Yes, clearly safer than the borough around it. Crime runs about a fifth below the Basingstoke and Deane average. Almost nobody is out of work. Overcrowding barely exists. The weaker figure is what happens after a crime is reported, not how often one happens.
Police records for the year from June 2025 to May 2026 put the Oakley area at about 57 crimes per 1,000 residents. That's 635 recorded crimes over the twelve months. The published rate sits roughly 21% below the local-authority average. For an area this size, that's a clear gap in Oakley's favour.
The borough rate across Basingstoke and Deane over the same period was about 72 crimes per 1,000 residents, against Oakley's 57. Most of that borough figure comes from the town itself, where the shops, the stations and the nightlife are. The villages to the west of the town sit comfortably below it.
The area is spread out and comfortable. Population density averages about 1,700 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods, which means houses with gardens rather than blocks of flats. Unemployment is about 2%, and about 1% of households are overcrowded. That's a settled place with space around the houses and very little of the pressure seen in dense neighbourhoods. None of this guarantees safety, but it describes the kind of place the crime figures come from.
The mix of crime needs care. Violence and sexual offences make up about 50% of recorded crime locally, against about 35% nationally. It's the largest category almost everywhere, and it covers a wide legal range that includes common assault where nobody was injured. Here, though, its share is higher than the national norm, and a buyer should know that. Burglary accounts for about 8% of local crime, against about 4% nationally, which fits a village of detached houses set back from the road, where the privacy works for burglars as well as for the owners. Anti-social behaviour runs at about 10%, below the national 16%. Criminal damage and arson at about 8% and public order at about 7% sit close to their national shares of 7% each. Other theft is about 5%, against about 7% nationally. So there's less low-level nuisance than usual, a burglary share above the national norm, and a violence share that should be read alongside its broad definition.
Once a crime is reported, the figures are weaker. Hampshire Constabulary, the force covering Oakley, charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally. That puts it 38th of 42 forces. About 35% of cases are closed with no suspect identified. These are force-wide figures, not Oakley's own, and they measure what happens after a crime rather than how often crimes happen. They are still worth knowing before you rely on a phone call to put things right after a break-in.
Safety is one of Oakley's real strengths, with crime clearly lower than the borough's. The weaker part is how often Hampshire Constabulary gets a case as far as a charge, which is below the national rate.