Photo: Eirian Evans · CC BY-SA 2.0Dolgellau records shoplifting at 4.4 times the rate of a typical town its size
Recorded violence fell 16% in a year. In sum, crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put Dolgellau at C (#4 of 13 in Gwynedd): more crime per resident than 71% of UK towns. More crime per resident is recorded in 26% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. Dolgellau’s police logs show 33.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Dolgellau
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 16% less violent crime per resident in Dolgellau than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 856 UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000 people, Dolgellau has the 699th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Dipton, Lingfield and Congresbury, higher than Silver End, Menai Bridge and Widdrington Station. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Dolgellau’s C for safety
A fairly firm grade. Built on 340 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dolgellau 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, Dolgellau runs highest on shoplifting (8.1 per 1,000 against 1.8), criminal damage & arson (9.2 per 1,000 against 4.5) and anti-social behaviour (17.7 per 1,000 against 8.8).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 75 | 28.9 | 22.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 46 | 17.7 | 8.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 24 | 9.2 | 4.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 21 | 8.1 | 1.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 13 | 5 | 3.6 |
| Other theft | not graded | 12 | 4.6 | 3.2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 6 | 2.3 | 1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 5 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 5 | 1.9 | 1.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1 | 0.4 | 2 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 0 | 0 | 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.
Police in Dolgellau identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 48% of Dolgellau’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 16% 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 11% of violent and 0% 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. 115 crimes.
How Dolgellau’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.
Dolgellau’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 crime in Dolgellau 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 -16% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +7% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft -8% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -15% (towns its size +0%).
Of 856 towns its size, Dolgellau is 699th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richhill Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 2,738 | 6.2 | 2.8 | 3 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 174 | Benllech Gwynedd | 2,072 | 15 | 5.2 | 4.7 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 250 | Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll Gwynedd | 2,905 | 17.6 | 5.6 | 5.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 371 | Valley Gwynedd | 2,003 | 21.1 | 6 | 10.7 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 505 | Tywyn Gwynedd | 3,134 | 26 | 5.9 | 7.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 696 | Silver End Essex | 3,913 | 32.2 | 11.2 | 5.4 | C |
| 697 | Menai Bridge Gwynedd | 3,045 | 31.5 | 11.9 | 7.9 | C |
| 698 | Widdrington Station Northumberland | 2,495 | 30.3 | 13.3 | 3.5 | C |
| 699 | Dolgellau Gwynedd | 2,599 | 33.5 | 10.1 | 12.4 | C |
| 700 | Newton and Blackwell Derbyshire | 3,053 | 29.3 | 14.4 | 7.6 | C |
| 701 | Pembrey Dyfed | 2,094 | 36.4 | 7.5 | 1.6 | C |
| 702 | Kington Herefordshire | 2,423 | 34.4 | 9.5 | 9.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 856 | 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 Dolgellau, and others in Gwynedd.
Crime in Dolgellau 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 12 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.
No one died in a collision on Dolgellau’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 4 collisions with injuries inside Dolgellau in five years. 1 person was 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 Dolgellau is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Dolgellau’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 2 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Dolgellau had 1.
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 Dolgellau’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Dolgellau
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolgellau | 2,599 | 33.5 | 10.1 | C |
| Barmouth | 1,986 | 58.5 | 14.8 | D |
| Machynlleth | 2,161 | 36.1 | 10.9 | C |
Dolgellau records less graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table.
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 Dolgellau 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 Dolgellau
Is Dolgellau safe?
Police recorded 33.5 violent and sexual offences and 10.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Dolgellau’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 29% of UK towns. Among 856 UK towns of 2,000 to 4,000 people, Dolgellau is 699th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Dolgellau?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 16%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 7%, shoplifting and theft fell 8% and anti-social behaviour fell 15%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Dolgellau?
Violence & sexual offences: 75 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (24) and shoplifting (21), with 46 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.