Crime and Safety in Winchester
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
Winchester is the third safest medium-sized town in Hampshire, and is the 23rd most dangerous overall out of Hampshire's 268 towns, villages, and cities. The overall crime rate in Winchester in 2026 is 67 crimes per 1,000 people. This compares poorly to Hampshire's overall crime rate, coming in 7% higher than the Hampshire rate of 63 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Winchester is the 88th safest medium-sized town, and the 1,748th most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
In October 2025, Winchester had the worst crime rate in Hampshire for shoplifting, with 79 crimes reported and a crime rate of 1.5 per 1,000 daytime population. July 2024 was also a bad month for Winchester residents, when it was again Hampshire's most dangerous area for shoplifting, recording 79 crimes at a rate of 1.5 per 1,000 daytime population. Winchester recorded 9 reports of theft from the person during November 2016, making its crime rate of 0.18 the worst for theft from the person in Hampshire that month.
The most common crimes in Winchester are violence and sexual offences, with 1,561 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 30. This is 1.2% higher than 2025's figure of 1,543 offences and a difference of 0.41 from 2025's crime rate of 30. Winchester's least common crime is theft from the person, with 20 offences recorded in 2026, a decrease of 33% from 2025's figure of 30 crimes.
Winchester 2026 Crime Scorecard
Third Safest
Medium-Sized Towns, Hampshire
9% higher, regional crime rate
South East
7% lower, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Winchester is 9% higher than the South East and 7% lower than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Winchester Crime Rate Over Time
| Winchester | |
| South East | |
| England, Wales & NI |
Winchester Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Winchester represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
See How Winchester Compares
You can compare Winchester's crime statistics against any other town, village, or city from across the country. Search for a location's name below to see how they stack up.
Introduction to Winchester's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Winchester up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Winchester's 1,183 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
CrimeRate Insights
Looking into a specific address in Winchester? CrimeRate Insights reports convert raw numbers into practical insight for any location, from single addresses and postcodes, up to major towns and cities.
Crime rates don’t happen by themselves; they follow people and patterns. Where crowds gather - near pubs and late-night venues, around the station, by supermarkets and forecourts - incidents naturally concentrate.
That doesn’t mean an area is "bad"; it usually means footfall is higher.
Your report explores these factors in a calm, non-judgemental way, putting the numbers in context and helping you spot what’s typical for places like this.
Crime Risk Scores
Winchester • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Winchester has a crime risk score of 494. This is based on analysis of 1,183 nearby areas within Winchester, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Winchester's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Winchester, crime risk scores are typically around 494, while in Hampshire they are average 467.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 582 (470 for Hampshire), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 622 (Hampshire 472).
Trends in Crime Risk
Winchester
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
No trend could be found in Winchester's crime risk scores over the last 10 years, and the trend may well be static.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Winchester's crime risk score is down by 1.9%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Over the last year, Winchester's crime risk score has shown an upward trend of approximately 6%, indicating that the risk profile is going up. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Winchester
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Winchester • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Drugs offences have a crime rate of 5.39 reports per 1,000 people in Winchester, which is 1.90 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 280 crime reports logged by Hampshire Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Hampshire Police recorded 491 reports of Shoplifting in Winchester, resulting in a crime rate of 9.48 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.45.
The crime rate for Possession of Weapons is 1.09 times the national average at 0.93 reports per 1,000. This is from 47 crime reports reported to Hampshire Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Winchester
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.40 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 0.22 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 82% over this timeframe.
Drugs offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 2.96 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Drugs CrimeRate Index was 1.95 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 52% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Winchester
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.39 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.81 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 52% over this timeframe.
Burglary offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.71 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Burglary CrimeRate Index was 0.60 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 18% over this timeframe.
Public Order offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.46 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 1.19 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 23% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Winchester • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Winchester | Hampshire | South East | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 313 | 6.03 | 0.47 | 16,767 | 7.84 | 0.55 | 115,500 | 10.87 | 0.77 |
| Bicycle Theft | 27 | 0.54 | 0.95 | 1,434 | 0.69 | 0.95 | 7,315 | 0.68 | 0.93 |
| Burglary | 90 | 1.75 | 0.61 | 5,009 | 2.35 | 0.75 | 23,535 | 2.23 | 0.71 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 201 | 3.88 | 0.68 | 10,172 | 4.75 | 0.76 | 58,501 | 5.50 | 0.88 |
| Drugs | 280 | 5.39 | 1.90 | 4,679 | 2.18 | 0.71 | 25,203 | 2.37 | 0.77 |
| Other Crime | 117 | 2.24 | 1.32 | 2,789 | 1.30 | 0.70 | 17,151 | 1.61 | 0.87 |
| Other Theft | 240 | 4.63 | 0.89 | 8,871 | 4.14 | 0.73 | 51,336 | 4.84 | 0.85 |
| Possession of Weapons | 47 | 0.93 | 1.09 | 2,421 | 1.12 | 1.32 | 8,736 | 0.81 | 0.95 |
| Public Order | 310 | 5.98 | 1.03 | 11,772 | 5.49 | 0.95 | 54,745 | 5.15 | 0.89 |
| Robbery | 26 | 0.52 | 0.58 | 1,491 | 0.70 | 0.59 | 7,588 | 0.72 | 0.61 |
| Shoplifting | 491 | 9.48 | 1.45 | 12,856 | 5.99 | 0.84 | 72,983 | 6.88 | 0.96 |
| Theft From the Person | 20 | 0.40 | 0.34 | 766 | 0.36 | 0.23 | 4,668 | 0.45 | 0.29 |
| Vehicle Crime | 68 | 1.32 | 0.34 | 6,424 | 3.00 | 0.70 | 34,099 | 3.22 | 0.75 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 1,561 | 30.16 | 0.99 | 66,157 | 30.90 | 1.02 | 286,815 | 26.98 | 0.89 |
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Total Crime by Year
Winchester | Hampshire | South East | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 3,478 | 67.22 | 0.98 | 134,841 | 62.97 | 0.87 | 652,675 | 61.44 | 0.85 |
| 2025 | 3,635 | 70.46 | 0.95 | 142,154 | 66.71 | 0.90 | 670,274 | 63.35 | 0.86 |
| 2024 | 3,624 | 70.76 | 0.94 | 143,206 | 67.71 | 0.90 | 690,903 | 65.86 | 0.87 |
| 2023 | 4,418 | 87.02 | 1.10 | 159,627 | 76.11 | 0.96 | 713,547 | 68.83 | 0.87 |
| 2022 | 4,134 | 82.49 | 1.08 | 159,505 | 76.75 | 1.00 | 704,444 | 68.58 | 0.89 |
| 2021 | 3,018 | 60.87 | 0.89 | 132,111 | 63.97 | 0.93 | 625,484 | 61.36 | 0.89 |
| 2020 | 3,853 | 78.23 | 1.06 | 141,723 | 68.79 | 0.93 | 669,219 | 65.97 | 0.89 |
| 2019 | 3,454 | 69.81 | 0.92 | 142,619 | 69.41 | 0.91 | 666,505 | 65.82 | 0.86 |
| 2018 | 3,365 | 67.76 | 0.96 | 146,264 | 71.07 | 1.00 | 644,142 | 63.85 | 0.90 |
| 2017 | 2,890 | 58.44 | 0.92 | 120,200 | 58.55 | 0.92 | 552,696 | 55.04 | 0.86 |
| 2016 | 822 | 16.69 | 0.88 | 33,278 | 16.23 | 0.85 | 160,273 | 15.99 | 0.84 |
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Winchester Compared to Nearby Medium-Sized Towns
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Medium-Sized Town | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldershot | 3,447 | 72.38 | 8% more dangerous |
| Eastleigh | 2,332 | 65.83 | 2.1% safer |
| Winchester | 3,478 | 67.22 | - |
| Andover | 3,772 | 64.20 | 4.5% safer |
| Totton and Eling | 1,919 | 62.82 | 7% safer |
| New Milton | 1,297 | 49.25 | 27% safer |
Comparing Winchester to the UK's Major Cities
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| City Name | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Winchester | 67.22 | - |
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 18% more dangerous |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 82.69 | 23% more dangerous |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 25% more dangerous |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 46% more dangerous |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 56% more dangerous |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 56% more dangerous |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 58% more dangerous |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 59% more dangerous |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 60% more dangerous |
| Westminster | 125.00 | 86% more dangerous |
CrimeRate Pro
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You can find out more, or get a CrimeRate Insights report that includes further analysis.
Offences In and Around Winchester's Parks & Leisure Spaces
Limited to spaces in Winchester that are named and have had crimes recorded within their boundaries in the 12 months to Apr 2026.
| Name | ASB | Drugs | Public Order | Robbery | VSO | All Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winchester Sports Stadium | 3 | - | - | - | 14 | 3 |
| Hilliers Haven | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Winchester Sport and Leisure Park | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 14 |
| Oram's Arbour | - | - | 3 | - | 11 | 5 |
| Hyde Abbey Gardens | 16 | 1 | 2 | - | 12 | 5 |
| Joyce Gardens | 1 | - | - | - | 5 | 3 |
| St Cross Allotment Gardens | - | - | 2 | - | - | 0 |
| North Walls Recreation Ground | - | - | - | 1 | - | 3 |
| Friary Gardens | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 |
| Friary Bowling Club | - | - | - | - | 1 | 2 |
| Abbey Grounds | 16 | 110 | 11 | 1 | 86 | 24 |
| King George V Playing Field | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 3 | 1 |
| North Walls Recreation Ground | - | - | - | - | - | 1 |
Recent Crimes in Winchester
The 20 most recent crime reports in Winchester.
| Date | Crime Type | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Chesil Street | |
| April 2026 | Drugs | On or near Busket Lane | |
| April 2026 | Drugs | On or near Busket Lane | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Public order | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Public order | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Shoplifting | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Shoplifting | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Shoplifting | On or near Petrol Station | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Busket Lane | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Milner Place | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Portal Road | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Busket Lane | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Wykeham Place | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Milner Place | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Acorn Close | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Parking Area | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Parking Area | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Chatham Road |
Methodology & Data Sources
Winchester Crime Report
Data Sources & Processing
Every month, CrimeRate processes crime reports from data.police.uk, the UK's official provider of open crime report data. Each crime report includes anonymised coordinates, most often "snapped" to the middle of the nearest street, or to the nearest major landmark. The reports also include the month and year the crime was reported, as well as the type of crime.
Data releases on data.police.uk happen once a month, with a two-month delay. This means that, for example, crimes reported in Winchester during August 2026 will typically become available in October 2026. The latest release is for Apr 2026 and was released in Jun 2026. To provide current and historical crime statistics, CrimeRate processed 61,669,232 crime reports for the latest release.
Winchester Data Points
For Winchester, CrimeRate uses the geographic boundaries provided by The Office for National Statistics in the December 2023 release of their Parishes and Non Civil Parished Areas dataset, using the PARNCP23CD column value E43000074.
Due to the 2021 Census being conducted during a UK-wide Coronavirus lockdown, the daytime population figures released so far cannot be relied on for purposes such as comparing crime rates. Instead, CrimeRate uses Winchester's daytime - or "workday" - population of 50,630 from the ONS 2011 Census for calculations throughout the site.
All geographic boundaries use the full resolution - extent of the realm versions where provided to avoid missing crime reports near coastlines and rivers - the banks of the Thames in particular - that would otherwise not be included when using the clipped to the coastline datasets.
Calculating Crime Rates
CrimeRate locates the UK region, county, and town/city/village locality for each crime report, and calculates the crime rate by taking the sum of all crime reports, dividing it by the locality's daytime / "workday" population, and multiplying the result by 1,000 to get the crime rate per 1,000.
Crime Risk Score Calculations
CrimeRate calculates crime counts for local, nearby, and wider areas for every postcode in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The postcodes locations are deduplicated by a process that ensures distinct points are approximately 50 metres apart. This process removes the bias that would otherwise come from counting the same crimes several times in heavily populated areas.
Using a custom algorithm developed in-house, CrimeRate applies a crime severity weighting to each area's crime counts, based on the type of crime reported. This increases or decreases the crime count, or zeroes it out entirely, depending on the crime type. A separate crime severity rate is then calculated, standardised, and scaled to fit the crime risk score range of 1 to 1,000, with 1 being the lowest score, and 1,000 the highest.
Crime risk scores undergo further analysis per town, city, and village plus other areas including police forces and neighbourhoods. CrimeRate uses percentiles to work out the most common range of crime risk scores in each locality. This includes identifying the high and low bounds where approximately 68% of scores fall, and finding the median (50th percentile) for easy reference.
The crime types with a weight of zero are: Anti-Social Behaviour; Bicycle Theft; Other Crime; Other Theft; and Shoplifting. The highest weights to are assigned to Violence & Sexual Offences, and the lowest to Vehicle Crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Winchester