Photo: Tylerian3 · CC BY-SA 3.0Abertillery sees more crime per resident than 97% of UK towns
A Safety Grade of D− follows from crimes police recorded inside Abertillery’s built-up area over the years September 2023 to August 2026: #33 of 38 in Gwent. What’s more, violent crime here is higher than in 96% of UK towns; burglary, vehicle crime and damage, higher than in 98%. Out of every 1,000 residents, 58.2 violent and sexual offences and 27.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Abertillery
Neighbourhood ranks
54% of Abertillery’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 0% 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 Abertillery’s D−
A firm grade. Built on 2,622 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Abertillery against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
54% of Abertillery residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 54% 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.
Abertillery’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.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Abertillery runs highest on public order (15.7 per 1,000 against 5.4), possession of weapons (2 per 1,000 against 0.7) and criminal damage & arson (15.8 per 1,000 against 6.2). Shoplifting sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 585 | 57.1 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 248 | 24.2 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 162 | 15.8 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 161 | 15.7 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 75 | 7.3 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 56 | 5.5 | 2.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 44 | 4.3 | 6.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 41 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 31 | 3 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 27 | 2.6 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 20 | 2 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 7 | 0.7 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 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.
How Abertillery compares with UK towns of 7,000 to 14,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 71 | Rogerstone Gwent | 7,546 | 17.5 | 10.1 | 9.6 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 280 | Monmouth Gwent | 10,330 | 32.9 | 11.3 | 19.2 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 300 | Pontllanfraith Gwent | 9,363 | 31.7 | 15.2 | 7.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 311 | Chepstow Gwent | 11,939 | 34.2 | 14.4 | 20 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 434 | Padiham Lancashire | 10,121 | 56.6 | 25.4 | 12.4 | D− |
| 435 | Worsbrough South Yorkshire | 8,840 | 54.1 | 28.8 | 11.7 | D− |
| 436 | Pembroke Dock Dyfed | 9,659 | 63.4 | 20.2 | 15.7 | D− |
| 437 | Abertillery Gwent | 10,248 | 58.2 | 27.1 | 13.3 | D− |
| 438 | Cleckheaton West Yorkshire | 11,607 | 58.3 | 27.6 | 16.9 | D− |
| 439 | South Kirkby West Yorkshire | 8,880 | 63.8 | 22.7 | 22.3 | D− |
| 440 | Caernarfon Gwynedd | 9,831 | 65.9 | 21 | 25.8 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 453 | City of London London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | 710 | 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 Abertillery, and others in Gwent.
Crime in Abertillery 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 12 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 Abertillery identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 63% of Abertillery’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” (65% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 5% of violent and 4% 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. 854 crimes.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 +1% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -11% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -2% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -17% (towns its size -4%).
Where in Abertillery police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 569 | 38% violent |
| Supermarkets | 274 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 44 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 42 | 55% shoplifting & theft |
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 Abertillery. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Abertillery’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 30 collisions with injuries inside Abertillery in five years. 15 people were killed or seriously injured: 5 on foot and 0 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 Abertillery’s size would see about 0 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Abertillery’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Abertillery had 30.1 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 Abertillery’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Abertillery
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abertillery | 10,248 | 58.2 | 27.1 | D− |
| Llanhilleth | 2,450 | 63.8 | 23.4 | D− |
| Cwm | 2,507 | 30.3 | 17.4 | C− |
| Trinant | 1,504 | 46.1 | 13.7 | D |
| Blaina | 4,553 | 43.6 | 23.5 | D |
| Abersychan | 7,495 | 45 | 19.5 | D |
| Swffryd | 1,721 | 44.8 | 19.4 | D |
| Blaenavon | 5,637 | 58.2 | 23.5 | D− |
Abertillery records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Llanhilleth records more. Cwm, 2.2 miles away, records 30.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Abertillery’s 58.2.
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
- 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 Abertillery 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 Abertillery
Is Abertillery safe?
Police recorded 58.2 violent and sexual offences and 27.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Abertillery’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, Abertillery has less crime per resident than 5%.
Is crime going up in Abertillery?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 11%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour fell 17%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Abertillery?
Violence & sexual offences: 585 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (162) and public order (161), with 248 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Abertillery compare with Pontypool?
Pontypool records 47 violent and sexual offences and 18.7 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Abertillery’s 58.2 and 27.1, 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.