Photo: Gareth James · CC BY-SA 2.0Ebbw Vale has more crime per resident than 96% of UK towns
The typical town its size sees 2.8 cases of vehicle crime per 1,000 residents; Ebbw Vale sees 9.1, or 179 in the 12 months to August 2026. Per 1,000 residents a year, 52.9 violent and sexual offences and 28.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were recorded. Measured on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026, it earns a Safety Grade of D−: #30 of 38 in Gwent. Violent crime barely moved in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Ebbw Vale
Neighbourhood ranks
51% of Ebbw Vale’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 7% 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.
Ebbw Vale: D− for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 4,758 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Ebbw Vale against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
51% of Ebbw Vale residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
7% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 51% 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.
Ebbw Vale’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, Ebbw Vale runs highest on vehicle crime (9.1 per 1,000 against 2.8), criminal damage & arson (17.4 per 1,000 against 6.2) and other crime (4.9 per 1,000 against 1.8). Shoplifting sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 951 | 48.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 609 | 31 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 341 | 17.4 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 280 | 14.3 | 5.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 179 | 9.1 | 2.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 126 | 6.4 | 4.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 100 | 5.1 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 96 | 4.9 | 1.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 91 | 4.6 | 6.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 48 | 2.4 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 20 | 1 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 10 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 2 | 0.1 | 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 Ebbw Vale compares with UK towns of 14,000 to 27,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 242 | Risca Gwent | 15,194 | 44.2 | 18.7 | 8.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 270 | Wisbech Cambridgeshire | 26,800 | 54.1 | 21.9 | 28.4 | D |
| 271 | Spennymoor County Durham | 20,401 | 49.7 | 27.6 | 14.3 | D− |
| 272 | Darlaston West Midlands | 21,541 | 53.7 | 25.5 | 13.4 | D− |
| 273 | Ebbw Vale Gwent | 19,635 | 52.9 | 28 | 13 | D− |
| 274 | Workington Cumbria | 21,276 | 59.3 | 22.1 | 21.8 | D− |
| 275 | Wednesbury West Midlands | 20,321 | 51.6 | 30.8 | 35.3 | D− |
| 276 | Patchway Gloucestershire | 16,517 | 61.4 | 23.9 | 64.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 285 | Tredegar Gwent | 14,534 | 60.9 | 32 | 14.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 290 | Rhyl Clwyd | 26,982 | 89.1 | 22.9 | 29 | 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 Ebbw Vale, and others in Gwent.
Police in Ebbw Vale identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 57% of Ebbw Vale’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 9% 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 6% 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. 1,595 crimes.
Crime in Ebbw Vale 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 32 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 11 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Cwm, Beaufort and Rassau and Garnlydan; highest in Ebbw Vale South
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cwm | 1,431 | 18.9 | 16.1 | |
| Beaufort | 5,400 | 35.4 | 19.6 | |
| Rassau and Garnlydan | 3,906 | 49.6 | 30.9 | |
| Ebbw Vale North | 4,707 | 57.1 | 27.6 | |
| Ebbw Vale South | 4,191 | 84.9 | 40.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 489 | 34% violent |
| Nightclubs | 214 | 41% anti-social behaviour |
| Hospitals | 140 | 45% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 121 | 29% anti-social behaviour |
| Shopping areas | 55 | 76% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 49 | 82% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Ebbw Vale South records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Ebbw Vale. 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 Ebbw Vale. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Ebbw Vale’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 -4% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +14% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -20% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +4% (towns its size -4%).
No one died in a collision on Ebbw Vale’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 72 collisions with injuries inside Ebbw Vale in five years. 30 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 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 Ebbw Vale’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Ebbw Vale’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Ebbw Vale had 30.9 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). 13% 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 Ebbw Vale’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Ebbw Vale
Ebbw Vale records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Nantyglo, 1.9 miles away, records 47.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Ebbw Vale’s 52.9.
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 140 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Ebbw Vale’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 Ebbw Vale 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 Ebbw Vale
Is Ebbw Vale safe?
Police recorded 52.9 violent and sexual offences and 28 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Ebbw Vale’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, Ebbw Vale has less crime per resident than 6%.
What are the safest areas of Ebbw Vale?
By council ward, Cwm, Beaufort and Rassau and Garnlydan record the least violent and household crime per resident: 18.9, 35.4 and 49.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 84.9 in Ebbw Vale South.
Is crime going up in Ebbw Vale?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 14%, shoplifting and theft fell 20% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Ebbw Vale town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 214 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 28% of them violent, and Ebbw Vale South ward records 84.9 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 November.
What is the most common crime in Ebbw Vale?
Violence & sexual offences: 951 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (341) and public order (280), with 609 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.