Crime in South Ribble: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (3,460), anti-social behaviour (1,960) and criminal damage and arson (701) made up 69% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 196th of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the lower half.

The year to August 2026 had the least recorded crime in South Ribble of any year here (8,894 crimes). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it fell 14%, 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 theft from the person (89% below) and robbery (66% below) were well below it. On the year before, drugs rose from 132 to 157, while anti-social behaviour fell from 3,268 to 1,960 and vehicle crime fell from 347 to 293.

What each category covers: crime categories.

6,580 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in South Ribble in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 56.7 per 1,000 residents, lower than the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was almost unchanged on the year ending March 2025 (6,563), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, South Ribble had the 67th 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 South Ribble is an undercount.

Offences recorded in South Ribble, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was violence without injury, with 1,142 offences (17% 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 theft from the person (0.10 times), robbery of personal property (0.34 times) and trafficking of drugs (0.35 times).

The largest rises on the year were in arson (+37%) and rape (+25%). The largest falls were in non-residential burglary (−48%) and bicycle theft (−34%). 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 South Ribble 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. South Ribble'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, South Ribble had the 4th 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 South Ribble; the highest is Blackpool district (183.0 per 1,000) and the lowest Ribble Valley (50.3).

Of the 32 areas within South Ribble, Bamber Bridge West had the highest crime rate (147.5 per 1,000) and Longton & Hutton West the lowest (27.0), 5 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 18% of the crime recorded in South Ribble over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Supermarket” (477).

Of the 6,934 crimes in South Ribble with a recorded outcome, 28% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 3.7% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 1,960 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

South Ribble has an estimated population of 116,113 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has less social housing (10%, against 17%), fewer households without a car (14%, against 23%) and less private renting (13%, against 20%). On the England IoD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up South Ribble average decile 7.0 (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.