Yes, and not marginally. Recorded crime across the area runs at roughly half the rate for Somerset as a whole. The categories that fill the count are the ones that fill it everywhere. Nothing in the record points to a place with a problem. The real adjustment is for people arriving from a city, who tend to lose all sense of scale about what actually counts as an incident.
Over the twelve months to May 2026, 775 offences were recorded across the Ilminster area, which works out at a published rate of about 47 crimes per 1,000 people. That is roughly 50% below the local-authority average. It is worth saying plainly that this is a published rate rather than a count somebody divided by a population, because the rate and the headcount use different statistical bases, and the difference between them is where most confident online arithmetic goes wrong.
The comparison only means something with both numbers in view. Somerset as a whole records about 93 crimes per 1,000 people over the same twelve months. This area records about 47. Same force, same recording standards, same period, half the rate.
The neighbourhood texture behind those figures is what anyone would guess from a walk around. Population density averages around 1,700 people per square kilometre across the area's small statistical areas, unemployment sits at about 2%, and around 1% of households are overcrowded. None of that causes anything on its own, and low unemployment has never yet stopped anybody stealing a trailer. It describes the kind of settled, low-churn place that tends to produce this shape of record rather than explaining it.
The mix repays a closer look, because the biggest number in it is the one most likely to alarm someone reading quickly. Violence and sexual offences account for about 47% of recorded crime here, against about 35% nationally. That grouping is the largest category almost everywhere, and it is a broad statutory range that includes common assault where nobody was injured, so a high share of a small total is not the same as a violent town. Anti-social behaviour makes up about 13% locally against about 16% nationally, so lower than the national pattern rather than higher. Criminal damage and arson sit at about 9% against about 7%, other theft at about 8% against about 7%, and public order is identical to the national share at about 7%. Burglary runs at about 6% against about 4% nationally, which is the one worth a decent lock rather than a sleepless night. All of those are shares of 775 offences, so a handful of incidents moves a percentage point.
What happens after a report is a separate question from how much crime there is, and the answer belongs to the force rather than the town. Avon and Somerset Constabulary charged a suspect in about 11% of cases over the twelve months to May 2026, against about 12% nationally, which places it 24th of the 42 forces in England and Wales. About 30% of cases were closed with no suspect identified at all. That is the honest answer to the question people actually mean when they ask whether the police will catch anyone, and it is roughly the same disappointing answer across most of the country.
Safety is the single strongest thing this area has going for it, and the record is not close enough to the county average to argue about. Anyone who buys here and still worries at night is bringing the worry with them.