CC0
C−Safety Grade
Safety in Wick · police.uk, 2023–2026

More violent crime is recorded per resident in Wick than in 81% of UK towns

At 10.4 per 1,000 residents, shoplifting in Wick runs well past the 6.1 of a typical town its size (138 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026). The local count comes to 37.6 violent and sexual offences and 14.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year. The grade is C−, built on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #36 of 40 in West Sussex.

Violent crime
37.6
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
14.2
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
18.3
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
14.7
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 Wick

More crime than many places its size

Of 397 UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000 people, Wick has the 281st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Baildon, Swanley and East Ardsley, higher than Dawlish, Addlestone and Pyle. Towns its size ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Wick’s grade

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 36% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: about the middle for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (37.6 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 19% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (14.2 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 23% of UK towns
C−C−

A firm grade. Built on 2,055 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Wick 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 offences35.7
Anti-social behaviour15.3
Shoplifting10.4
Public order6.3
Criminal damage & arson6.1
Other theft5.4
Vehicle crime4.1
Other crime2
Drugs1.9
Burglary1.6
Bicycle theft1
Possession of weapons1
Robbery1
Theft from the person0.3
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Wick runs highest on shoplifting (10.4 per 1,000 against 6.1), vehicle crime (4.1 per 1,000 against 2.8) and anti-social behaviour (15.3 per 1,000 against 12.4). Burglary sits below it.

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent47235.730.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded20215.312.4
Shopliftingnot graded13810.46.1
Public ordernot graded846.35.4
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle816.16.2
Other theftnot graded715.44.4
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle544.12.8
Other crimenot graded2621.8
Drugsnot graded251.91.9
BurglaryHome & vehicle211.62.4
Bicycle theftnot graded1310.3
Possession of weaponsViolent1310.7
RobberyViolent1310.5
Theft from the personnot graded40.30.3

“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.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

How Wick’s neighbourhoods rank in England

0%1
22%2
11%3
11%4
29%5
12%6
15%7
0%8
0%9
0%10
Higher crimeLower crime

0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 22% 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.

Wick’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.

Towns its size

Of 397 towns its size, Wick is 281st from the least graded crime

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Greasby Merseyside9,17511.33.72.5A
…
10Southwater West Sussex11,20413.86.83.9A−
…
39Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint West Sussex14,21615.311.311.7B+
…
142Billingshurst West Sussex9,12125.610.79.8C+
…
166Selsey West Sussex10,74027.510.77.7C+
…
278Dawlish Devon11,80039.511.812.8C−
279Addlestone Surrey13,74835.815.917.2C−
280Pyle Mid Glamorgan14,07540.111.68.6C−
281Wick West Sussex13,23137.614.218.3C−
282Rushall and Shelfield West Midlands12,84432.519.48.4C−
283Hayle Cornwall9,04036.715.316.4C−
284Heysham Lancashire16,59336.715.67.3C−
…
397Haverfordwest Dyfed12,08891.428.632.3D−

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 Wick, and others in West Sussex.

1,000 residents · one year

Crime in Wick per 1,000 residents

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
498
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
156
homes & vehicles
226
shoplifting & theft
67
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 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.

What happened next

Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns

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

No suspect was identified for 65% of Wick’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 16% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (64% 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. 711 crimes.

Trend · monthly

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 +2% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -23% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -29% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -5% (towns its size -4%).

Where in Wick

Where in Wick police recorded crime

Public places police.uk named crimes and ASB, 3 years
At or nearReportsMostly
Supermarkets33367% shoplifting & theft
Petrol stations21358% shoplifting & theft
Shopping areas4663% shoplifting & theft
Sports and recreation grounds3253% violent
Car parks2343% homes & vehicles

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 Wick. We show only these, never streets or homes.

Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.

On the roads

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

Police recorded 65 collisions with injuries inside Wick in five years. 22 people were killed or seriously injured: 6 on foot and 7 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 Wick’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wick’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Wick had 33.3 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).

0
people killed, 2021–2025
22
killed or seriously injured
6
of them on foot
7
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 Wick’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Wick

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Wick13,23137.614.2C−
Littlehampton19,06049.919.9D
Arundel3,03521.319.1C
Yapton6,33731.919.4C−
Rustington33,88517.38.9B+
Walberton1,236178.6B+
Barnham10,13928.715.2C
Bognor Regis68,44333.616.3C−

Wick records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Littlehampton records more. Arundel, 2.1 miles away, records 21.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Wick’s 37.6.

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 Wick 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 Wick

Is Wick safe?

Police recorded 37.6 violent and sexual offences and 14.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Wick’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 20% of UK towns. Among 397 UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000 people, Wick is 281st from the least crime.

Is crime going up in Wick?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 23%, shoplifting and theft fell 29% 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 Wick?

Violence & sexual offences: 472 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (138) and public order (84), with 202 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Wick compare with Worthing?

Worthing records 34.1 violent and sexual offences and 12.6 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Wick’s 37.6 and 14.2, 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.