Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Cwmbrân than in 93% of UK towns
Violence and property crime split as 50.5 violent and sexual offences and 19.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year. Graded on crimes police recorded inside Cwmbrân’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it scores D for safety: #26 of 38 in Gwent. Public order runs at 13.9 per 1,000 residents here, against 5.4 in a typical town its size: police recorded 652 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 Cwmbrân
More crime than many places its size
Of 148 UK towns of 33,000 to 64,000 people, Cwmbrân has the 120th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Ilkeston, Oldbury and Blyth, higher than Boston, Wallsend and Barrow-in-Furness. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
31% of Cwmbrân’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 12% 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’s behind Cwmbrân’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 9,931 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Cwmbrân 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, Cwmbrân runs highest on public order (13.9 per 1,000 against 5.4), shoplifting (15.2 per 1,000 against 6.1) and other crime (3.9 per 1,000 against 1.8).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,242 | 47.6 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,201 | 25.5 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 714 | 15.2 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 652 | 13.9 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 544 | 11.6 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 321 | 6.8 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 237 | 5 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 209 | 4.4 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 184 | 3.9 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 141 | 3 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 57 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 47 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 23 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 16 | 0.3 | 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.
Cwmbrân places 120th of 148 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 97 | Caerphilly Gwent | 33,104 | 42.1 | 18.6 | 12.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 117 | Boston Lincolnshire | 45,347 | 50.7 | 17.6 | 26.7 | D |
| 118 | Wallsend Tyne and Wear | 45,351 | 47.6 | 21.7 | 23 | D |
| 119 | Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria | 55,260 | 54.1 | 15.9 | 13.3 | D |
| 120 | Cwmbrân Gwent | 47,075 | 50.5 | 19.9 | 21.4 | D |
| 121 | Tipton West Midlands | 47,202 | 49.1 | 21.6 | 12 | D |
| 122 | Smethwick West Midlands | 56,343 | 51.1 | 20.1 | 10.7 | D |
| 123 | Taunton Somerset | 61,667 | 56.2 | 15.1 | 24.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 148 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Cwmbrân, and others in Gwent.
Crime in Cwmbrân 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 21 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 23 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 Cwmbrân residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
12% 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.
Cwmbrân’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.
Police in Cwmbrân identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Cwmbrân’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” (64% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% 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. 3,328 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Croesyceiliog, Coed Eva and Two Locks; highest in Llantarnam
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croesyceiliog | 5,140 | 31.5 | 9.6 | |
| Coed Eva | 2,439 | 30.9 | 16.9 | |
| Two Locks | 5,498 | 36.8 | 15.5 | |
| Fairwater | 5,038 | 36.5 | 15.8 | |
| Greenmeadow | 2,766 | 37.8 | 15.5 | |
| Pontnewydd | 6,393 | 50.5 | 19.8 | |
| Llanyrafon | 2,494 | 60.4 | 10.8 | |
| Upper Cwmbran | 5,838 | 57.6 | 21.7 | |
| St. Dials | 4,360 | 56.3 | 27 | |
| Llanfrechfa and Ponthir | 621 | 77.3 | 33.3 | |
| Llantarnam | 6,488 | 83.7 | 33.4 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,651 | 28% violent |
| Shopping areas | 1,099 | 47% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 799 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 465 | 66% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 346 | 41% violent |
| Police stations | 196 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Llantarnam records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Cwmbrân. 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 Cwmbrân. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Cwmbrân’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
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 -2% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +13% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +11% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +6% (towns its size -4%).
Five people died in collisions on Cwmbrân’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 154 collisions with injuries inside Cwmbrân in five years, in which five people died. 60 people were killed or seriously injured: 14 on foot and 7 on a bicycle.
That is more than 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 Cwmbrân’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cwmbrân’s own rate (2.1) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Cwmbrân had 25.5 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). 23% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Cwmbrân’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Cwmbrân
Cwmbrân records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Newport records more. Ponthir, 2.9 miles away, records 19.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Cwmbrân’s 50.5.
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 Cwmbrân 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 Cwmbrân
Is Cwmbrân safe?
Police recorded 50.5 violent and sexual offences and 19.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Cwmbrân’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 7% of UK towns. Among 148 UK towns of 33,000 to 64,000 people, Cwmbrân is 120th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Cwmbrân?
By council ward, Croesyceiliog, Coed Eva and Two Locks record the least violent and household crime per resident: 31.5, 30.9 and 36.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 83.7 in Llantarnam.
Is crime going up in Cwmbrân?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 13%, shoplifting and theft rose 11% and anti-social behaviour rose 6%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Cwmbrân?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,242 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (714) and public order (652), with 1,201 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Cwmbrân compare with Newport?
Newport records 55.8 violent and sexual offences and 25.6 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Cwmbrân’s 50.5 and 19.9, 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.