CO3 crime rate and statistics

The CO3 postcode district, in the CO (Colchester) postcode area.

Updated October 2026.

Police published 2,908 street-crime records for CO3 from September 2025 to August 2026. That is 19.4% more than in the 12 months before. The rate is 88.6 per 1,000 residents counted in the Census 2021, against 89.7 for Essex Police. A residents-only rate reads high where many people visit. Police locations are approximate.

Last 12 published months

September 2025 to August 2026. Street-crime records include anti-social behaviour.

Street-crime records

2,908

Latest month (August 2026)

284

Year-on-year

+19.4%

Month-by-month totals

Show as a table
Month Street-crime records
September 2025 243
October 2025 289
November 2025 213
December 2025 203
January 2026 192
February 2026 197
March 2026 257
April 2026 211
May 2026 253
June 2026 281
July 2026 285
August 2026 284

Street-crime records per 1,000 residents

Published street-crime records (including anti-social behaviour), September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 usual residents in the Census 2021.

CO3

88.6

Essex Police

89.7

2,908 records and 32,811 residents. Residents-only rates overstate crime where many people visit who do not live there, such as city centres, stations, and retail parks. Residents are counted at March 2021 while records are current, so areas with many newer homes can read higher.

No England and Wales comparison is shown, because not every force involved has published every month of this window.

Rates cover England and Wales only. Residents: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 postcode estimates, Open Government Licence v3.0. How rates are built.

Top crime categories

Share of CO3 records in the same trailing window. The black line on each bar marks the England and Wales share for the same months.

Where records cluster in CO3

Published street-crime records in CO3, September 2025 to August 2026, grouped into hexagons

Records by part of CO3: the east 1,656, the west 874, the north-west 323, the south-east 304, the south-west 177, the north 75, the south 75, the north-east 66, the centre 46.

North is at the top. Each hexagon is about 290 m across, the size the crime map uses zoomed in, and holds at least one of CO3's postcodes; darker ones hold more records. Hexagons at the edge also hold records from neighbouring districts, and CO3's records placed outside these hexagons are not drawn, so the map's counts won't add up to the page's total. Police place each record at an approximate public point, so this shows which parts of CO3 records cluster in, not where incidents happened. Explore CO3 on the crime map.

Year by year

Calendar-year totals for CO3 (December 2013 to August 2026).

Year Street-crime records
2021 2,800
2022 2,631
2023 2,470
2024 2,560
2025 2,579
2026 (part year) 1,960

Is CO3 safe?

We don't label places safe or unsafe, because published police records can't show that. This is what they show for CO3 from September 2025 to August 2026.

The records can't tell you about crime nobody reported, which street in CO3 a record came from, or how a place feels at different times of day. The rate per 1,000 residents is above. See the limits to keep in mind.

Limits to keep in mind

Moving home? Read how to check crime rates before buying a house. Browse all postcode districts

Police forces

CO3's records from September 2025 to August 2026 were published by Essex Police (99.6%), Suffolk Constabulary (0.2%), Metropolitan Police (0.1%), Devon and Cornwall Police (0.1%), Norfolk Constabulary (0.0%) and Nottinghamshire Police (0.0%).

Postcode sectors in CO3

Each sector is the outward code plus the first digit of the inward code. Counts cover the same trailing window.

Sector Street-crime records
CO3 0 364
CO3 3 985
CO3 4 394
CO3 5 400
CO3 8 586
CO3 9 179

Highest and lowest published crime rates by postcode district

Deprivation where residents live

Covers 100.0% of the 32,811 Census 2021 residents of CO3.

England: English Indices of Deprivation 2025

Of these residents in England, 0.0% live in the most deprived 20% of England's neighbourhoods and 39.9% in the least deprived 20%.

Share of residents in each decile, from 1 (most deprived) to 10 (least deprived) of England's small areas.

Deciles rank neighbourhoods within one nation, so English and Welsh deciles don't compare. They describe areas, not the people living in them, and crime is one of the things the index measures, so this mix partly overlaps the crime figures above. How this is built.

About CO3 beyond crime

Figures below come from official open datasets, joined on postcode. Sources are listed on the methodology page.

House prices

Median sold price by year, with the number of sales in brackets, from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (standard residential sales in England and Wales). A median is shown only where there were at least five sales. Edition: yearly files 2022 to 2026.

YearAll sales
2026 (part year) £340,000 (285)
2025 £358,000 (565)
2024 £360,000 (545)
2023 £370,000 (529)
2022 £350,000 (604)
Show prices by property type
Year DetachedSemiTerracedFlat
2026 £450,000 (95) £335,000 (83) £295,000 (52) £175,000 (55)
2025 £463,000 (221) £335,500 (188) £284,000 (86) £187,250 (70)
2024 £437,500 (218) £345,000 (170) £288,000 (78) £183,000 (79)
2023 £441,500 (230) £336,750 (176) £291,500 (62) £180,000 (61)
2022 £430,000 (199) £357,750 (184) £290,000 (100) £185,000 (121)

Schools and colleges

23 open establishments with a postcode in CO3, from the Department for Education's Get Information About Schools register. Edition: extract of 29 Oct 2026.

Show the 23 schools
SchoolPhaseType
Colchester Institute 16 plus Further education
Hamilton Primary School Primary Community school
Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, Eight Ash Green and Aldham Primary Academy converter
Home Farm Primary School Primary Academy converter
Lakelands Primary School Primary Free schools
Lexden Primary School with Unit for Hearing Impaired Pupils Primary Community school
Prettygate Infant School Primary Community school
Prettygate Junior School Primary Community school
Stanway Fiveways Primary School Primary Community school
Stanway Primary School Primary Community school
St Teresa's Catholic Primary School, Colchester Primary Academy converter
Colchester County High School for Girls Secondary Academy converter
Colchester Royal Grammar School Secondary Academy converter
Philip Morant School and College Secondary Academy converter
St Benedict's Catholic College Secondary Voluntary aided school
St Helena School Secondary Academy converter
The Stanway School Secondary Academy converter
Colchester Prep & High School – Other independent school
Holmwood House School – Other independent school
Kingswode Hoe School – Academy special converter
Lexden Springs School – Academy special sponsor led
St Mary's School for Girls – Other independent school
The Willows – Other independent special school

Flood risk from rivers and the sea

Postcodes in England with properties in each band (Environment Agency), counted by the highest long-term risk band of any property in the postcode. Postcodes not listed have no property in a rivers-and-sea risk area, and postcodes outside England are not covered. Risk applies to the area around an address, not the address itself. Surface-water risk is not published by postcode. Edition: NaFRA2, revised 18 Jun 2026.

Highest bandPostcodes
High8
Medium5
Low4
Very low1

Broadband

Share of the 859 postcodes in CO3 where every premises, or at least one, can get each fixed service, from Ofcom Connected Nations. Ofcom does not publish full-fibre availability by postcode. Edition: Connected Nations, July 2025 data.

ServiceEvery premisesSome premises
Gigabit71.9%90.6%
Superfast (30 Mbit/s+)94.8%98.4%

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Cite this page

This page updates as new months are published, so a citation needs the months shown and the date you read it. One click selects the whole citation. The CSV holds this page's monthly and category figures for CO3 postcode district, with the same source and months.

CrimeMapsUK. CO3 postcode district: published street-crime records, September 2025 to August 2026. Source: data.police.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Retrieved 30 October 2026. Police locations are approximate; records are assigned to the area by nearest postcode. Postcode centroids from the ONS Postcode Directory. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. https://crimemapsuk.com/crime/districts/co3/

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