Gloucester is about as safe as the council area it sits in, which is a comparison made mostly against itself. Recorded crime runs at just under a hundred per thousand people a year. The mix of offences looks much like the rest of the country. The local force charges fewer suspects than most. Crime in the city is ordinary, and the police's follow-up is the weaker part.
Gloucestershire Constabulary recorded 12,342 crimes across Gloucester in the year to May 2026, a published rate of about 97 per 1,000 people. That puts the city level with its council area.
The rate across the whole Gloucester council area for the same year was about 95 per 1,000. The city holds most of that council area's population, so the comparison is close to measuring Gloucester against its own outskirts, and two points apart counts as level.
At the 2021 census, the city averaged about 5,600 people per square kilometre, unemployment was about 3% and about 4% of households were overcrowded. That is a dense, working city, with more doors, pavements and car parks for crime to be recorded on than a village has. Density describes how many people live close together, and on its own it explains nothing about why crimes happen.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 37% of Gloucester's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category is the largest almost everywhere, and it covers everything from serious assault to a push with no injury. Anti-social behaviour is about 20% here, against 16% nationally, which is the widest gap in the mix. Shoplifting is about 9% against 8%, public order about 8% against 7%, criminal damage and arson about 6% against 7%, and other theft about 6% against 7%. Apart from anti-social behaviour, Gloucester's offences follow the national pattern within a point or two. Police.uk maps crime street by street, and a year of reports for the exact road says more about a house than the city's average does.
The weaker part comes after a crime is reported. Gloucestershire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, and ranks 39th of 42 forces on that measure. About 33% of its cases close with no suspect identified. These are force-wide figures across the whole county, built from eight reported months of the year to May 2026, and they show what happens after a crime, not how likely one is. On those numbers, a Gloucester burglary victim is more likely to end up with a crime reference number than a court date.
Gloucester is a middling place for safety. Crime is no worse than the council area around it, though the force covering it charges fewer suspects than most.