Photo: Jeff Buck · CC BY-SA 2.0Hawarden beats 83% of UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident
On burglary, vehicle crime and damage it beats 64% of UK towns; on violent crime, only 48%. Violent crime was down 5% in a year. What’s more, the overall Safety Grade is B− (#7 of 39 in Clwyd), which means close to the middle of UK towns, judged on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. The yearly rates were 23.5 violent and sexual offences and 7.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Hawarden
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 5% less violent crime per resident in Hawarden 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 18% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Hawarden has the 76th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Huntington, Balderton and Ivybridge, higher than Tidworth, Kidlington and Royal Wootton Bassett. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime in Wales
The Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2025 ranks every neighbourhood in Wales on community safety. 26% of Hawarden’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 0% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: B− for Hawarden
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,340 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Hawarden 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
Vehicle crime and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 332 | 23.2 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 176 | 12.3 | 12.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 63 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 53 | 3.7 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 48 | 3.4 | 6.2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 35 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 31 | 2.2 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 20 | 1.4 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 1.1 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 9 | 0.6 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 4 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 4 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| 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.
1 in 4 Hawarden residents lives in one of Wales’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
49% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.
Hawarden’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.
Towns its size: Hawarden comes 76th of 350
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 73 | Tidworth Wiltshire | 10,693 | 24.4 | 6.5 | 5.6 | B− |
| 74 | Kidlington Oxfordshire | 14,640 | 22.1 | 8.9 | 13.4 | B− |
| 75 | Royal Wootton Bassett Wiltshire | 13,002 | 22.6 | 8.5 | 4 | B− |
| 76 | Hawarden Clwyd | 14,284 | 23.5 | 7.8 | 7.6 | B− |
| 77 | Cowes Isle of Wight | 14,366 | 24.5 | 7 | 4.9 | B− |
| 78 | Towcester Northamptonshire | 11,333 | 22.3 | 9.2 | 7.3 | B− |
| 79 | Flackwell Heath and Wooburn Green Buckinghamshire | 12,438 | 20.5 | 11.1 | 7.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 137 | Buckley Clwyd | 13,562 | 29.7 | 8.2 | 9.3 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 174 | Conwy Clwyd | 15,706 | 31 | 10.7 | 8.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 192 | Connah's Quay Clwyd | 16,768 | 33.3 | 10.6 | 12 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 261 | Prestatyn Clwyd | 16,678 | 41.3 | 12.2 | 18.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 350 | 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 Hawarden, and others in Clwyd.
Lowest recorded crime in Hawarden: Ewloe, Hawarden: Mancot and Buckley: Pentrobin; highest in Queensferry and Sealand
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawarden: Ewloe | 4,372 | 12.6 | 3.7 | |
| Hawarden: Mancot | 4,177 | 20.3 | 3.8 | |
| Buckley: Pentrobin | 1,694 | 20.3 | 4.9 | |
| Hawarden: Aston | 2,133 | 33.8 | 11.1 | |
| Queensferry and Sealand | 1,908 | 39.5 | 20.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 140 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 113 | 37% violent |
| Car parks | 75 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Queensferry and Sealand records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Hawarden. 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 Hawarden. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Hawarden’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Hawarden 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 -5% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -18% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -16% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -7% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of Hawarden’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (64% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% 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. 413 crimes.
Crime in Hawarden 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.
Two people died in collisions on Hawarden’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 34 collisions with injuries inside Hawarden in five years, in which two people died. 17 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 on foot and 1 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 Hawarden’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Hawarden’s own rate (2.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Hawarden had 24.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as 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 Hawarden’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Hawarden
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawarden | 14,284 | 23.5 | 7.8 | B− |
| Aston | 2,847 | 18.2 | 7.6 | B+ |
| Shotton | 6,500 | 57.9 | 17.9 | D |
| Garden City | 2,427 | 66.3 | 26.8 | D− |
| Buckley | 13,562 | 29.7 | 8.2 | C+ |
| Connah's Quay | 16,768 | 33.3 | 10.6 | C |
| Broughton | 6,532 | 21.2 | 7.2 | B |
| Penyffordd | 3,822 | 13.9 | 5.2 | A |
Hawarden records more graded crime per resident than 3 of its 7 neighbours. Aston, 0.7 miles away, records 18.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Hawarden’s 23.5.
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 Hawarden 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 Hawarden
Is Hawarden safe?
Police recorded 23.5 violent and sexual offences and 7.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Hawarden’s built-up area). That earns a B− for safety: less crime per resident than 53% of UK towns. Among 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Hawarden is 76th from the least crime. 26% of residents live in neighbourhoods in Wales’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Hawarden?
By council ward, Hawarden: Ewloe, Hawarden: Mancot and Buckley: Pentrobin record the least violent and household crime per resident: 12.6, 20.3 and 20.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 39.5 in Queensferry and Sealand.
Is crime going up in Hawarden?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 5%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 18%, shoplifting and theft fell 16% 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 Hawarden?
Violence & sexual offences: 332 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other theft (63) and public order (53), with 176 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Hawarden compare with Chester?
Chester records 46.9 violent and sexual offences and 10.8 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Hawarden’s 23.5 and 7.8, 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.