In the year ending September 2024, more than five million non-fraud crimes were recorded by England and Wales’ 43 domestic police forces – see how your area ranks
A shocking new map has revealed England and Wales’ most dangerous places to live, ranked by the rates of crime recorded in your area.
In the year ending September 2024, more than five million non-fraud crimes were recorded by the 43 domestic police forces in England and Wales. And predictably, the Metropolitan Police – the force responsible for keeping and enforcing law and order in London, the nation’s capital city – had the largest caseload, with 944,000 million crime reports, followed by West Midlands Police (321,000), and West Yorkshire (278,000).
Each police force area is split into smaller community safety partnership areas, which broadly match local authority areas. Crime rates – the number of crimes in each area for every 1,000 people living there – allow for a fairer comparison of the threats to law and order in places with widely different population sizes.
They show that Westminster in London has by far the highest crime rate in the country – with 434 offences for every 1,000 people. That’s the equivalent of one crime report for every two people. It is also more than double the crime rate in Camden, the area with the next highest crime rate (189 crimes per 1,000 population).
The area’s ranking as the most dangerous place in England and Wales may be explained by the high number of tourists who visit Westminster every year, making it a magnet for criminals – particularly thieves, with offences of theft around three times higher in the area than anywhere else.
Outside London, Middlesbrough in the North East has the highest crime rate, with 166 offences for every 1,000 people or the equivalent of one crime for every six people living there, followed by Manchester (158 crimes per 1,000 population), Blackpool (155), and Hartlepool (141). You can see how your it compares to where you live using our interactive map below.
Police recorded crime figures show that while homicides fell by 4% last year, offences involving knives increased by 4%, and firearms by 19%. There was also a 4% rise in robbery and a 23% increase in shoplifting. It comes after the latest Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) was published. Based on face-to-face interviews, the annual poll seeks to measure the amount and impact of crime.
The latest survey estimates that 9.5 million incidents of “headline” crime -which includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse, and violence with or without injury – occurred in the year ending September 2024. That was about a million more incidents than in the previous year, mainly driven by a 19% rise in fraud.
According to responses collected by the CSEW, it is estimated that around 4.4 million people experienced some form of harassment, approximately 2.2 million had been a victims of domestic abuse, 1.6 million had been preyed on by a stalker, and 1.0 million suffered a sexual assault.
Top 10 Community Safety Partnership (CSP) areas with the highest crime rates
- Westminster – 434.1
- Camden- 188.8
- Middlesbrough – 166.2
- Kensington and Chelsea – 158.2
- Manchester – 158.1
- Blackpool – 155.2
- Hartlepool – 141.3
- Lincoln – 133.5
- Islington – 132.4
- Bristol, City of – 130.4