The Isle of Wight Crime Statistics
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The overall crime rate in the Isle of Wight as of April 2026 is 68 crimes per 1,000 people, and the most common crimes are violence and sexual offences, with reports coming from roughly every 35 out of 1,000 daytime population.
Comparing the Isle of Wight's larger towns and cities, and using Crime Risk Scores - which are calculated by taking severity of each crime type into account - Newport is the most dangerous. The next most dangerous is East Cowes, and Ryde comes in as third most dangerous. There are safer parts of the Isle of Wight, identified using the same Crime Risk measurement, starting with Cowes which ranks as the safest area in Isle of Wight, followed up by Shanklin in second place.
Isle of Wight Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Isle of Wight represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
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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 Isle of Wight's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Isle of Wight up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Isle of Wight's 6,301 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
Isle of Wight • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Isle of Wight has a crime risk score of 572. This is based on analysis of 6,301 nearby areas within Isle of Wight, 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 Isle of Wight's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Isle of Wight, crime risk scores are typically around 572, while in South East they are average 441.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 580 (449 for South East), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 591 (South East 458).
Trends in Crime Risk
Isle of Wight
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 an increase of 19% in Isle of Wight'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 Isle of Wight's crime risk score is down by 2.4%. 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, Isle of Wight's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 1.9%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Isle of Wight
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
Isle of Wight • 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.
Public Order offences have a crime rate of 7.14 reports per 1,000 people in Isle of Wight, which is 1.23 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 1,077 crime reports logged by Hampshire Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Hampshire Police recorded 146 reports of Possession of Weapons in Isle of Wight, resulting in a crime rate of 0.99 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.16.
The crime rate for Violence and Sexual Offences is 1.14 times the national average at 35 reports per 1,000. This is from 5,232 crime reports reported to Hampshire Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Isle of Wight
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 0.11 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 264% over this timeframe.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.20 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 1.00 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 20% over this timeframe.
Theft From the Person offences are trending upwards, though the CrimeRate Index three years ago is too low to measure, and the trend should be reviewed with caution.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Isle of Wight
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.23 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 0.20 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 15% over this timeframe.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.57 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 0.86 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 83% over this timeframe.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.81 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.87 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 7% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Isle of Wight • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Isle of Wight | South East | Hampshire Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 1,370 | 9.09 | 0.64 | 115,500 | 10.87 | 0.77 | 18,203 | 7.93 | 0.56 |
| Bicycle Theft | 44 | 0.29 | 0.43 | 7,315 | 0.68 | 0.93 | 1,478 | 0.65 | 0.89 |
| Burglary | 299 | 2.00 | 0.64 | 23,535 | 2.23 | 0.71 | 5,323 | 2.32 | 0.74 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 872 | 5.80 | 0.92 | 58,501 | 5.50 | 0.88 | 11,063 | 4.81 | 0.77 |
| Drugs | 426 | 2.82 | 0.91 | 25,203 | 2.37 | 0.77 | 5,109 | 2.22 | 0.72 |
| Other Crime | 226 | 1.50 | 0.81 | 17,151 | 1.61 | 0.87 | 3,022 | 1.32 | 0.71 |
| Other Theft | 644 | 4.27 | 0.75 | 51,336 | 4.84 | 0.85 | 9,526 | 4.14 | 0.73 |
| Possession of Weapons | 146 | 0.99 | 1.16 | 8,736 | 0.81 | 0.95 | 2,568 | 1.12 | 1.32 |
| Public Order | 1,077 | 7.14 | 1.23 | 54,745 | 5.15 | 0.89 | 12,853 | 5.59 | 0.96 |
| Robbery | 76 | 0.50 | 0.42 | 7,588 | 0.72 | 0.61 | 1,570 | 0.69 | 0.58 |
| Shoplifting | 1,044 | 6.90 | 0.97 | 72,983 | 6.88 | 0.96 | 13,902 | 6.05 | 0.85 |
| Theft From the Person | 53 | 0.36 | 0.23 | 4,668 | 0.45 | 0.29 | 820 | 0.37 | 0.24 |
| Vehicle Crime | 162 | 1.07 | 0.25 | 34,099 | 3.22 | 0.75 | 6,591 | 2.86 | 0.67 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 5,232 | 34.72 | 1.14 | 286,815 | 26.98 | 0.89 | 71,472 | 31.12 | 1.02 |
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Total Crime by Year
Isle of Wight | South East | Hampshire Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 10,301 | 68.36 | 0.95 | 652,675 | 61.44 | 0.85 | 145,297 | 63.26 | 0.88 |
| 2025 | 10,891 | 72.92 | 0.99 | 670,274 | 63.35 | 0.86 | 153,243 | 67.14 | 0.91 |
| 2024 | 10,695 | 72.03 | 0.96 | 690,903 | 65.86 | 0.87 | 154,075 | 67.86 | 0.90 |
| 2023 | 11,331 | 76.63 | 0.97 | 713,547 | 68.83 | 0.87 | 171,129 | 76.05 | 0.96 |
| 2022 | 11,242 | 76.24 | 1.00 | 704,444 | 68.58 | 0.89 | 170,954 | 76.72 | 1.00 |
| 2021 | 9,572 | 65.00 | 0.95 | 625,484 | 61.36 | 0.89 | 141,878 | 63.96 | 0.93 |
| 2020 | 9,576 | 64.94 | 0.88 | 669,219 | 65.97 | 0.89 | 151,487 | 68.56 | 0.92 |
| 2019 | 9,694 | 65.73 | 0.86 | 666,505 | 65.82 | 0.86 | 152,526 | 68.99 | 0.90 |
| 2018 | 9,983 | 67.87 | 0.96 | 644,142 | 63.85 | 0.90 | 156,419 | 70.80 | 1.00 |
| 2017 | 8,169 | 56.01 | 0.88 | 552,696 | 55.04 | 0.86 | 128,520 | 58.33 | 0.91 |
| 2016 | 2,169 | 14.93 | 0.78 | 160,273 | 15.99 | 0.84 | 35,485 | 16.11 | 0.84 |
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The Isle of Wight 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 Isle of Wight has multiple identical street names - which is not unusual - they will be treated separately by CrimeRate's systems.
| Street | Crime Count | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St Jamess Street Newport | 61 | ||||||||
| Millennium Way Lake | 44 | ||||||||
| Guadeloupe Road Sandown | 36 | ||||||||
| Mulberry Way Nettlestone and Seaview | 34 | ||||||||
| Anglesea Street Ryde | 28 | ||||||||
| Atherley Road Shanklin | 17 | ||||||||
| Castle Street East Cowes | 17 | ||||||||
| Shooters Hill Cowes | 13 | ||||||||
| Pound Lane Ventnor | 11 | ||||||||
| Solent Gardens Freshwater | 8 | ||||||||
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Town and City Comparison
| Town / City | Crime Count | Crime Rate | CrimeRate Index | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport | 3,003 | 106.48 | 1.53 | ||||||
| Ryde | 1,948 | 78.23 | 1.11 | ||||||
| Shanklin | 716 | 77.27 | 1.19 | ||||||
| East Cowes | 545 | 63.60 | 1.04 | ||||||
| Cowes | 502 | 43.80 | 0.73 | ||||||
Download | |||||||||
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