High Wycombe recorded 7,422 crimes in the 12 months to April 2026, a crime rate of 73.62 per 1,000 people: about 25 per cent above the Buckinghamshire average of 58.93 and about 9 per cent above the England rate of 67.79, but below every large city we compare. The total fell 7.5 per cent on the previous year (8,025) and is 14 per cent below the 2023 peak of 8,669. Violence and sexual offences make up 41 per cent of it; shoplifting and drugs offences run about a third above the national rate, while burglary, pickpocketing and bicycle theft are well below it. The figures describe recorded incidents, not the people who live in the town.
Data: police-recorded crime, 12 months to April 2026, counts and rates from CrimeRate’s analysis of data.police.uk (Thames Valley Police, High Wycombe; updated 7 June 2026); neighbourhood counts from police.uk, 12 months to August 2026 (Wycombe South to July 2026). Shares and ratios are our own arithmetic on those figures. Updated 28 October 2026: CrimeRate’s 12 months to April 2026 (updated 7 June 2026) re-checked today and still the latest release; data.police.uk latest month August 2026. The England rate (67.79) is as checked on 12 October from the same release.
What is the crime rate in High Wycombe?
73.62 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026, according to CrimeRate. That is 7,422 offences, not counting 1,015 anti-social behaviour reports (8,437 incidents with them). The rate is about 25 per cent above Buckinghamshire (58.93), 20 per cent above the South East (61.44) and about 9 per cent above England (67.79). A year earlier High Wycombe recorded 8,025 offences at 79.66 per 1,000.
On CrimeRate’s own comparison with England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined, High Wycombe is only 2.3 per cent above average; the 9 per cent figure uses the England-only rate. High Wycombe is policed by Thames Valley Police, the same force as Slough and Reading, and by rate it ranks seventh of the 35 Buckinghamshire places CrimeRate lists (see the county table below).
Is High Wycombe safe compared with other towns and cities?
High Wycombe has a lower crime rate than Aylesbury and every large city in the table. Its 73.62 per 1,000 is almost identical to Luton (74.46), 7 per cent below Cardiff and well below Birmingham, Bristol or Leeds. It sits above the England average because, like most large towns, it concentrates a shopping centre, a bus and rail hub and an evening economy in a narrow valley. All rates below come from the same source and method.
| Place | Per 1,000, 12 months to April 2026 | Compared with High Wycombe |
|---|---|---|
| Westminster (London) | 125.00 | 70% higher |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 46% higher |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 45% higher |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 45% higher |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 43% higher |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 42% higher |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 33% higher |
| Aylesbury | 87.22 | 18% higher |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 14% higher |
| Newcastle | 82.69 | 12% higher |
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 8% higher |
| Luton | 74.46 | 1% higher |
| High Wycombe | 73.62 | – |
| England | 67.79 | 8% lower |
| Buckinghamshire | 58.93 | 20% lower |
For the detail on comparable places, read Luton crime rate, is Wolverhampton safe?, is Cardiff safe? and is Bristol safe?. For the capital, start with is London safe?.
Is High Wycombe the most dangerous town in Buckinghamshire?
No. High Wycombe records the most crime of any single place in Buckinghamshire, 7,422 of the county’s 59,531 offences (12.5 per cent), because it is the largest town. Per head, Aylesbury is higher at 87.22 per 1,000, and several Milton Keynes districts are higher still (CrimeRate’s Buckinghamshire is the ceremonial county, which includes Milton Keynes; see is Milton Keynes safe?). The towns and villages around High Wycombe are far lower: Marlow 34.36, Hazlemere 31.28 and Hughenden 24.19 per 1,000.
| Place (Buckinghamshire) | Crimes, 12 months to April 2026 | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Woughton on the Green (Milton Keynes) | 2,341 | 170.44 |
| Bletchley and Fenny Stratford (Milton Keynes) | 3,008 | 113.06 |
| Aylesbury | 6,399 | 87.22 |
| High Wycombe | 7,422 | 73.62 |
| Chesham | 1,487 | 57.57 |
| Beaconsfield | 793 | 54.37 |
| Amersham | 734 | 40.06 |
| Marlow | 749 | 34.36 |
| Chepping Wycombe | 534 | 31.35 |
| Hazlemere | 305 | 31.28 |
| Hughenden | 218 | 24.19 |
Source: CrimeRate Buckinghamshire, a selection of the 35 places it lists. Buckinghamshire as a whole recorded 59,531 offences (58.93 per 1,000), almost unchanged from 59,766 (59.70) a year earlier. High Wycombe ranks seventh of the 35 by rate, behind Aylesbury and five Milton Keynes districts.
What kind of crime is recorded in High Wycombe?
Violence and sexual offences are the largest category, with 3,073 offences, 41.4 per cent of the total. The 13 categories below add up to exactly 7,422; anti-social behaviour (1,015 reports) comes on top. The index is CrimeRate’s comparison with the national rate (1.00 = average).
| Category | High Wycombe, 12 months to April 2026 | Per 1,000 | Share of total | Index vs national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence and sexual offences | 3,073 | 30.43 | 41.4% | 1.00 |
| Shoplifting | 977 | 9.69 | 13.2% | 1.36 |
| Other theft | 661 | 6.55 | 8.9% | 1.15 |
| Public order | 644 | 6.37 | 8.7% | 1.10 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 562 | 5.58 | 7.6% | 0.89 |
| Vehicle crime | 494 | 4.89 | 6.7% | 1.14 |
| Drugs | 416 | 4.16 | 5.6% | 1.35 |
| Burglary | 171 | 1.71 | 2.3% | 0.55 |
| Other crime | 158 | 1.58 | 2.1% | 0.85 |
| Robbery | 123 | 1.23 | 1.7% | 1.04 |
| Theft from the person | 66 | 0.66 | 0.9% | 0.43 |
| Possession of weapons | 52 | 0.52 | 0.7% | 0.61 |
| Bicycle theft | 25 | 0.25 | 0.3% | 0.34 |
Four things stand out. First, shoplifting is the town’s distinctive crime: 977 offences, 13.2 per cent of the total, at 9.69 per 1,000. That is 36 per cent above the national rate and 62 per cent above the Buckinghamshire rate of 5.97, which fits a town with a large regional shopping centre that draws customers from across the county. Second, drugs offences (4.16 per 1,000, index 1.35) are 82 per cent above the county rate of 2.28. Drugs offences are mostly found by police, so this partly reflects how actively local teams are working: all three Wycombe neighbourhood teams list drugs as a current priority. Third, violence sits exactly at the national average (index 1.00). The category is broad and includes harassment, stalking, domestic incidents and assaults without injury, much of it between people who know each other. Fourth, the crimes people fear most at home and on the street are low: burglary is 45 per cent below the national rate (index 0.55), theft from the person 57 per cent below (0.43), and only 25 bicycle thefts were recorded in a year. Anti-social behaviour, at 10.06 per 1,000, is also below the national rate (index 0.71), though above the county’s 7.11.
Is crime in High Wycombe going up or down?
Down. CrimeRate records 8,025 offences (79.66 per 1,000) in the 12 months to April 2025 and 7,422 (73.62) in the 12 months to April 2026: 603 fewer, a fall of 7.5 per cent. Buckinghamshire as a whole was almost flat (down 0.4 per cent), so High Wycombe improved faster than its county. The longer series peaked at 8,669 offences (89.00 per 1,000) in 2023; the latest year is 14 per cent below that peak, though still above the 6,024 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.
| Year (12 months to April) | High Wycombe crimes | High Wycombe per 1,000 | Buckinghamshire per 1,000 | South East per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 5,347 | 55.62 | 45.46 | 55.04 |
| 2018 | 5,501 | 56.55 | 49.01 | 63.85 |
| 2019 | 6,024 | 62.03 | 54.12 | 65.82 |
| 2020 | 6,435 | 66.62 | 55.94 | 65.97 |
| 2021 | 6,537 | 68.11 | 55.62 | 61.36 |
| 2022 | 7,837 | 81.46 | 63.22 | 68.58 |
| 2023 | 8,669 | 89.00 | 66.50 | 68.83 |
| 2024 | 7,718 | 77.82 | 60.92 | 65.86 |
| 2025 | 8,025 | 79.66 | 59.70 | 63.35 |
| 2026 | 7,422 | 73.62 | 58.93 | 61.44 |
Source: CrimeRate High Wycombe, yearly rows to April 2026 (checked 28 October 2026; the partial 2016 row is left out). Over ten years High Wycombe’s count rose 38.8 per cent (5,347 to 7,422) and its rate 32.4 per cent, slightly faster than Buckinghamshire’s 29.6 per cent (our arithmetic). The gap to the county widened from 22 per cent in 2017 to 34 per cent at the 2023 peak and has narrowed back to 25 per cent. High Wycombe was above the South East rate in eight of the ten years, below it only in 2018 and 2019, and the margin was widest in 2023 (89.00 against 68.83).
Which parts of High Wycombe record the most crime?
Thames Valley Police polices the town through three neighbourhood teams, Wycombe South, Wycombe West and Wycombe East, and police.uk publishes 12-month counts for each, including anti-social behaviour. Wycombe South, the team that covers the town centre, the bus station and the Eden shopping centre, records the most.
| Neighbourhood (police.uk) | Incidents in 12 months | Latest month | Top categories in latest month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wycombe South (to July 2026) | 3,673 | Jul 2026: 332 | Violence 107, shoplifting 47, anti-social behaviour 39, other theft 39 |
| Wycombe West | 3,052 | Aug 2026: 262 | Violence 92, anti-social behaviour 54, public order 22, other theft 20 |
| Wycombe East | 1,693 | Aug 2026: 133 | Violence 49, anti-social behaviour 23, other theft 15, public order 12 |
Source: police.uk neighbourhood pages, September 2025 to August 2026 (Wycombe South August 2025 to July 2026, the latest month its page shows). These are counts for team areas of different sizes, not rates, and the team boundaries are not the same as CrimeRate’s High Wycombe, so the totals should not be added or compared with the town figure. Wycombe South’s published priorities are anti-social behaviour in the town centre (the bus station, the Eden centre and a Public Spaces Protection Order against street drinking and begging), drug offences and speeding. Wycombe West names drug-related crime, speeding and seasonal anti-social behaviour; Wycombe East names drugs and linked anti-social behaviour around Totteridge and Micklefield, and speeding.
Is High Wycombe busier for crime in summer?
Yes, in the neighbourhood data. Across the three teams, for the eleven months all three pages share (September 2025 to July 2026), recorded incidents were lowest in April 2026 (650) and highest in June 2026 (816), 26 per cent higher. June and July together held 21 per cent of the incidents in those eleven months. Wycombe West alone jumped from 259 in May to 354 in June. Longer evenings and more people out mean more recorded incidents, not necessarily a higher risk for any one person.
Is High Wycombe town centre safe at night?
High Wycombe town centre is generally safe at night with ordinary care: theft from the person was only 66 offences in the 12 months to April 2026, and the town’s overall rate (73.62 per 1,000) is below every large city we compare. Police street-level data carries no time of day, so it cannot say how much crime happens after dark. What it shows is that violence and shoplifting are the largest categories in Wycombe South, which covers the centre, and that the local team is targeting anti-social behaviour around the bus station and the Eden centre, plus street drinking and begging. Theft from the person is rare across the town, 66 offences in a year, so pickpocketing and snatch theft are not the everyday risk. Keep to lit, busy routes between the High Street, the bus station and the railway station, plan your way home before a night out, and use licensed taxis. Check the streets you will use in the postcode checker.
One gap matters for the station. Crimes on the railway are recorded by British Transport Police, and data.police.uk lists BTP crime data as not provided for every month from March 2025 to August 2026, so incidents inside High Wycombe station are missing from recent police maps, including ours. Thames Valley Police itself has no crime-data gaps listed for 2025 or 2026. Read how the police crime map works for the other limits.
Is High Wycombe a safe place to live?
For most residents, yes, with the usual caveats about averages. Burglary is only 2.3 per cent of recorded crime (171 offences in a year, 23 per cent below the Buckinghamshire rate), so the risk most households face at home is low. Vehicle crime, at 4.89 per 1,000, is a little above the national and county rates, so off-street or well-lit parking is worth it. The surrounding areas, such as Hazlemere, Hughenden and Marlow, record less than half High Wycombe’s rate, and the town-wide number hides large differences between streets. Compare two postcodes before you choose, and read how to check crime in your area for the limits of any single number. This page describes what was recorded, not the people who live here.
How do I check a specific street or postcode in High Wycombe?
- Enter your postcode in the postcode checker to see 12 months of police-recorded crime and the trend by month.
- Add a second postcode, for example one in Hazlemere or Downley, to compare two areas side by side.
- Zoom into the UK crime map to see what was recorded near a street.
These figures describe areas, not addresses. Police data covers reported crime only, and each crime is shown at a nearby anonymised point. Read where our crime data comes from for the limits. CrimeRate’s rate uses its own population base, which counts people who work and shop in a place as well as residents, so rates from different websites are not directly comparable; the town and city rates on this page all come from one source.
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High Wycombe crime FAQ
What is the crime rate in High Wycombe?
High Wycombe recorded 73.62 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026 (7,422 offences), against 67.79 for England and 58.93 for Buckinghamshire (CrimeRate). Anti-social behaviour, 1,015 reports, is not included.
Is High Wycombe safe?
Broadly, yes. Its crime rate is about 9 per cent above the England average but below Aylesbury and every large city we compare, and it fell 7.5 per cent in the latest year. Burglary, pickpocketing and bicycle theft are well below the national rate; shoplifting is the main category above it.
Is High Wycombe safer than Aylesbury?
On the recorded figures, yes. Aylesbury’s 87.22 per 1,000 is about 18 per cent higher than High Wycombe’s 73.62, even though High Wycombe records more crime in total (7,422 against 6,399) because it is the bigger town.
Is crime in High Wycombe going up?
No. Recorded crime fell from 8,025 to 7,422 offences between the 12 months to April 2025 and the 12 months to April 2026, a drop of 7.5 per cent, and is 14 per cent below the 2023 peak of 8,669.
Is High Wycombe safe at night?
Mostly, yes. Police data has no time of day, but theft from the person was just 66 offences in the 12 months to April 2026 and the town centre team’s focus is anti-social behaviour around the bus station and the Eden centre. Incidents inside the railway station are missing from police maps from March 2025 to August 2026.
Where does this data come from?
Police-recorded crime published on data.police.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0, analysed by CrimeRate for counts and rates, and police.uk neighbourhood pages for local counts. See where our crime data comes from.
Other towns and cities: Watford, Luton, Wolverhampton, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Reading, Slough and Oxford (also Thames Valley Police), Milton Keynes, Southampton and London. In an emergency call 999.