Photo: Llywelyn2000 · CC BY-SA 4.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Aberystwyth than in 95% of UK towns
Behind the grade sit 57.8 violent and sexual offences and 16.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people a year. Violence recorded locally dropped 6% in a year. By contrast, its Safety Grade is D, on crimes police recorded inside Aberystwyth’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #14 of 23 in Dyfed. With 142 cases in the 12 months to August 2026, drugs reaches 9.7 per 1,000 residents in the town, well above the typical 1.9.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Aberystwyth
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Aberystwyth 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 10% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
31% of Aberystwyth’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 41% 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 Aberystwyth’s D
A fairly firm grade. Built on 2,919 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Aberystwyth 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, Aberystwyth runs highest on drugs (9.7 per 1,000 against 1.9), possession of weapons (1.6 per 1,000 against 0.7) and burglary (4.6 per 1,000 against 2.4). Vehicle crime sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 743 | 50.7 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 189 | 12.9 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 142 | 9.7 | 6.2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 142 | 9.7 | 1.9 |
| Public order | not graded | 137 | 9.4 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 130 | 8.9 | 6.1 |
| Other theft | not graded | 104 | 7.1 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 68 | 4.6 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 31 | 2.1 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 23 | 1.6 | 0.7 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 19 | 1.3 | 2.8 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 5 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 5 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
“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 Aberystwyth identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 45% of Aberystwyth’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 11% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 10% 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. 843 crimes.
How Aberystwyth compares with UK towns of 10,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 344 | Rawmarsh South Yorkshire | 18,892 | 50 | 23.6 | 30.6 | D |
| 345 | Liskeard Cornwall | 10,901 | 57.4 | 16.2 | 16.6 | D |
| 346 | Holyhead Gwynedd | 11,753 | 58.7 | 15.4 | 19.7 | D |
| 347 | Aberystwyth Dyfed | 14,646 | 57.8 | 16.6 | 16.6 | D |
| 348 | Bodmin Cornwall | 16,904 | 59.6 | 16.2 | 13.8 | D |
| 349 | Bangor Gwynedd | 16,994 | 57.2 | 18.7 | 30.7 | D |
| 350 | Heckmondwike West Yorkshire | 13,368 | 54.8 | 21.4 | 18 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 364 | Carmarthen Dyfed | 16,448 | 71.2 | 18.9 | 23.2 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 367 | Milford Haven Dyfed | 14,251 | 74.9 | 22.6 | 12.7 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 372 | 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 Aberystwyth, and others in Dyfed.
Crime in Aberystwyth 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 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
31% of Aberystwyth residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
41% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 31% 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.
Aberystwyth’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.
Lowest recorded crime in Llanbadarn Fawr, Faenor and Aberystwyth Penparcau; highest in Aberystwyth Rheidol
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Llanbadarn Fawr | 725 | 1.8 | 0 | |
| Faenor | 2,810 | 14.9 | 2.6 | |
| Aberystwyth Penparcau | 2,966 | 47.5 | 11.2 | |
| Aberystwyth Morfa a Glais | 5,566 | 63.2 | 19.7 | |
| Aberystwyth Rheidol | 2,178 | 98.3 | 29.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 193 | 34% violent |
| Supermarkets | 152 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 130 | 42% anti-social behaviour |
| Police stations | 128 | 41% violent |
| Petrol stations | 111 | 30% violent |
| Hospitals | 99 | 62% violent |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 98 | 57% violent |
| Nightclubs | 70 | 47% violent |
| College and university buildings | 49 | 45% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Aberystwyth Rheidol records 2.2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Aberystwyth. 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 Aberystwyth. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Aberystwyth’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Aberystwyth has moved
Dyfed Powys Police published four months short or not at all (Jan 2024, Feb 2024, Mar 2024 and Apr 2024), so the line breaks there and those months are left out of the rates. “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 -6% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -10% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +2% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -2% (towns its size -4%).
One person died in collisions on Aberystwyth’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 78 collisions with injuries inside Aberystwyth in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 24 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 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 Aberystwyth’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Aberystwyth’s own rate (1.4) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Aberystwyth had 33.3 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).
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 Aberystwyth’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Aberystwyth
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberystwyth | 14,646 | 57.8 | 16.6 | D |
| Llanbadarn Fawr | 1,766 | 41.4 | 7.9 | C− |
| Bow Street | 1,101 | 27.6 | 3.8 | B− |
| Penrhyn-coch | 1,378 | 15 | 2.7 | A |
| Borth | 1,115 | 33.3 | 11.8 | C |
| Tywyn | 3,134 | 26 | 5.9 | B− |
Aberystwyth records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Llanbadarn Fawr, 0.6 miles away, records 41.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Aberystwyth’s 57.8.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 99 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Aberystwyth’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Some months are short. Dyfed Powys Police published January 2024, February 2024, March 2024 and April 2024 only in part or not at all. Those months are left out of the rates, which average the months that were published in full; the raw counts include what was published.
- 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 Aberystwyth 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 Aberystwyth
Is Aberystwyth safe?
Police recorded 57.8 violent and sexual offences and 16.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Aberystwyth’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Aberystwyth has less crime per resident than 8%.
What are the safest areas of Aberystwyth?
By council ward, Llanbadarn Fawr, Faenor and Aberystwyth Penparcau record the least violent and household crime per resident: 1.8, 14.9 and 47.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 98.3 in Aberystwyth Rheidol.
Is crime going up in Aberystwyth?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 10%, 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 Aberystwyth town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 70 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 47% of them violent, and Aberystwyth Rheidol ward records 98.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in October and was lowest in December.
What is the most common crime in Aberystwyth?
Violence & sexual offences: 743 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (142) and drugs (142), with 189 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.