Herefordshire Crime Statistics
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The overall crime rate in Herefordshire as of April 2026 is 49 crimes per 1,000 people, and the most common crimes are violence and sexual offences, with reports coming from roughly every 23 out of 1,000 daytime population.
Comparing Herefordshire's larger towns and cities, and using Crime Risk Scores - which are calculated by taking severity of each crime type into account - Leominster is the most dangerous. The next most dangerous is Ledbury, and Hereford comes in as third most dangerous. There are safer parts of Herefordshire, identified using the same Crime Risk measurement, starting with Ross-on-Wye which ranks as the safest area in Herefordshire.
Herefordshire Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Herefordshire 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.
Introduction to Herefordshire's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Herefordshire up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Herefordshire's 8,435 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.
Crime Risk Scores
Herefordshire • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Herefordshire has a crime risk score of 549. This is based on analysis of 8,435 nearby areas within Herefordshire, 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 Herefordshire's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Herefordshire, crime risk scores are typically around 549, while in West Midlands they are average 565.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 508 (562 for West Midlands), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 479 (West Midlands 554).
Trends in Crime Risk
Herefordshire
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.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 12% in Herefordshire's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Herefordshire's crime risk score is down by 0.30%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Herefordshire's crime risk score has shown an upward trend of approximately 2.7%, 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
Herefordshire
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
Herefordshire • 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.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences have a crime rate of 5.00 reports per 1,000 people in Herefordshire, which is 0.80 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 1,031 crime reports logged by West Mercia Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, West Mercia Police recorded 4,761 reports of Violence and Sexual Offences in Herefordshire, resulting in a crime rate of 23 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 0.76.
The crime rate for Possession of Weapons is 0.72 times the national average at 0.61 reports per 1,000. This is from 127 crime reports reported to West Mercia Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Herefordshire
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.
Theft From the Person offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.08 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 0.15 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 47% over this timeframe.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.70 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.57 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 23% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Herefordshire
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Drugs offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.48 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Drugs CrimeRate Index was 0.62 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 23% over this timeframe.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.77 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 0.88 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 12% over this timeframe.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.86 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 0.57 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 51% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Herefordshire • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Herefordshire | West Midlands | West Mercia Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 1,776 | 8.63 | 0.67 | 59,827 | 8.79 | 0.62 | 15,083 | 10.28 | 0.73 |
| Bicycle Theft | 109 | 0.51 | 0.70 | 3,572 | 0.53 | 0.73 | 722 | 0.47 | 0.64 |
| Burglary | 454 | 2.20 | 0.70 | 24,188 | 3.54 | 1.13 | 4,108 | 2.79 | 0.89 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 1,031 | 5.00 | 0.80 | 43,744 | 6.42 | 1.02 | 7,698 | 5.24 | 0.83 |
| Drugs | 341 | 1.67 | 0.54 | 16,314 | 2.38 | 0.77 | 2,545 | 1.74 | 0.56 |
| Other Crime | 292 | 1.43 | 0.77 | 12,162 | 1.79 | 0.97 | 2,352 | 1.61 | 0.87 |
| Other Theft | 782 | 3.80 | 0.67 | 34,029 | 5.00 | 0.88 | 6,230 | 4.26 | 0.75 |
| Possession of Weapons | 127 | 0.61 | 0.72 | 9,710 | 1.44 | 1.69 | 1,116 | 0.77 | 0.91 |
| Public Order | 788 | 3.83 | 0.66 | 36,155 | 5.32 | 0.92 | 6,345 | 4.33 | 0.75 |
| Robbery | 62 | 0.28 | 0.24 | 9,171 | 1.35 | 1.14 | 937 | 0.64 | 0.54 |
| Shoplifting | 1,015 | 4.93 | 0.69 | 51,348 | 7.55 | 1.06 | 8,825 | 6.04 | 0.85 |
| Theft From the Person | 38 | 0.18 | 0.12 | 3,487 | 0.49 | 0.32 | 316 | 0.20 | 0.13 |
| Vehicle Crime | 250 | 1.22 | 0.28 | 38,628 | 5.68 | 1.32 | 3,305 | 2.27 | 0.53 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 4,761 | 23.12 | 0.76 | 231,901 | 34.05 | 1.12 | 39,383 | 26.88 | 0.88 |
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Total Crime by Year
Herefordshire | West Midlands | West Mercia Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 10,050 | 48.78 | 0.68 | 514,409 | 75.54 | 1.05 | 83,882 | 57.24 | 0.80 |
| 2025 | 9,782 | 47.77 | 0.65 | 516,162 | 76.32 | 1.03 | 83,092 | 57.11 | 0.77 |
| 2024 | 11,060 | 54.49 | 0.73 | 539,253 | 80.45 | 1.07 | 88,122 | 61.16 | 0.81 |
| 2023 | 12,151 | 60.18 | 0.76 | 598,904 | 90.62 | 1.15 | 96,375 | 67.45 | 0.85 |
| 2022 | 12,300 | 61.72 | 0.81 | 564,120 | 86.38 | 1.12 | 90,936 | 64.40 | 0.84 |
| 2021 | 9,715 | 49.38 | 0.72 | 463,870 | 71.46 | 1.04 | 75,630 | 54.11 | 0.79 |
| 2020 | 10,574 | 53.92 | 0.73 | 450,576 | 69.72 | 0.94 | 85,686 | 61.79 | 0.83 |
| 2019 | 10,832 | 55.33 | 0.73 | 460,715 | 71.52 | 0.94 | 86,846 | 62.83 | 0.82 |
| 2018 | 10,444 | 53.38 | 0.75 | 430,050 | 67.10 | 0.94 | 83,031 | 60.47 | 0.85 |
| 2017 | 10,333 | 52.79 | 0.83 | 395,755 | 62.08 | 0.97 | 80,611 | 59.09 | 0.92 |
| 2016 | 3,096 | 15.83 | 0.83 | 117,881 | 18.57 | 0.97 | 23,646 | 17.39 | 0.91 |
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The Herefordshire Streets With The Highest Crime Counts
Each police crime report that CrimeRate receives has a street name automatically assigned to it by the police data team, and this table uses the coordinates to count crimes, rather than the street name alone. That way, if Herefordshire has multiple identical street names - which is not unusual - they will be treated separately by CrimeRate's systems.
| Street | Crime Count | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belmont Court Hereford | 35 | ||||||||
| Bus/Coach Station Leominster | 21 | ||||||||
| Pepper Plock Ley Weobley | 15 | ||||||||
| Abbotsmead Road Belmont Rural | 13 | ||||||||
| Market Place Ross-on-Wye | 12 | ||||||||
| Cruxwell Street Bromyard and Winslow | 12 | ||||||||
| The Pippins Bridstow | 11 | ||||||||
| Morgans Orchard Kington | 10 | ||||||||
| Union Lane Linton (Bringsty) | 9 | ||||||||
| Pulley Avenue Eaton Bishop | 9 | ||||||||
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Town and City Comparison
| Town / City | Crime Count | Crime Rate | CrimeRate Index | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leominster | 1,051 | 79.56 | 1.19 | ||||||
| Hereford | 4,536 | 76.94 | 1.07 | ||||||
| Ross-on-Wye | 679 | 54.83 | 0.84 | ||||||
| Ledbury | 447 | 44.41 | 0.69 | ||||||
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