What is the crime rate in Orkney Islands?

Police Scotland recorded 539 crimes in Orkney Islands in 2025-26, 24 per 1,000 residents, against a Scottish average of 57 (Scottish Government recorded crime statistics).

How many homes in Orkney Islands are near a park?

32% of homes in Orkney Islands are within 400 m of a public park or garden and 43% are within 400 m of a children's play space (OS Open Greenspace), against 56% and 60% across Great Britain.

How does Orkney Islands compare with the UK average for social housing?

The UK average is 17.5% of households. At 17.1%, Orkney Islands is close to the national average (-0.4 percentage points) and ranks 128th of 374 UK local authorities.

Living in Orkney Islands

Q: How noisy is Orkney Islands?

In Orkney Islands, about 1.7% of homes are in areas where road or rail noise reaches 65 dB Lden or more, against 6.9% across Great Britain (strategic noise maps, Defra, Natural Resources Wales and SEPA).

Q: How much social housing is there in Orkney Islands?

17.1% of households in Orkney Islands are social housing — 1,815 of 10,622 households rent from a council or housing association, according to the 2021–22 Census.

Police Scotland recorded 24 crimes per 1,000 residents in Orkney Islands in 2025–26, well below the Scottish average of 57. 17.1% of households rent from the council or a housing association, close to the UK average of 17.5%. About 1.7% of homes are in areas where road or rail noise reaches 65 dB, against 6.9% across Great Britain. 32% of homes are within a five-minute walk of a public park (Great Britain: 56%).

Orkney Islands at a glance

Orkney Islands compared with the rest of the country. Crime rates are per resident; see each section below for sources and periods.
Measure	Orkney Islands	Comparison	Rank
Social housing (share of households)	17.1%	UK 17.5%	128th highest of 374
Recorded crime per 1,000 residents	24	Scotland 57	30th highest of 32 in Scotland
Homes in areas with 65 dB+ road or rail noise	1.7%	GB 6.9%	5th quietest of 363
Homes within 400 m of a public park	32%	GB 56%	321st of 363
Homes within 400 m of a play space	43%	GB 60%
Median broadband speed available	30 Mbit/s	Council median 1,000 Mbit/s

How much crime is there in Orkney Islands?

Police Scotland recorded 539 crimes in Orkney Islands in 2025–26 — 24 per 1,000 residents, well below the Scottish average of 57 and the 30th highest of 32 Scottish councils. The largest groups were theft, fraud and other dishonesty (29%), non-sexual violence (26%) and drugs, weapons and other crimes against society (22%).

Scotland is not on data.police.uk, so these figures come from the Scottish Government's recorded crime statistics. Scotland counts and groups crimes differently, so they are compared only with other Scottish councils.

How much social housing is there in Orkney Islands?

17.1%Social housing

1,815Social homes

10,622All households

Orkney Islands ranks 128th of 374 UK local authorities by social-housing share. Of its 10,622 households, 1,815 are social homes (17.1%) — renting from the council or a housing association, according to the 2021–22 Census.

Orkney Islands17.1%

UK average17.5%

How does Orkney Islands compare with the UK average?

At -0.4 percentage points versus the UK average of 17.5%, Orkney Islands sits close to the national level.

Open the Orkney Islands social housing map →

How noisy is Orkney Islands?

In Orkney Islands, about 1.7% of homes are in areas where modelled road or rail noise reaches 65 dB L_den or more — the level Defra and the WHO treat as high. The Great Britain average is 6.9%, and Orkney Islands is the 5th quietest of 363 councils mapped.

Estimated from the official strategic noise maps: the share of each census area at 65 dB or more, weighted by its households. See noisy roads and railways on the map →

How close are parks in Orkney Islands?

32% of homes in Orkney Islands are within 400 m — about a five-minute walk — of a public park or garden, and 43% are that close to a children's play space. Across Great Britain the figures are 56% and 60%, which puts Orkney Islands 321st of 363 councils for access to a park.

Straight-line distance from the centre of each census area to the edge of the nearest site in OS Open Greenspace, weighted by households. See parks and play spaces on the map →

Schools, prices and more in Orkney Islands

What the map's other datasets say about Orkney Islands.

Broadband

Median available download speed is about 30 Mbit/s — what can be ordered, not what residents have bought (Ofcom Connected Nations).

Explore Orkney Islands on the map

Areas with a similar share of social housing

“Social housing” means households renting from a council/local authority or a housing association, counted on census day (2021 in England, Wales & Northern Ireland; 2022 in Scotland). Local-authority figures are aggregated by this site from small-area data and may differ from official totals. Crime rates use Census 2021 population (NISRA mid-2021 estimates in Northern Ireland) and exclude crimes police.uk publishes without a location. All sources are open data under the Open Government Licence v3.0; see the methodology.
Sources: 2021–22 Census (social housing); Scottish Government recorded crime, 2025–26 (crime); strategic noise maps, Round 4 (noise); OS Open Greenspace (parks) · Page updated 27 September 2026 · Download the data (CSV, all 374 councils).