Vehicle crime by area
Car crime in Watford
Watford (shire district) averaged 696 police-recorded vehicle offences a year in 2024/25 and 2025/26, against 42,715 privately kept licensed cars: a rate of 16.3 per 1,000 cars, 1.35× the England and Wales rate of 12.1. It ranks 65 of 316 local authorities (1 is highest).
Data to 2026-03-31 · Page updated 2026-09-28 · Publisher: 73 Auto
- Offences per 1,000 cars
- 16.3
- 696 offences a year, 2024/25 and 2025/26
- vs England & Wales
- 1.35×
- national rate 12.1
- Rank
- 65 of 316
- 7 of 164 shire districts
How Watford compares
Official data. Watford's rate is 108% above the median local authority (7.8), which puts it in the highest quarter of the 316 areas.
Among the 164 shire districts, it is 158% above the middle one (6.3) and ranks 7: in the highest tenth of its type.
| Comparison | Per 1,000 cars | Watford vs it |
|---|---|---|
| Watford | 16.3 | — |
| England and Wales (all offences ÷ all cars) | 12.1 | 1.35× |
| Median of 316 areas | 7.8 | 2.08× |
| All shire districts pooled | 7.1 | 2.30× |
| Median of shire districts | 6.3 | 2.58× |
Areas ranked either side
| Rank | Area | Type | Per 1,000 cars |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | Epping Forest | shire district | 16.6 |
| 63 | Blackburn with Darwen | unitary authority | 16.6 |
| 64 | Brentwood | shire district | 16.4 |
| 65 | Watford | shire district | 16.3 |
| 66 | Cambridge | shire district | 15.9 |
| 67 | Reading | unitary authority | 15.7 |
| 68 | Rochdale | metropolitan district | 15.4 |
How the 73 Auto insurance estimate treats Watford
73 Auto estimate, not a quote. Watford's vehicle-crime index is 1.35 (its rate ÷ the national rate). That is inside the range the model uses unchanged. The collision part of the premium is multiplied by 1.33 (index^0.94) and the theft part by 1.35 (index^1).
Against the UK-average area (index 0.92), that makes the estimate for the reference driver (age 48, clean record, group 20 car) about 35% higher. The estimate uses your postcode district's index, listed below, not the authority figure directly. The area weighting was fitted to 7 published area premiums (leave-one-out error 13% against 19% with no area effect). See how 73 Auto estimates insurance.
Postcode districts mapped to Watford
Districts where most privately kept cars are in Watford. A district's index is the car-weighted average of the authorities it covers, so the 2 that cross into a neighbouring authority differ from Watford's 1.35. The last column is the 73 Auto estimate relativity for the reference driver.
| District | Cars | Index | Estimate vs UK-average area |
|---|---|---|---|
| WD17 | 8,551 | 1.35 | 1.35× |
| WD18 | 10,279 | 1.30 | 1.31× |
| WD24 | 10,160 | 1.35 | 1.35× |
| WD25 | 15,515 | 1.20 | 1.23× |
Limitations
Police-recorded crime only: unreported offences are missing, and recording practice varies between forces.
The rate is per car registered to a keeper in Watford, not per car on its streets. Where many commuters or visitors park, offences against their cars count here while the cars count elsewhere, which pushes the rate up.
Offences a police force did not assign to an area are shared across its areas by car numbers. Scotland and Northern Ireland are not covered.
Estimate insurance for a car kept in Watford
Enter a UK registration, then add your postcode to see how your district's vehicle-crime index moves that car's insurance estimate. Your first check is free and shows the vehicle summary and its headline ownership cost. The category-by-category breakdown is part of a paid check.
UK number plate or 17-character VIN
Where these figures come from
- Official data: Police recorded crime by Community Safety Partnership, year ending March 2025 and March 2026 — Home Office. Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Official data: Licensed vehicles by small area (VEH0125), privately kept cars, 2026 Q2 — Department for Transport. Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Official data: Postcode to LSOA to local authority lookup (August 2026) — Office for National Statistics (Open Geography Portal). Open Government Licence v3.0; contains OS data (c) Crown copyright and database right; contains Royal Mail data (c) Royal Mail copyright and database right; contains National Statistics data (c) Crown copyright and database right.
- 73 Auto analysis: area index and insurance relativities from the Insurance V2 model (insurance-v2.0) — 73 Auto. Our own calculation from the sources above.
Figures labelled as 73 Auto estimates are our own analysis of these sources, set out in the methodology and data sources. To report a factual error, see corrections.