Crime in Ribble Valley: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (1,342), anti-social behaviour (741) and criminal damage and arson (233) made up 70% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 287th of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the lowest tenth.

Recorded crime in Ribble Valley peaked in the year to August 2018 (3,921 crimes) and was lowest in the year to August 2023 (3,303). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it fell 16%, while across England and Wales it fell 4%.

Month by month

No category with at least 20 crimes was notably above the England and Wales rate, and shoplifting (80% below) and drugs (69% below) were well below it. On the year before, drugs rose from 50 to 67 and shoplifting rose from 93 to 112, while anti-social behaviour fell from 1,058 to 741 and criminal damage and arson fell from 287 to 233.

What each category covers: crime categories.

2,576 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in Ribble Valley in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 39.2 per 1,000 residents, lower than the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was up 8% on the year ending March 2025 (2,395), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, Ribble Valley had the 4th lowest rate (the street-level ranking above is among the 302 districts with street-level pages on this site, over the 12 months to August 2026).

Of the crimes recorded in the Lancashire Police area in the year ending March 2026, 2.0% were not assigned to a district. Those crimes are counted in the force and England and Wales totals but in no district, so the figure for Ribble Valley is an undercount.

Offences recorded in Ribble Valley, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was violence without injury, with 423 offences (16% of the total). No category with at least 20 offences had a rate a quarter or more above the England and Wales rate. Rates were lowest relative to the national rate for shoplifting (0.19 times), possession of drugs (0.27 times) and public order offences (0.30 times).

The largest rises on the year were in other sexual offences (+69%) and rape (+50%). The largest falls were in vehicle offences (−30%) and non-residential burglary (−14%). Robbery of business property and shoplifting are not compared with the year ending March 2025: from April 2025 the Home Office Counting Rules were clarified so that a theft from a shop in which violence is used or threatened against staff or anyone else is recorded as robbery of business property rather than shoplifting (ONS).

Recorded crime in Ribble Valley since the year ending March 2019

The chart shows police recorded crime per 1,000 residents in each year ending March from 2019 to 2026. Ribble Valley's rate was below the England and Wales rate in every one of those 8 years. The series starts in the year ending March 2019 because the share of crimes in the Lancashire Police area not assigned to a district moved from 0.5% in the year ending March 2018 to 1.7% in the year ending March 2019, which changes district totals without any change in crime.

Changes in how forces record crime move these figures as well as changes in crime (methodology).

Districts in the Lancashire Police area, the year ending March 2026

Of the 14 districts in the Lancashire Police area with a figure for the year ending March 2026, Ribble Valley had the lowest rate.

Source: Home Office police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables (released 23 July 2026), gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Financial years, excluding fraud; how they differ from the street-level figures: methodology.

Every one of the 8 nearest districts has a higher crime rate than Ribble Valley.

Of the 39 areas within Ribble Valley, Whalley Nethertown had the highest crime rate (118.0 per 1,000) and Hurst Green & Whitewell the lowest (18.5), 6 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 17% of the crime recorded in Ribble Valley over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Ribble Avenue” (115).

Of the 2,570 crimes in Ribble Valley with a recorded outcome, 25% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 2.9% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 741 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

Ribble Valley has an estimated population of 65,794 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has less social housing (8.0%, against 17.1%), fewer households without a car (11%, against 23%) and fewer students (5.2%, against 7.9%). On the England IoD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up Ribble Valley average decile 8.0 (1 = most deprived), less deprived than average.

Police-recorded crime from data.police.uk (September 2017 to August 2026), ONS population estimates and Census 2021. Definitions and limitations: methodology.