Methodology
How the figures on this site are produced.
Crime figures are street-level police-recorded crime from data.police.uk, published monthly by the Home Office for the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. This site covers September 2017 to August 2026. Each record is placed at an anonymised location and tagged with the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) it falls in; the site adds LSOAs up to wards, towns (ONS built-up areas), districts, counties, regions and police force areas using ONS best-fit lookups.
Older records coded to 2011 LSOAs are converted to 2021 LSOAs. Crimes recorded by British Transport Police are excluded, as are records with no location. Police Scotland does not publish to data.police.uk, so Scotland is not covered.
District and police force pages also show the official police recorded crime statistics, compiled by the Home Office from the crimes each force records under the national counting rules, for complete financial years (April to March). A district's figure is the sum of the community safety partnership areas that make it up; a partnership covering more than one district is not split between them. Fraud is excluded because Action Fraud records it nationally, and British Transport Police crimes are not included.
These figures differ from the street-level data, which covers the latest 12 months, includes anti-social behaviour and leaves out crimes recorded without a location. Recorded crime rose across England and Wales after 2014 mainly because forces recorded crime more completely following inspections of their recording practice, and from May 2023 a change to the counting rules reduced the number of stalking, harassment and some other offences recorded, so the long series shows how recorded crime changed rather than how much crime changed.
Rates are crimes per 1,000 residents, using the latest ONS mid-year population estimates. Areas where many people work, shop or visit but few live, such as city centres, have high rates for that reason. Historic rates use the current population, so they show the direction of change rather than exact past rates.
Police.uk sorts every crime into one of these categories. The area pages show each category's count and rate against England and Wales.
| Category | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Anti-social behaviour | Personal, environmental and nuisance anti-social behaviour |
| Bicycle theft | The taking of a bicycle without the owner's consent |
| Burglary | Entering a home or other building as a trespasser to steal, or with intent to steal |
| Criminal damage and arson | Deliberate damage to property, including setting fire to it |
| Drugs | Possession, supply and production of controlled drugs |
| Other crime | Offences not covered by another category, such as forgery and perjury |
| Other theft | Theft not covered by another category, such as theft by an employee or of unattended items |
| Possession of weapons | Carrying or possessing a weapon such as a firearm or knife |
| Public order | Offences that cause fear, alarm or distress |
| Robbery | Theft using force or the threat of force |
| Shoplifting | Theft from shops or stalls |
| Theft from the person | Theft of property carried on the person, such as pickpocketing, without force |
| Vehicle crime | Theft of or from a vehicle, and interfering with a vehicle |
| Violence and sexual offences | Offences against the person, from common assault to homicide, and sexual offences |
Deprivation is from the English Indices of Deprivation and the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, which are measured differently and should not be compared across the border, so each area is compared with its own nation. Age is from the ONS mid-2024 population estimates. Housing tenure (TS054), economic activity (TS066), highest qualification (TS067) and car or van availability (TS045) are from the 2021 Census, added up from small areas (LSOAs); economic activity and qualifications cover residents aged 16 and over, tenure and cars cover households.
Recorded crime reflects what is reported to and recorded by the police, which varies by crime type, area and over time. Police.uk places each crime at an approximate location, usually the centre of a nearby street or a landmark, to protect victims' privacy, so a crime can be counted in a neighbouring small area and the street lists show those points. Outcomes are the latest recorded at publication and change as cases progress; anti-social behaviour has no outcome.
A change on the year is given only where both years have at least 20 crimes.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Source: data.police.uk; Office for National Statistics; Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Welsh Government.