Sidmouth is about as safe as the district it sits in, which means ordinary rather than exceptional. Roughly 50 recorded crimes per thousand people a year. East Devon as a whole runs at the same level. The mix underneath sits differently from the national one. Anyone arriving expecting a coastal town to be effectively crime-free is buying a postcard, not a postcode.
The published rate is about 50 recorded crimes per 1,000 people in the year to May 2026, on 724 recorded offences over those twelve months. That is a rate calculated on the statistical population base used for crime reporting, so it is not something to check by dividing one of those numbers into a headcount, and the answer you got would be wrong anyway. Take it as what it is: the standard measure, published, and unremarkable.
The comparison worth having is with the district. East Devon comes in at about 50 recorded crimes per 1,000 people over the same period, and Sidmouth sits about 1% above that, which is a rounding wobble rather than a difference. If a town is going to be indistinguishable from its district, this is what it looks like.
The texture behind those numbers is what you would expect of a small town wedged into a valley. Average population density across the town's neighbourhoods runs at about 2,985 people per square kilometre, unemployment is around 2%, and about 1% of households are overcrowded. None of that causes anything on its own. It describes a place where people are packed reasonably tightly along the valley floor, mostly in work, mostly with enough room.
The category split is where the town parts company with the national pattern. Violence and sexual offences make up about 47% of recorded crime here against about 35% across England and Wales, and that gap deserves an explanation rather than a gasp. It is a broad statutory grouping that includes common assault without injury, and it is the largest single category almost everywhere, including in places nobody worries about. Anti-social behaviour runs lower here than nationally, at about 10% against 16%. Other theft is about 9% against 7%, criminal damage and arson about 9% against 7%, and public order about 5% against 7%. Vehicle crime is about 4% here against 5% nationally. Read together, the shares are close to the national pattern on almost everything except the two that move in opposite directions.
Then there is the question people actually mean when they ask whether somewhere is safe, which is what happens after you dial the number. Devon and Cornwall Police charged a suspect in about 8% of cases over the twelve months to May 2026, against about 12% nationally, and the force ranks 42nd out of 42 forces on that measure. About 26% of cases were closed with no suspect identified at all. Those are force-wide figures, decided across the whole policing area rather than on your street, and they measure something different from the crime rate. A place can be quiet and still leave you filling in a crime reference number for the insurance and hearing nothing further.
Safety here lands squarely in the middle. The town is no more dangerous than the district around it and no safer, and the honest caveat is that the thing most likely to disappoint you is not the crime rate but what follows a report.