Photo: Robert Graham · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Darlington runs higher than in 93% of UK towns
Violence recorded locally held about level in a year. Of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, 27% record more crime per resident. On top of that, the grade is D, built on crimes police recorded inside Darlington’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #30 of 52 in County Durham. Behind the grade sit 45.2 violent and sexual offences and 25.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Darlington
One ward carries much of the rate
Park East ward, where 36% of Darlington’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 3,087 of Darlington’s 12,582 violent and sexual offences in three years: 135.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Darlington the figure is 36.9. Where in Darlington ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 75 UK towns and cities of 65,000 to 126,000 people, Darlington has the 54th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Chatham, Weston-super-Mare and Lincoln, higher than Gateshead, St Helens and Hastings. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
42% of Darlington’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 16% 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.
Darlington: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 19,766 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Darlington against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
42% of Darlington residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
16% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 42% 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.
Darlington’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 Mowden, Hummersknott and Park West; highest in Park East
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mowden | 3,817 | 9.3 | 7.3 | |
| Hummersknott | 3,700 | 14.1 | 4.7 | |
| Park West | 4,262 | 12.5 | 10.9 | |
| College | 4,286 | 15.9 | 13.3 | |
| Whinfield | 3,834 | 26.2 | 16.2 | |
| Harrowgate Hill | 6,469 | 27.1 | 15.8 | |
| Haughton & Springfield | 6,312 | 28.8 | 16.4 | |
| Brinkburn & Faverdale | 6,833 | 36.3 | 13.9 | |
| Cockerton | 6,325 | 35.7 | 18.4 | |
| Eastbourne | 6,361 | 35.1 | 30.2 | |
| Northgate | 4,145 | 42.1 | 29.4 | |
| Pierremont | 5,843 | 50.1 | 26.2 | |
| Red Hall & Lingfield | 4,669 | 51.9 | 32.8 | |
| North Road | 6,213 | 53.4 | 38.3 | |
| Bank Top & Lascelles | 7,102 | 57.3 | 35.6 | |
| Stephenson | 4,839 | 67.4 | 40.4 | |
| Park East | 7,591 | 135.6 | 58.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,132 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 1,079 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 880 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 229 | 41% violent |
| Hospitals | 176 | 65% violent |
| Petrol stations | 168 | 42% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 136 | 46% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Park East records 3.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Darlington. 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 Darlington. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Darlington’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Darlington runs highest on anti-social behaviour (32.2 per 1,000 against 17.5), criminal damage & arson (13.4 per 1,000 against 7.5) and other crime (3.6 per 1,000 against 2.1). Robbery and drugs sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 4,007 | 43.1 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2,994 | 32.2 | 17.5 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,243 | 13.4 | 7.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,186 | 12.7 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 798 | 8.6 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 554 | 6 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 523 | 5.6 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 516 | 5.5 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 331 | 3.6 | 2.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 164 | 1.8 | 3.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 115 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 110 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 100 | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 55 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
“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 and cities of 50,000 or more.
Crime in Darlington 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 25 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 20 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Darlington is 54th of 75 UK towns of 65,000 to 126,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Newtownabbey Antrim and Newtownabbey | 67,599 | 21.3 | 9 | 8.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 51 | Gateshead Tyne and Wear | 115,278 | 44.1 | 24 | 20.7 | D |
| 52 | St Helens Merseyside | 107,684 | 52 | 16.9 | 16.1 | D |
| 53 | Hastings East Sussex | 91,497 | 48.8 | 20.8 | 22.4 | D |
| 54 | Darlington County Durham | 93,022 | 45.2 | 25.8 | 20.3 | D |
| 55 | South Shields Tyne and Wear | 73,326 | 49.1 | 22.9 | 26.4 | D |
| 56 | Carlisle Cumbria | 77,729 | 55.4 | 16.6 | 19.3 | D |
| 57 | Chesterfield Derbyshire | 76,394 | 56.2 | 17.1 | 21.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 70 | Hartlepool County Durham | 88,001 | 63.1 | 28.5 | 34.9 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 72 | Stockton-on-Tees County Durham | 84,824 | 63.5 | 32.2 | 26.9 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 Darlington, and others in County Durham.
Police in Darlington identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Darlington’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% 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 12% of violent and 12% 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. 6,951 crimes.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +3% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +3% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +14% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +13% (towns its size -2%).
Five people died in collisions on Darlington’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 444 collisions with injuries inside Darlington in five years, in which five people died (3 were pedestrians). 142 people were killed or seriously injured: 51 on foot and 26 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: at their median rate (1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Darlington’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Darlington’s own rate (1.1) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Darlington had 30.5 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 36% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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 Darlington’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Darlington
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darlington | 93,022 | 45.2 | 25.8 | D |
| Hurworth-on-Tees | 2,667 | 19.1 | 6 | B+ |
| Middleton St George | 4,756 | 40.9 | 12.3 | C− |
| Heighington | 1,548 | 15.3 | 7.5 | A− |
| School Aycliffe | 1,590 | 13 | 4 | A |
| Newton Aycliffe | 25,760 | 48.3 | 24.9 | D |
| Gainford | 1,127 | 10.7 | 10.4 | A− |
| Stillington | 1,407 | 28.7 | 14 | C |
Darlington records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Newton Aycliffe records more. Hurworth-on-Tees, 3.3 miles away, records 19.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Darlington’s 45.2.
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 176 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Darlington’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 Darlington 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 Darlington
Is Darlington safe?
Police recorded 45.2 violent and sexual offences and 25.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Darlington’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 7% of UK towns. Among 75 UK towns of 65,000 to 126,000 people, Darlington is 54th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Darlington?
By council ward, Mowden, Hummersknott and Park West record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9.3, 14.1 and 12.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 135.6 in Park East.
Is crime going up in Darlington?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 14% and anti-social behaviour rose 13%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Darlington?
Violence & sexual offences: 4,007 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (1,243) and shoplifting (1,186), with 2,994 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.