Baldock is less safe than the district around it, with about 91 recorded crimes for every 1,000 residents. That is well above the North Hertfordshire average. Unemployment is low and overcrowding is rare. The crime mix looks much like England's, only there is more of it. A buyer moving here should expect a lively police log in an otherwise orderly town.
The police recorded 1,374 crimes in Baldock in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a published rate of about 91 per 1,000 residents. That puts the town roughly 37% above the average for North Hertfordshire. The rate covers a full twelve months, so one rowdy weekend can't account for it.
North Hertfordshire as a whole runs at about 67 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Baldock's 91. On their own, both numbers look unremarkable. Side by side, the gap is the part a buyer should look at.
On the Office for National Statistics' figures, Baldock is packed fairly tight for a market town, at an average of about 4,370 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 2% and about 2% of households are overcrowded. That is a town in work with room at home, and none of it accounts for the crime figure by itself. The police.uk street map shows recorded crime around a specific postcode, and it is the quickest way to see whether the street you want sits near the busy end of that 91 or the calm end.
By category, violence and sexual offences make up 37% of Baldock's crime, close to the 35% share across England and Wales. That broad statutory heading covers everything from serious assault to common assault without injury, and it leads almost everywhere. Anti-social behaviour is 19% here against 16% nationally. Other theft, meaning property taken from places other than shops, homes and vehicles, runs at 11% against 7%. That is the widest gap in the mix, and it points to things left unattended more than to anything sinister. Criminal damage and arson make up 9% against 7%, and vehicle crime 6% against 5%. Shoplifting is the one category below the national share, at 6% against 8%.
Hertfordshire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 11% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 23rd of 42 forces in England and Wales. About 40% of its cases over the same twelve months closed with no suspect identified. Both figures cover the whole force area and describe what happens after a report. They measure how cases are resolved, not how much crime Baldock has.
Safety is a weak point for Baldock. Too much crime gets recorded for the town to call itself safe, even if very little of it is out of the ordinary.