Shaftesbury
TownTown in Dorset, South West.
Shaftesbury is an ONS built-up area: the land built up as one town, whatever council it is in. Figures for Shaftesbury add up the census output areas (or, for claimants, the neighbourhoods) that sit mostly inside it, so they are close to, but not exactly, the town’s own.
Radon Affected Area by town
Worked out by Open Index · 2022
About 100% of people in Shaftesbury live in a 1 km square that the radon atlas marks as a radon Affected Area.
How Shaftesbury compares
Each dot is a town. The black line marks the middle one.
Is Shaftesbury safe? What police records show
In the 12 months to August 2026, police recorded crimes and anti-social behaviour in Shaftesbury at a rate of 72.6 per 1,000 people.
That compares with 83.5 per 1,000 people across South West.
Across England as a whole, the recorded crime rate was 96.3 per 1,000 people.
In August 2026 alone, 60 cases of crime and anti-social behaviour were recorded in Shaftesbury.
In the 12 months to August 2026, the most common types were violence and sexual offences (204), anti-social behaviour (183) and other crime (83).
A year earlier, the recorded crime rate in Shaftesbury was 75.3 per 1,000 people.
Worked out by Open Index from police.uk crime records and ONS and NISRA population estimates.
Rates are per resident, so places that many people work in or visit, such as Westminster, the City of London and other city centres, have far higher rates than their residents alone would suggest.
Deprivation in Shaftesbury, neighbourhood by neighbourhood
- Deprivation is ranked by neighbourhood, so Shaftesbury has no single figure. Of its 5 neighbourhoods with a rank:
- Decile 4: 1 neighbourhood
- Decile 5: 2 neighbourhoods
- Decile 8: 1 neighbourhood
- Decile 9: 1 neighbourhood
English Indices of Deprivation 2025. Decile 1 is the most deprived tenth of neighbourhoods in England.
Neighbourhoods in Shaftesbury
| Name | People (census) | Recorded crime per 1,000 | Deprivation decile | Gigabit broadband |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorset 003A | 2,014 | 130.3 per 1,000 | 4 | 87.1% |
| Dorset 003B | 1,819 | 75.6 per 1,000 | 5 | 88.3% |
| Dorset 003C | 1,597 | 28.3 per 1,000 | 8 | 96.3% |
| Dorset 003D | 2,184 | 51.5 per 1,000 | 5 | 95.1% |
| Dorset 003E | 1,546 | 67.1 per 1,000 | 9 | 94.8% |
Your MP
- Simon HoareConservativeMP for North Dorset
As of , from the UK Parliament Members API. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. Source: UK Parliament, Members API.
Council1
Postcode districts covering Shaftesbury1
Middle areas in Shaftesbury1
Towns near Shaftesbury6
Shaftesbury in brief
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, South West.
About 9,389 people lived in Shaftesbury in mid-2024 (worked out by Open Index from ONS small-area estimates); the median price paid for a home was £275,000 in 2025 across 202 sales (HM Land Registry) and police recorded crimes and anti-social behaviour at a rate of 72.6 per 1,000 people in the 12 months to August 2026 (police.uk).
The median price paid for a home in Shaftesbury was £275,000 in 2025.
Shaftesbury had 9,163 usual residents at the census.
About 100% of people in Shaftesbury live in a 1 km square that the radon atlas marks as a radon Affected Area.
In Shaftesbury, 91.5% of homes and businesses could get gigabit-capable broadband in January 2026.