Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0Buckley sees more violent crime per resident than two in three UK towns
Recorded violence rose 20% in a year. The yearly rates were 29.7 violent and sexual offences and 8.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Weighing it all, Buckley earns C+ for safety (#8 of 39 in Clwyd), with more crime per resident than 61% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Buckley
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 20% more violent crime per resident in Buckley than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 24% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 397 UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000 people, Buckley has the 160th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Thornbury, Honiton and Selsey, higher than Darton, Bridport and Dungannon. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Buckley’s C+ for safety
A firm grade. Built on 1,543 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Buckley against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Buckley has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +20% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -24% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -30% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -37% (towns its size -4%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Burglary and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 426 | 31.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 168 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 66 | 4.9 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 54 | 4 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 53 | 3.9 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 42 | 3.1 | 6.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 22 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 18 | 1.3 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 1.2 | 1.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 11 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 8 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 7 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.3 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
How Buckley’s neighbourhoods rank in Wales
34% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 20% in the highest-crime 20%. The community safety domain scores recorded crime, anti-social behaviour and fire incidents where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Buckley’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 (community safety domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of Wales’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Police in Buckley identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 63% of Buckley’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (72% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% of violent and 5% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 516 crimes.
Buckley is 160th of 397 UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 88 | Hawarden Clwyd | 14,284 | 23.5 | 7.8 | 7.6 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 157 | Darton South Yorkshire | 15,016 | 25.6 | 12.2 | 5.3 | C+ |
| 158 | Bridport Dorset | 12,294 | 28 | 9.9 | 10.4 | C+ |
| 159 | Dungannon Mid Ulster | 16,282 | 27.8 | 10.1 | 7.2 | C+ |
| 160 | Buckley Clwyd | 13,562 | 29.7 | 8.2 | 9.3 | C+ |
| 161 | Blandford Forum Dorset | 11,805 | 26 | 11.9 | 10.6 | C+ |
| 162 | Shiney Row and Penshaw Tyne and Wear | 16,900 | 22.5 | 15.5 | 8.6 | C+ |
| 163 | Cookstown Mid Ulster | 12,546 | 27.4 | 10.6 | 7.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 199 | Conwy Clwyd | 15,706 | 31 | 10.7 | 8.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 220 | Connah's Quay Clwyd | 16,768 | 33.3 | 10.6 | 12 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 261 | Brynteg Clwyd | 9,229 | 34.6 | 13.5 | 4.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 397 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Buckley, and others in Clwyd.
Crime in Buckley per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 7 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 7 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Buckley: Pentrobin, Buckley: Bistre East and Buckley: Mountain; highest in Buckley: Bistre West
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckley: Pentrobin | 3,275 | 20.7 | 6.1 | |
| Buckley: Bistre East | 3,966 | 26.6 | 8.7 | |
| Buckley: Mountain | 2,143 | 32 | 9.2 | |
| Buckley: Bistre West | 4,178 | 38.2 | 8.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 356 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 72 | 47% violent |
| Police stations | 65 | 34% violent |
| Petrol stations | 49 | 63% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 37 | 49% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Buckley. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Buckley’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Buckley’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 37 collisions with injuries inside Buckley in five years. 8 people were killed or seriously injured: 3 on foot and 2 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Buckley’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Buckley’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Buckley’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 16 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Buckley had 8.
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Buckley’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Buckley
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buckley | 13,562 | 29.7 | 8.2 | C+ |
| Mynydd Isa | 4,738 | 12.2 | 3.5 | A |
| Penyffordd | 3,822 | 13.9 | 5.2 | A |
| Hawarden | 14,284 | 23.5 | 7.8 | B− |
| Northop Hall | 1,826 | 16.6 | 5.1 | A− |
| Aston | 2,847 | 18.2 | 7.6 | B+ |
| Soughton | 1,697 | 7.7 | 2.8 | A+ |
| Leeswood | 1,948 | 21.7 | 7.4 | B |
Buckley records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Mynydd Isa, 1.4 miles away, records 12.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Buckley’s 29.7.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Buckley sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Buckley
Is Buckley safe?
Police recorded 29.7 violent and sexual offences and 8.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Buckley’s built-up area). That earns a C+ for safety: less crime per resident than 39% of UK towns. Among 397 UK towns of 9,000 to 18,000 people, Buckley is 160th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Buckley?
By council ward, Buckley: Pentrobin, Buckley: Bistre East and Buckley: Mountain record the least violent and household crime per resident: 20.7, 26.6 and 32 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 38.2 in Buckley: Bistre West.
Is crime going up in Buckley?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 20%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 24%, shoplifting and theft fell 30% and anti-social behaviour fell 37%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Buckley?
Violence & sexual offences: 426 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (66) and other theft (54), with 168 reports of anti-social behaviour.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · Welsh Government Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025, community safety domain by LSOA · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.