Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0Blackwood sees more crime per resident than 96% of UK towns
Violence recorded locally held about level in a year. Scored on crimes police recorded inside Blackwood’s built-up area across September 2023 to August 2026, the town lands on D− for safety: #30 of 38 in Gwent. The typical town its size sees 6.2 cases of criminal damage & arson per 1,000 residents; Blackwood sees 18, or 227 in the 12 months to August 2026. Each year brought 55.5 violent and sexual offences and 24.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Blackwood
Neighbourhood ranks
45% of Blackwood’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.
The D− for Blackwood, and how it is built
A firm grade. Built on 3,031 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Blackwood against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
45% of Blackwood residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 45% 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.
Blackwood’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, Blackwood runs highest on criminal damage & arson (18 per 1,000 against 6.2), public order (14.7 per 1,000 against 5.4) and possession of weapons (1.9 per 1,000 against 0.7).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 684 | 54.2 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 357 | 28.3 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 227 | 18 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 185 | 14.7 | 5.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 105 | 8.3 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 92 | 7.3 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 73 | 5.8 | 2.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 62 | 4.9 | 4.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 45 | 3.6 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 39 | 3.1 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 24 | 1.9 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 7 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.2 | 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 Blackwood compares with UK towns of 9,000 to 17,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greasby Merseyside | 9,175 | 11.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 213 | Monmouth Gwent | 10,330 | 32.9 | 11.3 | 19.2 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 238 | Pontllanfraith Gwent | 9,363 | 31.7 | 15.2 | 7.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 248 | Chepstow Gwent | 11,939 | 34.2 | 14.4 | 20 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 250 | Caldicot Gwent | 9,813 | 34.8 | 14.1 | 9.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 352 | Kinmel Bay Clwyd | 9,016 | 61.6 | 15.2 | 9.2 | D− |
| 353 | Warmsworth South Yorkshire | 11,317 | 47.6 | 31.4 | 19.4 | D− |
| 354 | Featherstone West Yorkshire | 11,657 | 62.1 | 17.8 | 15.7 | D− |
| 355 | Blackwood Gwent | 12,621 | 55.5 | 24.5 | 17.2 | D− |
| 356 | Padiham Lancashire | 10,121 | 56.6 | 25.4 | 12.4 | D− |
| 357 | Pembroke Dock Dyfed | 9,659 | 63.4 | 20.2 | 15.7 | D− |
| 358 | Abertillery Gwent | 10,248 | 58.2 | 27.1 | 13.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 376 | 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 Blackwood, and others in Gwent.
Crime in Blackwood 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 31 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 14 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 Blackwood identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 62% of Blackwood’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” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 9% 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. 985 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 +4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +56% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -21% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -18% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Penmaen, Blackwood and Cefn Fforest and Pengam; highest in Cefn Fforest and Pengam
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penmaen | 1,049 | 18.7 | 15.3 | |
| Blackwood | 7,864 | 53.4 | 24.4 | |
| Cefn Fforest and Pengam | 3,708 | 64.8 | 25.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 875 | 34% violent |
| Shopping areas | 570 | 47% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 271 | 37% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 75 | 45% drugs, public order & other |
| Petrol stations | 57 | 54% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 47 | 47% 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 Blackwood. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Blackwood’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Blackwood’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 40 collisions with injuries inside Blackwood in five years. 17 people were killed or seriously injured: 8 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 Blackwood’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Blackwood’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Blackwood had 26.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as 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 Blackwood’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Blackwood
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackwood | 12,621 | 55.5 | 24.5 | D− |
| Fleur-de-lis and Pengam | 3,102 | 30.1 | 16.9 | C |
| Pontllanfraith | 9,363 | 31.7 | 15.2 | C |
| Tir-y-berth and Glan-y-nant | 1,411 | 36.9 | 15.9 | C− |
| Oakdale | 6,126 | 24.1 | 9 | B− |
| Pen-pedair-heol | 3,787 | 19.1 | 6.2 | B+ |
| Ystrad Mynach | 11,856 | 44.1 | 18.1 | D |
| Bargod | 8,034 | 52.4 | 18.8 | D |
Blackwood records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Fleur-de-lis and Pengam, 0.8 miles away, records 30.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Blackwood’s 55.5.
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 Blackwood 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 Blackwood
Is Blackwood safe?
Police recorded 55.5 violent and sexual offences and 24.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Blackwood’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 4% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Blackwood has less crime per resident than 6%.
What are the safest areas of Blackwood?
By council ward, Penmaen, Blackwood and Cefn Fforest and Pengam record the least violent and household crime per resident: 18.7, 53.4 and 64.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 64.8 in Cefn Fforest and Pengam.
Is crime going up in Blackwood?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 56%, shoplifting and theft fell 21% and anti-social behaviour fell 18%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Blackwood?
Violence & sexual offences: 684 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (227) and public order (185), with 357 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.