Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0On violent crime, Great Malvern has a higher rate per resident than 65% of UK towns
Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, it records less crime per resident than 63%. On the record of crimes police recorded inside Great Malvern’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it takes C+ for safety: #13 of 22 in Worcestershire. Violence recorded locally climbed 8% in a year. Per 1,000 residents a year, 28.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Great Malvern
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% more violent crime per resident in Great Malvern 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 5% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 200 UK towns of 23,000 to 45,000 people, Great Malvern has the 57th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Chesham, Bicester and Witney, higher than Abingdon-on-Thames, Didcot and Larkfield. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Great Malvern’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 3,896 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Great Malvern against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Police in Great Malvern identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 57% of Great Malvern’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” (72% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 4% 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. 1,291 crimes.
57th of 200: Great Malvern among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 54 | Abingdon-on-Thames Oxfordshire | 33,179 | 30 | 9.1 | 10.6 | C+ |
| 55 | Didcot Oxfordshire | 34,600 | 30.6 | 8.5 | 11.8 | C+ |
| 56 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | 9.5 | C+ |
| 57 | Great Malvern Worcestershire | 33,194 | 28.5 | 10.7 | 15.8 | C+ |
| 58 | Droitwich Spa Worcestershire | 26,413 | 28.3 | 11.1 | 17.1 | C+ |
| 59 | Horley Surrey | 27,067 | 28.5 | 10.8 | 9.1 | C+ |
| 60 | Exmouth Devon | 35,502 | 30.3 | 9.2 | 8.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 68 | Bromsgrove Worcestershire | 34,759 | 30.9 | 10.8 | 12.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 122 | Evesham Worcestershire | 28,256 | 37.2 | 15.3 | 17.4 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 200 | 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 Great Malvern, and others in Worcestershire.
How Great Malvern’s neighbourhoods rank in England
42% 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.
Great Malvern’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, Great Malvern runs highest on shoplifting (9.7 per 1,000 against 6.1) and burglary (3.3 per 1,000 against 2.4). Criminal damage & arson and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 946 | 28.5 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 353 | 10.6 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 322 | 9.7 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 169 | 5.1 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 165 | 5 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 162 | 4.9 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 110 | 3.3 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 66 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 49 | 1.5 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 33 | 1 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 23 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 19 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 10 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 8 | 0.2 | 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 Great Malvern 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 +8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -5% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -1% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -18% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Wells, West and Dyson Perrins; highest in Pickersleigh
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wells | 1,090 | 6.1 | 6.4 | |
| West | 3,982 | 19.9 | 9.6 | |
| Dyson Perrins | 4,713 | 23.6 | 6.6 | |
| Chase | 5,989 | 24.8 | 9.2 | |
| Priory | 4,240 | 27.5 | 12.2 | |
| Link | 6,304 | 31.8 | 13.5 | |
| Pickersleigh | 6,459 | 42.7 | 13.3 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 406 | 66% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 344 | 44% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 112 | 69% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 66 | 53% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 21 | 43% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Pickersleigh records 1.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Great Malvern. 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 Great Malvern. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Great Malvern’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Great Malvern 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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 15 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Three people died in collisions on Great Malvern’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 124 collisions with injuries inside Great Malvern in five years, in which three people died (2 were pedestrians). 43 people were killed or seriously injured: 16 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 Great Malvern’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Great Malvern’s own rate (1.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Great Malvern had 25.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 37% 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 Great Malvern’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Great Malvern
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Malvern | 33,194 | 28.5 | 10.7 | C+ |
| Malvern Wells | 1,757 | 8.2 | 6.3 | A |
| Colwall Stone | 1,857 | 13.8 | 5.7 | A− |
| Collett's Green | 1,542 | 18.2 | 4.1 | A− |
| Welland | 1,309 | 19.9 | 4.1 | B+ |
| Kempsey | 3,753 | 23 | 7.8 | B− |
| Rushwick | 1,195 | 16.2 | 8.1 | B+ |
| Upton upon Severn | 2,403 | 25.7 | 11.1 | C+ |
Great Malvern records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Malvern Wells, 3 miles away, records 8.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Great Malvern’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 Great Malvern 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 Great Malvern
Is Great Malvern safe?
Police recorded 28.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Great Malvern’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 37% of UK towns. Among 200 UK towns of 23,000 to 45,000 people, Great Malvern is 57th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Great Malvern?
By council ward, Wells, West and Dyson Perrins record the least violent and household crime per resident: 6.1, 19.9 and 23.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 42.7 in Pickersleigh.
Is crime going up in Great Malvern?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 5%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 18%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Great Malvern?
Violence & sexual offences: 946 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (322) and public order (169), with 353 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Great Malvern compare with Worcester?
Worcester records 44.8 violent and sexual offences and 18.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Great Malvern’s 28.5 and 10.7, 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.