Didcot is less safe than the countryside around it. About 66 crimes are recorded each year for every 1,000 residents. That is roughly a third above the rest of South Oxfordshire. Violence makes up a bigger share than it does nationally. When a crime is reported, the local force charges someone less often than most.
Thames Valley Police recorded crime in Didcot at about 66 per 1,000 residents in the year to May 2026, about 34% above the South Oxfordshire average. That rate covers 2,532 recorded crimes over the twelve months from June 2025. Both are published figures, and the rate is calculated on the police's own statistical population for the area.
The district rate across South Oxfordshire is about 49 per 1,000 for the same period, against Didcot's 66. The comparison is with a district made up largely of villages under the Downs, and Didcot is one town of about 35,000 people competing with all of them. The police.uk street map for the specific street over the past year is a better guide than either average.
Didcot is a dense town, at about 5,170 people per square kilometre averaged across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment was about 2% at the last census, and about 3% of households were overcrowded. Those figures describe a busy, working town with little hardship. The army's bomb disposal regiment is based at Vauxhall Barracks in the town, so at least one kind of danger is very well covered.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 44% of Didcot's recorded crime, against about 35% nationally. That heading is a broad legal grouping that includes common assault where nobody was hurt, and it is the largest category almost everywhere. The town's share is higher than the national one, but the category is less alarming than its label. After that the mix looks like most of England. Anti-social behaviour is about 14% here against 16% nationally, shoplifting about 9% against 8%, criminal damage and arson about 7% against 7%, public order about 7% against 7%, and other theft about 7% against 7%. Apart from the violence figure, Didcot's crime is ordinary in kind and higher in amount.
Charging is decided force-wide, so these figures are Thames Valley Police's and not Didcot's own. The force charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, and ranks 37th of 42 forces. In about 37% of its cases, nobody was identified at all. These numbers tell you what happens after a crime and nothing about how likely one is. Reporting a crime in Thames Valley is the right thing to do and an unpromising bet.
Safety is Didcot's weak spot. The crime rate runs well above the district around it, and the force's charging record gives little comfort afterwards.