Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Pontypool than in 91% of UK towns
The typical town its size sees 5.4 cases of public order per 1,000 residents; Pontypool sees 11.7, or 340 in the 12 months to August 2026. Counting crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #22 of 38 in Gwent. Violence recorded locally dropped 9% in a year. In a usual year, 47.0 violent and sexual offences and 18.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Pontypool
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 9% less violent crime per resident in Pontypool than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 222 UK towns of 20,000 to 39,000 people, Pontypool has the 182nd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Morley, Darwen and Jarrow, higher than Sutton in Ashfield, Goole and Northfleet. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
27% of Pontypool’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of Wales (WIMD 2025 community safety), and 9% 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.
Inside Pontypool’s D for safety
A firm grade. Built on 5,722 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Pontypool 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, Pontypool runs highest on public order (11.7 per 1,000 against 5.4), criminal damage & arson (12.3 per 1,000 against 6.2) and other crime (3.5 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 | 1,283 | 44.1 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 517 | 17.8 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 359 | 12.3 | 6.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 340 | 11.7 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 168 | 5.8 | 4.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 152 | 5.2 | 6.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 101 | 3.5 | 2.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 101 | 3.5 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 97 | 3.3 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 66 | 2.3 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 27 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 9 | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 3 | 0.1 | 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.
Pontypool places 182nd of 222 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 164 | Caerphilly Gwent | 33,104 | 42.1 | 18.6 | 12.5 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 179 | Sutton in Ashfield Nottinghamshire | 36,435 | 45 | 19.4 | 24.7 | D |
| 180 | Goole East Riding of Yorkshire | 20,173 | 46.9 | 17.7 | 21.8 | D |
| 181 | Northfleet Kent | 29,892 | 45 | 20.6 | 15.5 | D |
| 182 | Pontypool Gwent | 29,070 | 47 | 18.7 | 10.5 | D |
| 183 | Ripley Derbyshire | 20,191 | 52.3 | 13.8 | 14.1 | D |
| 184 | Whitehaven Cumbria | 22,952 | 52 | 14.5 | 10 | D |
| 185 | Camborne Cornwall | 20,445 | 50 | 17.1 | 11.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 222 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Pontypool, and others in Gwent.
Police in Pontypool identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 59% of Pontypool’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” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% 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. 1,856 crimes.
Crime in Pontypool 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 19 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.
How crime in Pontypool has moved
“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 -9% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +3% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +15% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -8% (towns its size -4%).
27% of Pontypool residents live in one of Wales’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
9% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 27% 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.
Pontypool’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.
Lowest recorded crime in New Inn, Pontnewydd and Panteg; highest in Pontypool Fawr
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Inn | 5,620 | 26.4 | 9.1 | |
| Pontnewydd | 738 | 23.5 | 14.9 | |
| Panteg | 7,478 | 37.9 | 13.4 | |
| Pontnewynydd and Snatchwood | 2,763 | 52.2 | 22.6 | |
| Trevethin and Penygarn | 5,307 | 57.7 | 23.2 | |
| Pontypool Fawr | 7,164 | 64.3 | 26.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 860 | 33% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 286 | 52% violent |
| Shopping areas | 261 | 31% anti-social behaviour |
| Hospitals | 261 | 44% violent |
| Petrol stations | 153 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 69 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Pontypool Fawr records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Pontypool. 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 Pontypool. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Pontypool’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 Pontypool’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 90 collisions with injuries inside Pontypool in five years. 35 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 on foot and 5 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 Pontypool’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Pontypool’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Pontypool had 24.3 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). 29% 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 Pontypool’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Pontypool
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pontypool | 29,070 | 47 | 18.7 | D |
| Abersychan | 7,495 | 45 | 19.5 | D |
| Cwmbrân | 47,075 | 50.5 | 19.9 | D |
| Penperlleni | 1,396 | 18.2 | 5 | A− |
| Swffryd | 1,721 | 44.8 | 19.4 | D |
| Llanhilleth | 2,450 | 63.8 | 23.4 | D− |
| Trinant | 1,504 | 46.1 | 13.7 | D |
| Abertillery | 10,248 | 58.2 | 27.1 | D− |
Pontypool records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Abersychan, 2.7 miles away, records 45 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Pontypool’s 47.
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 261 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Pontypool’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 Pontypool 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 Pontypool
Is Pontypool safe?
Police recorded 47 violent and sexual offences and 18.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Pontypool’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 222 UK towns of 20,000 to 39,000 people, Pontypool is 182nd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Pontypool?
By council ward, New Inn, Pontnewydd and Panteg record the least violent and household crime per resident: 26.4, 23.5 and 37.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 64.3 in Pontypool Fawr.
Is crime going up in Pontypool?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 9%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 15% and anti-social behaviour fell 8%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Pontypool?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,283 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (359) and public order (340), with 517 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Pontypool compare with Cwmbrân?
Cwmbrân records 50.5 violent and sexual offences and 19.9 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Pontypool’s 47 and 18.7, 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.