Official figures kept by Devon and Cornwall Police reveal where the most burglaries happen in Devon - broken down by ward and number of residents.

St Peter and the Waterfront, Plymouth had more burglaries per head last year than any other neighbourhood in Devon. Figures from Police UK show that there were 254 burglaries in the ward in 2018.

According to the latest population estimates that means there were 15 burglaries for every 1,000 people that live there. That's higher than any other council ward in the county.

Of all the crimes that took place in the ward, three per cent were burglaries. It is worth noting that the figures include both residential and non
residential burglaries - so areas with low populations and lots of shops getting burgled will see a higher rate.


In 67 per cent of cases, burglary cases in St Peter and the Waterfront were closed with no suspect identified by police. Only 10 of the St Peter and the Waterfront Plymouth burglaries had resulted in someone going to prison at the time the data was published.

That's out of a total of 25 which had gone to court. There were 26 cases that were dropped, and 32 had another outcome or were still under investigation at the time the data was published.

The data was taken from the Police UK database. That means there may be some location inaccuracies, as Police UK
slightly round the location of crimes. Therefore some crimes that have taken place near council ward boundaries may have been recorded in a neighbouring council ward.


After St Peter and the Waterfront, Tormohun in Torbay was the worst neighbourhood in Devon for burglaries (10 for every 1,000 residents).
That was followed by Barnstaple Central Town, North Devon (9 for every 1,000 residents), Roundham-with-Hyde, Torbay (nine for every 1,000), and Drake, Plymouth (nine for every 1,000).

Looking nationally, the worst ward for burglaries was London’s West End. There were 83 burglaries there in 2018 for every 1,000 residents.

On average, across England and Wales there were 429,446 burglaries that took place last year - equivalent to seven for every 1,000 people.