Crime in Rother: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (2,378), anti-social behaviour (1,436) and shoplifting (666) made up 65% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 210th of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the lower half.

Recorded crime in Rother peaked in the year to August 2020 (7,579 crimes) and was lowest in the year to August 2023 (6,360). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it rose 8%, 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 robbery (68% below) and bicycle theft (63% below) were well below it. On the year before, possession of weapons rose from 68 to 87 and anti-social behaviour rose from 1,174 to 1,436, while shoplifting fell from 862 to 666 and other crime fell from 170 to 144.

What each category covers: crime categories.

5,527 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in Rother in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 57.5 per 1,000 residents, lower than the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was down 10% on the year ending March 2025 (6,172), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, Rother had the 72nd 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 Sussex Police area in the year ending March 2026, 1.8% 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 Rother is a slight undercount.

Offences recorded in Rother, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was violence without injury, with 855 offences (15% 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 trafficking of drugs (0.25 times), possession of drugs (0.34 times) and bicycle theft (0.43 times).

The largest rises on the year were in arson (+48%). The largest falls were in non-residential burglary (−33%) and residential burglary (−20%). 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 Rother since the year ending March 2013

The chart shows police recorded crime per 1,000 residents in each year ending March from 2013 to 2026. Rother's rate was below the England and Wales rate in every one of those 14 years. Changes in how forces record crime move these figures as well as changes in crime (methodology).

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

Of the 13 districts in the Sussex Police area with a figure for the year ending March 2026, Rother had the 6th 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.

5 of the 8 nearest districts have a higher crime rate than Rother; the highest is Hastings district (146.2 per 1,000) and the lowest Wealden (54.6).

Of the 37 areas within Rother, Bexhill Sackville had the highest crime rate (155.0 per 1,000) and Brede & Udimore the lowest (22.9), 7 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 21% of the crime recorded in Rother over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Parking Area” (347).

Of the 5,487 crimes in Rother with a recorded outcome, 45% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 4.4% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 1,436 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

Rother has an estimated population of 96,133 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has an older population (33%, against 19%), more retired residents (36%, against 22%) and fewer students (4.3%, against 7.9%). On the England IoD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up Rother average decile 4.8 (1 = most deprived), close to the middle.

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