Photo: Robert Graham · CC BY-SA 2.0More violent crime is recorded per resident in Consett than in 76% of UK towns
Violence recorded locally climbed 15% in a year. On top of that, the grade is C, built on crimes police recorded inside Consett’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #13 of 52 in County Durham. Shoplifting: police recorded 359 locally in the 12 months to August 2026, 12 per 1,000 residents against 6.1 in a typical town its size. Recorded violent and sexual offences ran at 33.8 per 1,000 residents a year, and burglary, vehicle crime and damage at 13.4.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Consett
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 15% more violent crime per resident in Consett 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 rose 29% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 210 UK towns of 21,000 to 40,000 people, Consett has the 97th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Congleton, Kendal and Hucknall, higher than Deal, Ashford and Potters Bar. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: C for Consett
A fairly firm grade. Built on 4,230 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Consett 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 Consett 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 +15% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +29% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +29% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -7% (towns its size -4%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Consett runs highest on shoplifting (12 per 1,000 against 6.1), other crime (2.8 per 1,000 against 1.8) and anti-social behaviour (18.3 per 1,000 against 12.4). Drugs sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,034 | 34.6 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 548 | 18.3 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 359 | 12 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 274 | 9.2 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 191 | 6.4 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 156 | 5.2 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 109 | 3.6 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 84 | 2.8 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 68 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 30 | 1 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 22 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 14 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 6 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 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.
Police in Consett identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 57% of Consett’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” (57% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% 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. 1,427 crimes.
Crime in Consett 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 15 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.
How Consett’s neighbourhoods rank in England
17% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 14% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Consett’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Lowest recorded crime in Benfieldside, Consett South and Consett North; highest in Delves Lane
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benfieldside | 8,169 | 21.2 | 8.1 | |
| Consett South | 5,481 | 35.1 | 14.4 | |
| Consett North | 7,867 | 36.9 | 16.4 | |
| Delves Lane | 8,357 | 41.5 | 14.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 469 | 44% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 307 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 189 | 45% violent |
| Petrol stations | 188 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 36 | 53% 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 Consett. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Consett’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Towns its size: Consett comes 97th of 210
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 94 | Deal Kent | 28,992 | 34 | 12.8 | 8.1 | C |
| 95 | Ashford Surrey | 22,823 | 31.5 | 15.4 | 16.7 | C |
| 96 | Potters Bar Hertfordshire | 23,394 | 30.9 | 16.3 | 21 | C |
| 97 | Consett County Durham | 29,874 | 33.8 | 13.4 | 14.3 | C |
| 98 | Loughton Essex | 33,338 | 30.2 | 17.1 | 19.7 | C |
| 99 | Ossett West Yorkshire | 21,854 | 33.8 | 13.6 | 9.9 | C |
| 100 | Antrim Antrim and Newtownabbey | 25,606 | 33.7 | 13.6 | 8.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 143 | Seaham County Durham | 21,660 | 34.3 | 21.6 | 17.7 | C− |
| 144 | Chester-le-Street County Durham | 23,554 | 37.2 | 18.9 | 24.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 166 | Billingham County Durham | 33,917 | 38.6 | 24.3 | 15.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 188 | Newton Aycliffe County Durham | 25,760 | 48.3 | 24.9 | 19.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 210 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Consett, and others in County Durham.
Three people died in collisions on Consett’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 65 collisions with injuries inside Consett in five years, in which three people died (1 was a pedestrian). 19 people were killed or seriously injured: 9 on foot and 3 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 Consett’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Consett’s own rate (2.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Consett had 12.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below 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 Consett’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Consett
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consett | 29,874 | 33.8 | 13.4 | C |
| Leadgate | 3,339 | 40.8 | 17.6 | D |
| Castleside | 1,532 | 12.4 | 5.4 | A |
| Medomsley | 1,216 | 27.7 | 15.4 | C |
| Blackhall Mill | 1,528 | 19.7 | 8.3 | B |
| Dipton | 2,653 | 26.5 | 17.5 | C |
| Annfield Plain | 7,786 | 50.6 | 24.5 | D |
| Lanchester | 3,510 | 19.6 | 10.5 | B |
Consett records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Leadgate and Annfield Plain record more. Castleside, 1.9 miles away, records 12.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Consett’s 33.8.
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 Consett 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 Consett
Is Consett safe?
Police recorded 33.8 violent and sexual offences and 13.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Consett’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 25% of UK towns. Among 210 UK towns of 21,000 to 40,000 people, Consett is 97th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Consett?
By council ward, Benfieldside, Consett South and Consett North record the least violent and household crime per resident: 21.2, 35.1 and 36.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 41.5 in Delves Lane.
Is crime going up in Consett?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 15%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 29%, shoplifting and theft rose 29% 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 Consett?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,034 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (359) and criminal damage & arson (274), with 548 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 · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · 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.