Safest places to live in the UK 2026

What the data shows

Across the 303 UK local authorities with reliable police recorded crime data, rates range from 180 per 10,000 people in Shetland Islands at the safe end, to 5,728 per 10,000 in City of London at the high end. The places that tend to come out lowest are rural and coastal districts with smaller populations and limited central night-time economies. Bigger city centres, university towns and areas with large daytime populations relative to their resident base tend to sit higher up the chart.

"Safest" here means the lowest recorded crime rate, measured as the number of crimes recorded by police per 10,000 population. Data comes from the Home Office (England and Wales, year ending December 2025) and the Scottish Government (2024-25). Rates are calculated using resident population, so daytime workers and tourists do not appear in the denominator. That helps with comparability, but does not fully correct for the influence of city-centre activity.

Top three safest areas

• Shetland Islands records around 180 crimes per 10,000 people, well below the average of 765. Sparsely populated Scottish region with a small resident base.
• Na h-Eileanan Siar records around 220 crimes per 10,000 people, well below the average of 765. Sparsely populated Scottish region with a small resident base.
• Orkney Islands records around 234 crimes per 10,000 people, well below the average of 765. Sparsely populated Scottish region with a small resident base.

A note on cross-border comparisons: Scottish and English / Welsh crime data use slightly different classification systems and cover different time periods, so the raw numbers should be treated with caution when putting Scottish areas next to English or Welsh ones. The ranking is still useful as a directional read but precise like-for-like comparisons across the border are not.