Photo: Stephen Craven · CC BY-SA 2.0Wrexham sees more crime per resident than 97% of UK towns
Recorded violence fell 8% in a year. Of all the kinds of crime, shoplifting is where Wrexham departs most from towns its size: 23.7 per 1,000 against 6.1. The Safety Grade comes out at D−, drawn from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #37 of 39 in Clwyd. Police counts work out at 62.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Wrexham
One ward carries much of the rate
Grosvenor ward recorded 1,435 of Wrexham’s 8,363 violent and sexual offences in three years: 185.3 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Wrexham the figure is 55.7. Where in Wrexham ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% less violent crime per resident in Wrexham 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 8% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
49% of Wrexham’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 18% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Wrexham’s D−
A firm grade. Built on 11,492 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Wrexham 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, Wrexham runs highest on shoplifting (23.7 per 1,000 against 6.1), bicycle theft (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.3) and criminal damage & arson (14.6 per 1,000 against 6.2).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,509 | 56 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,261 | 28.2 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,062 | 23.7 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 652 | 14.6 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 495 | 11.1 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 393 | 8.8 | 4.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 193 | 4.3 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 160 | 3.6 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 148 | 3.3 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 105 | 2.3 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 50 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 49 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 29 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 22 | 0.5 | 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.
49% of Wrexham residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
18% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 49% 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.
Wrexham’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.
How Wrexham compares with UK towns of 31,000 to 60,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 149 | Torquay Devon | 52,034 | 62.6 | 20.2 | 23.6 | D− |
| 150 | Accrington Lancashire | 34,897 | 58.5 | 24.8 | 22.3 | D− |
| 151 | Canterbury Kent | 55,107 | 61.9 | 23.2 | 37.8 | D− |
| 152 | Wrexham Clwyd | 44,781 | 62.3 | 23.3 | 33.7 | D− |
| 153 | Dover Kent | 36,349 | 65.9 | 21.9 | 24.8 | D− |
| 154 | Bilston West Midlands | 34,631 | 58.9 | 29.4 | 26.7 | D− |
| 155 | Castleford West Yorkshire | 45,363 | 61.7 | 27.1 | 30.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 157 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Wrexham, and others in Clwyd.
Lowest recorded crime in Borras Park, Little Acton and Garden Village; highest in Grosvenor
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borras Park | 2,266 | 5.1 | 4 | |
| Little Acton | 2,227 | 14.5 | 4.6 | |
| Garden Village | 1,975 | 12.3 | 7.1 | |
| Rhosnesni | 3,549 | 17 | 8.4 | |
| Gwersyllt South | 900 | 21.5 | 9.3 | |
| Stansty | 2,139 | 25.7 | 8.1 | |
| Erddig | 2,027 | 37 | 15 | |
| Hermitage | 2,507 | 46 | 13.2 | |
| Acton and Maesydre | 5,025 | 40.9 | 20.3 | |
| Offa | 2,963 | 63.3 | 18.8 | |
| Cartrefle | 2,262 | 60.6 | 28 | |
| Wynnstay | 2,387 | 54.6 | 35.2 | |
| Whitegate | 2,506 | 68.1 | 26.6 | |
| Queensway | 2,554 | 65.9 | 38 | |
| Smithfield | 2,911 | 122.5 | 49.4 | |
| Brynyffynnon | 3,292 | 170 | 40.2 | |
| Grosvenor | 2,581 | 185.3 | 56.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,673 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 1,282 | 38% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 939 | 41% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 493 | 43% violent |
| Hospitals | 339 | 62% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 284 | 43% violent |
| Nightclubs | 221 | 65% violent |
| Petrol stations | 112 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 46 | 30% shoplifting & theft |
| Parks and open spaces | 23 | 70% anti-social behaviour |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Grosvenor records 3.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Wrexham. 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 Wrexham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Wrexham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Wrexham 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 21 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 34 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 Wrexham identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Wrexham’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (58% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 12% of violent and 11% 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. 4,097 crimes.
How crime in Wrexham 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 -8% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -8% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +4% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +3% (towns its size -4%).
Two people died in collisions on Wrexham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 200 collisions with injuries inside Wrexham in five years, in which two people died. 74 people were killed or seriously injured: 28 on foot and 15 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 Wrexham’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wrexham’s own rate (0.9) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Wrexham had 32.9 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). 38% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Wrexham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Wrexham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrexham | 44,781 | 62.3 | 23.3 | D− |
| Rhostyllen | 2,760 | 34.4 | 10.6 | C |
| Marchwiel | 1,038 | 22.5 | 5.1 | B |
| Bradley | 1,316 | 13.4 | 6.8 | A− |
| Gwersyllt | 7,112 | 38.1 | 13.4 | C− |
| Brynteg | 9,229 | 34.6 | 13.5 | C− |
| Gresford | 4,948 | 11.5 | 5.7 | A |
| Pentre Maelor | 1,814 | 75.4 | 11.2 | D− |
Wrexham records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Pentre Maelor records more. Rhostyllen, 2 miles away, records 34.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Wrexham’s 62.3.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 339 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Wrexham’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Wrexham 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 Wrexham
Is Wrexham safe?
Police recorded 62.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Wrexham’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 3% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Wrexham has less crime per resident than 4%.
What are the safest areas of Wrexham?
By council ward, Borras Park, Little Acton and Garden Village record the least violent and household crime per resident: 5.1, 14.5 and 12.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 185.3 in Grosvenor.
Is crime going up in Wrexham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 8%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Wrexham town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 221 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 65% of them violent, and Grosvenor ward records 185.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in May and was lowest in April.
What is the most common crime in Wrexham?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,509 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,062) and criminal damage & arson (652), with 1,261 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.