Stroud has a high crime rate for its size, about 68 recorded crimes for every 1,000 residents. That puts it well above the district around it. Antisocial behaviour and shoplifting take a bigger share of reports here than they do nationally. Violence takes a slightly smaller one. The town is busier with trouble than its hills make it look.
Gloucestershire Constabulary recorded 2,110 crimes in Stroud in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a published rate of about 68 per 1,000 residents. That rate is about 47% above the average for Stroud district.
Across the whole district, the rate for the same year was about 46 crimes per 1,000 residents, and Stroud's own was about 68. The district is mostly villages and farmland, and the town is where its shops, pubs, station and late buses all are. Living in the district's main town means you share its busiest streets with everyone else's evening out.
Stroud has about 3,460 people per square kilometre, which is dense for a Cotswold town and normal for a valley one. Unemployment is about 2% and about 2% of households are overcrowded. Those numbers describe a working, roomy town. They give no easy explanation for the crime count, and there is no reason to look for one there.
The mix is where the detail is. Violence and sexual offences make up about 32% of reports, a little below the 35% share across England and Wales, and that category takes in common assault where nobody was injured. Antisocial behaviour is about 24% here against 16% nationally, and shoplifting about 11% against 8%. Criminal damage and arson, other theft and public order offences each come in at around 5 to 6%, all a point or two below their national shares. In a town with 490 shops and 65 pubs on the business-rates list, the extra reports land roughly where you would expect them. Walk the street you are thinking of buying on after the pubs close, and look it up on the national police crime map, which shows reports by location.
What happens after a report is a separate question. Gloucestershire Constabulary charges a suspect in about 9% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which put it 39th of 42 forces over the year to May 2026, and about 33% of its cases closed with no suspect identified. That covers the whole county and is drawn from the eight months the force reported. It tells you how often a crime ends with somebody in court, and nothing about how likely one is to happen on your doorstep.
On safety, Stroud does poorly: the crime rate runs far above its own district's, the nuisance categories are heavier than the national picture, and a county force that rarely charges anyone offers little comfort once a report has been made.