Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0Flint records shoplifting at 3.8 times the rate of a typical town its size
Out of every 1,000 residents, 40.0 violent and sexual offences and 13.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually. Of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, 31% record more crime per resident. Flint’s letter overall is C− (#25 of 39 in Clwyd): more crime per resident than 83% of UK towns, from crimes police recorded inside its built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026. Violence recorded locally dropped 10% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Flint
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 10% less violent crime per resident in Flint 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 376 UK towns of 9,000 to 17,000 people, Flint has the 277th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Scawthorpe and Cusworth, Somercotes and Swanwick and Rhosllannerchrugog, higher than Birtley, New Milton and Prestatyn. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Flint’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 2,038 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Flint against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Flint runs highest on shoplifting (23.1 per 1,000 against 6.1), anti-social behaviour (25.2 per 1,000 against 12.4) and drugs (2.8 per 1,000 against 1.9). Vehicle crime sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 467 | 36.6 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 322 | 25.2 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 295 | 23.1 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 104 | 8.1 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 72 | 5.6 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 64 | 5 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 36 | 2.8 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 34 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 28 | 2.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 27 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 11 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 7 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 6 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 1 | 0.1 | 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.
Flint against towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 83 | Hawarden Clwyd | 14,284 | 23.5 | 7.8 | 7.6 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 152 | Buckley Clwyd | 13,562 | 29.7 | 8.2 | 9.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 187 | Conwy Clwyd | 15,706 | 31 | 10.7 | 8.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 208 | Connah's Quay Clwyd | 16,768 | 33.3 | 10.6 | 12 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 274 | Birtley Tyne and Wear | 13,840 | 32.8 | 20.6 | 14 | C− |
| 275 | New Milton Hampshire | 11,872 | 37.9 | 15.6 | 18.2 | C− |
| 276 | Prestatyn Clwyd | 16,678 | 41.3 | 12.2 | 18.7 | C− |
| 277 | Flint Clwyd | 12,776 | 40 | 13.5 | 21.8 | C− |
| 278 | Shepton Mallet Somerset | 9,645 | 43.6 | 10.4 | 12.6 | C− |
| 279 | Snodland Kent | 11,820 | 32.7 | 21.2 | 18.1 | C− |
| 280 | Thurmaston Leicestershire | 9,509 | 34.3 | 19.7 | 16.1 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 376 | 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 Flint, and others in Clwyd.
How crime in Flint 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 -10% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -1% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +49% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -7% (towns its size -4%).
How Flint’s neighbourhoods rank in Wales
20% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 15% 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.
Flint’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.
Crime in Flint 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 12 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 29 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 Flint: Coleshill and Trelawny, Flint: Oakenholt and Flint: Castle; highest in Flint: Castle
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flint: Coleshill and Trelawny | 7,363 | 28.3 | 9.7 | |
| Flint: Oakenholt | 2,980 | 48.5 | 14.2 | |
| Flint: Castle | 2,245 | 67.9 | 22.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 506 | 32% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 127 | 41% violent |
| Supermarkets | 90 | 77% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Flint: Castle records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Flint. 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 Flint. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Flint’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of Flint’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 6% 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. 693 crimes.
One person died in collisions on Flint’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 52 collisions with injuries inside Flint in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 20 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 4 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 Flint’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Flint’s own rate (1.6) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Flint had 31.2 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).
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 Flint’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Flint
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flint | 12,776 | 40 | 13.5 | C− |
| Northop | 1,030 | 18.1 | 4.2 | A− |
| Pentre Halkyn | 1,082 | 21 | 7.1 | B |
| Bagillt | 5,943 | 39.3 | 12.7 | C− |
| Northop Hall | 1,826 | 16.6 | 5.1 | A− |
| Connah's Quay | 16,768 | 33.3 | 10.6 | C |
| Soughton | 1,697 | 7.7 | 2.8 | A+ |
| Holywell | 7,741 | 52.1 | 21.2 | D |
Flint records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Holywell records more. Northop, 2.4 miles away, records 18.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Flint’s 40.
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 Flint 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 Flint
Is Flint safe?
Police recorded 40 violent and sexual offences and 13.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Flint’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 17% of UK towns. Among 376 UK towns of 9,000 to 17,000 people, Flint is 277th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Flint?
By council ward, Flint: Coleshill and Trelawny, Flint: Oakenholt and Flint: Castle record the least violent and household crime per resident: 28.3, 48.5 and 67.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 67.9 in Flint: Castle.
Is crime going up in Flint?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 10%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 49% and anti-social behaviour fell 7%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Flint?
Violence & sexual offences: 467 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (295) and criminal damage & arson (104), with 322 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Flint compare with Heswall?
Heswall records 14.3 violent and sexual offences and 5.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Flint’s 40 and 13.5, over the same three years.
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.