Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0Per resident, Llangollen records more crime than nine in ten UK towns
Shoplifting runs at 12.1 per 1,000 residents in Llangollen, against 1.8 in a typical town its size: police recorded 37 in the 12 months to August 2026. From September 2023 to August 2026, crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area put it at D for safety: #29 of 39 in Clwyd. By contrast, recorded violence fell 24% in a year. In a usual year, 50.1 violent and sexual offences and 15.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Llangollen
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 24% less violent crime per resident in Llangollen than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 10% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Llangollen’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 602 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Llangollen 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, Llangollen runs highest on shoplifting (12.1 per 1,000 against 1.8), anti-social behaviour (26.6 per 1,000 against 8.8) and criminal damage & arson (9.5 per 1,000 against 4.5).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 119 | 39 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 81 | 26.6 | 8.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 37 | 12.1 | 1.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 29 | 9.5 | 4.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 17 | 5.6 | 3.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 16 | 5.2 | 3.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 8 | 2.6 | 1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 7 | 2.3 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 7 | 2.3 | 2 |
| Other crime | not graded | 4 | 1.3 | 1.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 4 | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0.2 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
How crime in Llangollen has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling twelve-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 -24% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -10% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -31% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour +0% (towns its size +0%).
How Llangollen compares with UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richhill Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 2,738 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 3 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 143 | Penyffordd Clwyd | 3,822 | 13.9 | 5.2 | 5.6 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 330 | Aston Clwyd | 2,847 | 18.2 | 7.6 | 3.3 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 426 | Tanyfron Clwyd | 2,229 | 20.3 | 8.5 | 2.1 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 523 | Dyserth Clwyd | 2,038 | 27.3 | 5.6 | 4.9 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 818 | West Rainton County Durham | 2,323 | 42.7 | 22.4 | 9 | D |
| 819 | Longtown Cumbria | 2,176 | 43.4 | 21.9 | 8.3 | D |
| 820 | Blaenau Ffestiniog Gwynedd | 3,449 | 53.4 | 12.3 | 9.7 | D |
| 821 | Llangollen Clwyd | 3,048 | 50.1 | 15.8 | 22.5 | D |
| 822 | Hellingly East Sussex | 2,616 | 50 | 16.3 | 5.4 | D |
| 823 | Talbot Green Mid Glamorgan | 3,291 | 46.9 | 19.7 | 55.1 | D |
| 824 | Fishguard Dyfed | 3,422 | 53 | 14.1 | 8.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 856 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | 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 Llangollen, and others in Clwyd.
How Llangollen’s neighbourhoods rank in Wales
0% 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.
Llangollen’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 Llangollen 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 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 18 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police in Llangollen identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Llangollen’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 20% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (59% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 3% of violent and 2% 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. 227 crimes.
Where in Llangollen police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Sports and recreation grounds | 65 | 71% violent |
| Petrol stations | 56 | 80% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 56 | 66% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 30 | 33% homes & vehicles |
| Police stations | 26 | 42% anti-social behaviour |
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 Llangollen. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
One person died in collisions on Llangollen’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 17 collisions with injuries inside Llangollen in five years, in which one person died. 6 people were killed or seriously injured: 3 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, so with numbers this small a single collision changes the picture; Llangollen’s one death is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Llangollen’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 3 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Llangollen had 6.
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 Llangollen’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Llangollen
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llangollen | 3,048 | 50.1 | 15.8 | D |
| Trevor | 1,397 | 21.7 | 10 | B− |
| Acrefair and Cefn-mawr | 6,905 | 47.9 | 19.7 | D |
| Chirk | 3,930 | 35.4 | 14.9 | C− |
| Rhosllannerchrugog | 12,789 | 38.7 | 15.8 | C− |
| Ruabon | 3,414 | 48 | 19.3 | D |
| Weston Rhyn | 1,381 | 29.9 | 8.7 | C+ |
| Coedpoeth | 4,738 | 27.7 | 11.1 | C+ |
Llangollen records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Acrefair and Cefn-mawr and Ruabon record more. Trevor, 2.9 miles away, records 21.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Llangollen’s 50.1.
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 Llangollen 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 Llangollen
Is Llangollen safe?
Police recorded 50.1 violent and sexual offences and 15.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Llangollen’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Llangollen has less crime per resident than 7%.
Is crime going up in Llangollen?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 24%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 10%, shoplifting and theft fell 31% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Llangollen?
Violence & sexual offences: 119 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (37) and criminal damage & arson (29), with 81 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Llangollen compare with Wrexham?
Wrexham records 62.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.3 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Llangollen’s 50.1 and 15.8, 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.