Cinderford is less safe than the district around it, and you notice that more in the nuisance than in serious danger. It records more crime than the rest of the Forest of Dean. Anti-social behaviour makes up a bigger slice than it does nationally. Shoplifting makes up a smaller one. It's a town with a rough edge, and a buyer should check that edge street by street.
Gloucestershire Constabulary's published figures put Cinderford at about 51 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, roughly 20% above the Forest of Dean average. That rate rests on 852 crimes over the twelve months. A full year of figures can't be blamed on one bad weekend.
For the Forest of Dean as a whole, the rate is about 43 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Cinderford's 51. That's a clear gap, and in a district this rural the comparison is with villages where the busiest thing after dark is often the main road.
Cinderford is packed more tightly than its surroundings suggest, at an average of about 3,200 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 3% and about 3% of households are overcrowded. These describe the place and explain none of the crime. On those two measures the town looks ordinary, and its density is what sets it apart from the forest around it.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 40% of recorded crime here, against about 35% nationally. That category is the largest almost everywhere and includes common assault with no injury, so the bigger number is a few points above normal and no cause for alarm. Anti-social behaviour shows the clearest gap, at about 26% of crime against about 16% nationally. Criminal damage and arson account for about 8% (7% nationally) and public order offences about 7%, level with the national share. Theft runs the other way: other theft is about 5% against 7% nationally, and shoplifting about 4% against 8%. Taken together, Cinderford's crime leans towards nuisance and noise more than taking things. The police's online crime map is worth checking for the exact street, because nuisance tends to cluster around particular spots.
After a crime is reported, Gloucestershire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, and comes 39th of 42 forces on that measure. About 33% of the force's cases close with no suspect identified. Those figures cover the whole force, apply across the county and say nothing about how safe Cinderford is. They describe what happens once something has already gone wrong, and on that the county's record is poor.
Safety is a weak point for Cinderford: crime runs higher than the surrounding district, it leans towards anti-social behaviour, and the local force solves less of it than most.