Photo: Jeff Gogarty · CC BY-SA 2.0Brynmawr records more crime per resident than 97% of UK towns
The yearly rates were 56.0 violent and sexual offences and 27.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Counting crimes police recorded inside Brynmawr’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D− for safety: #33 of 38 in Gwent. Criminal damage & arson stands out: 24.4 per 1,000 residents in the town, against 4.5 in a typical town its size, with 128 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Brynmawr
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 38% more violent crime per resident in Brynmawr than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage rose 53% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
77% of Brynmawr’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 grade: D− for Brynmawr
A firm grade. Built on 1,312 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Brynmawr against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Violent crime up 38% in a year, while towns its size held steady
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling twelve-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 +38% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +53% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -15% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour +95% (towns its size +0%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Brynmawr runs highest on criminal damage & arson (24.4 per 1,000 against 4.5), anti-social behaviour (39.4 per 1,000 against 8.8) and public order (15.6 per 1,000 against 3.6).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 323 | 61.5 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 207 | 39.4 | 8.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 128 | 24.4 | 4.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 82 | 15.6 | 3.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 32 | 6.1 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 32 | 6.1 | 1.9 |
| Other theft | not graded | 31 | 5.9 | 3.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 30 | 5.7 | 2 |
| Other crime | not graded | 18 | 3.4 | 1.5 |
| Drugs | not graded | 17 | 3.2 | 1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 7 | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 7 | 1.3 | 0.2 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 4 | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3 | 0.6 | 0 |
“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
77% of Brynmawr residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 77% 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.
Brynmawr’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.
How Brynmawr compares with UK towns of 4,000 to 7,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 134 | Undy and Magor Gwent | 5,742 | 18.6 | 8 | 4.1 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 249 | Oakdale Gwent | 6,126 | 24.1 | 9 | 3.7 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 376 | Nelson Gwent | 4,235 | 28 | 16.3 | 6.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 431 | Abercarn Gwent | 5,123 | 35.5 | 16.7 | 4.4 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 499 | Easington County Durham | 6,968 | 54.5 | 27.5 | 43.6 | D− |
| 500 | Welshpool Powys | 5,460 | 66.5 | 16.2 | 16.5 | D− |
| 501 | Stone Kent | 6,438 | 54.7 | 28.2 | 236.2 | D− |
| 502 | Brynmawr Gwent | 5,250 | 56 | 27.3 | 13.5 | D− |
| 503 | Chilton County Durham | 4,693 | 52.8 | 32.6 | 24.5 | D− |
| 504 | Blackheath West Midlands | 6,950 | 63.9 | 22.1 | 46.2 | D− |
| 505 | Sowerby Bridge West Yorkshire | 4,483 | 61 | 25.7 | 17 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 518 | Stainforth South Yorkshire | 5,999 | 72.5 | 49.7 | 14.4 | 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 Brynmawr, and others in Gwent.
Police in Brynmawr identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 57% of Brynmawr’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 20% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (63% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 3% of violent and 5% 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. 416 crimes.
Crime in Brynmawr 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 36 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 13 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Where in Brynmawr police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Bus and coach stations | 174 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 82 | 30% violent |
| Shopping areas | 62 | 39% violent |
| Petrol stations | 36 | 83% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 21 | 57% violent |
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 Brynmawr. 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 Brynmawr’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 23 collisions with injuries inside Brynmawr in five years. 4 people were killed or seriously injured: 2 on foot and 0 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Brynmawr is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Brynmawr’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 4 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Brynmawr had 4.
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 Brynmawr’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Brynmawr
Brynmawr records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Tredegar records more. Nantyglo, 1 miles away, records 47.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Brynmawr’s 56.
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 Brynmawr 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 Brynmawr
Is Brynmawr safe?
Police recorded 56 violent and sexual offences and 27.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Brynmawr’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 3% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Brynmawr has less crime per resident than 3%.
Is crime going up in Brynmawr?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 38%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 53%, shoplifting and theft fell 15% and anti-social behaviour rose 95%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Brynmawr?
Violence & sexual offences: 323 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (128) and public order (82), with 207 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.