One in eight people fell victim to a crime last year in Bristol
File image of a Bristol crime scene
Bristol has the highest crime rate in the South West according to new Home Office figures – with one in eight people falling victim last year. The city’s rate ranked in the top 10 nationally, with Westminster in London coming in at number one on the ‘most dangerous’ map.
In the year ending March 2025, more than 5.3 million non-fraud crimes were recorded by the 43 domestic police forces in England and Wales.
That was about 92,000 fewer crimes than in the year ending March 2024, a 2% fall. Crime reports have increased in Avon and Somerset, bucking the national trend. There were 168,354 non-fraud crimes reported in the year ending March 2025, around 18,000 more than the previous year, a 12% rise.
However, the police force says the rise is due to its work to improve crime recording, which has resulted in “an increase in reported crime numbers, enabling better-informed decision making and deployment of resources”.
Crime rates, the number of crimes recorded in each area for every 1,000 people, show that Bristol currently has the highest in the South West. These figures allow for a fairer comparison of the threats to law and order in places with widely different population sizes.
Last year, Avon and Somerset Constabulary recorded 63,378 non-fraud crimes in Bristol. That was a 9% rise from the previous year, and added up to a crime rate of 132 offences for every 1,000 people. That placed it as the 9th highest of more than 300 ‘community safety partnership areas’ in England and Wales, which are broadly similar to council areas.
It’s also the equivalent of one in every eight people who live in Bristol falling victim to a crime last year. After Bristol, North Somerset recorded the highest crime rate in the Avon and Somerset police force area (84 crimes per 1,000 people).
Meanwhile, South Gloucestershire has the lowest crime rate in Avon and Somerset, at 71 offences per 1,000 people. Using our interactive map, you can check the crime rate where you live, whether crime is rising or falling, and how it compares nationally.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “Our work to encourage people to have more confidence in telling us about under-reported crimes, such as rape, and a sharp increase in reports of shop theft, are factors in the increase in recorded crime. However, since 2022 Avon and Somerset Police have been working to improve crime recording, following an inspection by the then Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire & Rescue Services (HMICF&RS).
“Inspectors found Avon and Somerset was under recording some crimes. This was fewer than nine per cent of the total, but still an estimated 13,100 crimes not recorded over the 12-month inspection period. Targeted training and increased scrutiny have driven improvement in all areas of crime recording, with a peer review in 2024 finding 93.8 per cent to be correctly recorded.
“We introduced a Crime Recording Standards unit earlier this year, to maintain and develop this improvement. One result of this improved quality and quantity of crime recording is an increase in reported crime numbers, enabling better-informed decision making and deployment of resources.”
Top 20 Community Safety Partnership (CSP) areas with the highest crime rates:
- Westminster 423.2
- Camden 194.8
- Middlesbrough 158.3
- Blackpool 154.4
- Kensington and Chelsea 154.2
- Manchester 152.4
- Hartlepool 141.5
- Islington 140.8
- Bristol, City of 132.3
- Southwark 127.6
- Hackney 124.4
- Lincoln 124.3
- Doncaster 124.2
- Bradford 124.2
- Southampton 124
- Liverpool 123.7
- Kingston upon Hull, City of 122.9
- Leeds 122.7
- Newport 120.5
- Blaenau Gwent 119.5
Separate national figures from the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales suggest people aged 16 and over experienced 9.4 million incidents of crime in the year to March 2025, up from 8.8 million in the previous 12 months. The rise is mainly due to a 31% rise in fraud, which accounts for 4.2 million incidents.