Crime in Powys: statistics, rates and trends

Violence and sexual offences (4,572), anti-social behaviour (1,853) and criminal damage and arson (925) made up 71% of all recorded crime. Its crime rate ranks 197th of the 302 districts covered by this site (1 = highest), in the lower half.

Recorded crime in Powys peaked in the year to August 2022 (10,613 crimes) and was lowest in the year to August 2024 (6,760). Between the years to August 2018 and 2026 it rose 16%, while across England and Wales it fell 4%.

Month by month

No category with at least 20 crimes was notably above the England and Wales rate, and robbery (88% below) and theft from the person (87% below) were well below it. On the year before, anti-social behaviour rose from 959 to 1,853 and shoplifting rose from 252 to 310, while bicycle theft fell from 34 to 22 and public order fell from 928 to 768.

What each category covers: crime categories.

7,454 crimes, excluding fraud, were recorded by the police in Powys in the year ending March 2026, according to the Home Office's police recorded crime statistics. That is 55.2 per 1,000 residents, lower than the England and Wales rate of 83.2. The total was down 5% on the year ending March 2025 (7,841), against a fall of 2% across England and Wales. Among the 272 districts of England and Wales with a figure for that year, Powys had the 61st lowest rate (the street-level ranking above is among the 302 districts with street-level pages on this site, over the 12 months to August 2026).

Of the crimes recorded in the Dyfed-Powys Police area in the year ending March 2026, 7.6% were not assigned to a district. Those crimes are counted in the force and England and Wales totals but in no district, so the figure for Powys is an undercount.

No longer series is shown for Powys: comparable figures start in the year ending March 2025, because too many of the force's crimes in the year ending March 2024 were not assigned to a district.

Offences recorded in Powys, the year ending March 2026

The largest category was violence without injury, with 1,426 offences (19% of the total). No category with at least 20 offences had a rate a quarter or more above the England and Wales rate. Rates were lowest relative to the national rate for shoplifting (0.20 times), vehicle offences (0.23 times) and bicycle theft (0.24 times).

The largest rises on the year were in possession of drugs (+16%) and rape (+15%). The largest falls were in trafficking of drugs (−30%) and non-residential burglary (−30%). Robbery of business property and shoplifting are not compared with the year ending March 2025: from April 2025 the Home Office Counting Rules were clarified so that a theft from a shop in which violence is used or threatened against staff or anyone else is recorded as robbery of business property rather than shoplifting (ONS).

Districts in the Dyfed-Powys Police area, the year ending March 2026

Of the 4 districts in the Dyfed-Powys Police area with a figure for the year ending March 2026, Powys had the 2nd lowest rate.

Source: Home Office police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables (released 23 July 2026), gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0. Financial years, excluding fraud; how they differ from the street-level figures: methodology.

5 of the 8 nearest districts have a higher crime rate than Powys; the highest is Blaenau Gwent (148.5 per 1,000) and the lowest Malvern Hills (56.1).

Of the 76 areas within Powys, Newtown East had the highest crime rate (312.9 per 1,000) and Llandrinio the lowest (13.0), 24 times apart.

The 10 locations below account for 25% of the crime recorded in Powys over the 12 months to August 2026; the most were recorded at “Parking Area” (1,073).

Of the 8,470 crimes in Powys with a recorded outcome, 19% ended with the investigation complete and no suspect identified, against 35% across England and Wales; 4.3% were awaiting a court outcome (England and Wales: 5.2%). The 1,853 anti-social behaviour reports have no outcome and are left out.

Powys has an estimated population of 135,059 (ONS, mid-2024). Compared with England and Wales it has an older population (29%, against 19%), fewer households without a car (13%, against 23%) and fewer students (4.5%, against 7.9%). On the Wales WIMD 2025, the small areas (LSOAs) that make up Powys average decile 6.2 (1 = most deprived), close to the middle.

Police-recorded crime from data.police.uk (September 2017 to August 2026), ONS population estimates and Census 2021. Definitions and limitations: methodology.