Photo: Andrew Hill · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Blaenau Ffestiniog than in 91% of UK towns
With 21 cases in the 12 months to August 2026, shoplifting reaches 6.1 per 1,000 residents in Blaenau Ffestiniog, well above the typical 1.8. Police counts work out at 53.4 violent and sexual offences and 12.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually. The Safety Grade comes out at D, drawn from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #8 of 13 in Gwynedd. On top of that, recorded violence rose 31% 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 31% more violent crime per resident in Blaenau Ffestiniog 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Blaenau Ffestiniog’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 679 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Blaenau Ffestiniog against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Blaenau Ffestiniog has moved
“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 +31% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +0% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +69% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -12% (towns its size +0%).
Police in Blaenau Ffestiniog identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 35% of Blaenau Ffestiniog’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” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 11% of violent and 27% 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. 229 crimes.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Blaenau Ffestiniog runs highest on shoplifting (6.1 per 1,000 against 1.8), violence & sexual offences (57.7 per 1,000 against 22.4) and anti-social behaviour (21.7 per 1,000 against 8.8).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 199 | 57.7 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 75 | 21.7 | 8.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 28 | 8.1 | 3.6 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 26 | 7.5 | 4.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 22 | 6.4 | 3.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 21 | 6.1 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 14 | 4.1 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 12 | 3.5 | 1.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 5 | 1.4 | 2 |
| Robbery | Violent | 4 | 1.2 | 0.2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 3 | 0.9 | 1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 1 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 1 | 0.3 | 0 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
“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.
How Blaenau Ffestiniog compares with UK towns of 2,000 to 5,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bailrigg Lancashire | 4,788 | 4.7 | 2.5 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 199 | Benllech Gwynedd | 2,072 | 15 | 5.2 | 4.7 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 294 | Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll Gwynedd | 2,905 | 17.6 | 5.6 | 5.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 439 | Valley Gwynedd | 2,003 | 21.1 | 6 | 10.7 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 620 | Tywyn Gwynedd | 3,134 | 26 | 5.9 | 7.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 1033 | Cornforth County Durham | 2,424 | 44 | 20.8 | 5.4 | D |
| 1034 | West Rainton County Durham | 2,323 | 42.7 | 22.4 | 9 | D |
| 1035 | Longtown Cumbria | 2,176 | 43.4 | 21.9 | 8.3 | D |
| 1036 | Blaenau Ffestiniog Gwynedd | 3,449 | 53.4 | 12.3 | 9.7 | D |
| 1037 | Llangollen Clwyd | 3,048 | 50.1 | 15.8 | 22.5 | D |
| 1038 | Hellingly East Sussex | 2,616 | 50 | 16.3 | 5.4 | D |
| 1039 | Talbot Green Mid Glamorgan | 3,291 | 46.9 | 19.7 | 55.1 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 1089 | Eastchurch Kent | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | 3.5 | 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog, and others in Gwynedd.
How Blaenau Ffestiniog’s neighbourhoods rank in Wales
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Wales’s neighbourhoods, and 0% 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.
Blaenau Ffestiniog’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.
Crime in Blaenau Ffestiniog 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 13 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 70 | 40% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 66 | 39% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 28 | 82% violent |
| Police stations | 20 | 70% anti-social behaviour |
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 Blaenau Ffestiniog. 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 5 collisions with injuries inside Blaenau Ffestiniog in five years. 2 people were killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Blaenau Ffestiniog is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Blaenau Ffestiniog’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 3 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Blaenau Ffestiniog had 2.
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 Blaenau Ffestiniog’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Blaenau Ffestiniog
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaenau Ffestiniog | 3,449 | 53.4 | 12.3 | D |
| Penrhyndeudraeth | 1,463 | 34.7 | 11 | C |
| Porthmadog | 2,579 | 42.7 | 12.7 | C− |
| Harlech | 1,261 | 28.1 | 8.2 | C+ |
| Llanrwst | 2,463 | 58.2 | 17.6 | D |
| Llanberis | 1,838 | 31.9 | 14.2 | C |
Blaenau Ffestiniog records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 5 neighbours; only Llanrwst records more. Penrhyndeudraeth, 6.9 miles away, records 34.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Blaenau Ffestiniog’s 53.4.
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 Blaenau Ffestiniog 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 Blaenau Ffestiniog
Is Blaenau Ffestiniog safe?
Police recorded 53.4 violent and sexual offences and 12.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Blaenau Ffestiniog’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Blaenau Ffestiniog has less crime per resident than 7%.
Is crime going up in Blaenau Ffestiniog?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 31%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 69% and anti-social behaviour fell 12%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Blaenau Ffestiniog?
Violence & sexual offences: 199 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (28) and criminal damage & arson (26), with 75 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.