Photo: Jaggery · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Penygroes than in 93% of UK towns
Violent crime was down 28% in a year. Still, its letter for safety is D, worked out from crimes police recorded inside Penygroes’s built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026. The typical town its size sees 5.3 cases of anti-social behaviour per 1,000 residents; Penygroes sees 18.4, or 33 in the 12 months to August 2026. Each year brought 54.8 violent and sexual offences and 13.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Penygroes
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 28% less violent crime per resident in Penygroes than in the year before; across UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people violent crime held steady. Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D for Penygroes
A firm grade. Built on 370 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Penygroes 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 Penygroes has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 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 -28% (towns its size +3%), homes and vehicles -48% (towns its size +0%), anti-social behaviour -58% (towns its size -1%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Penygroes runs highest on anti-social behaviour (18.4 per 1,000 against 5.3), violence & sexual offences (46.3 per 1,000 against 16.6) and criminal damage & arson (8.4 per 1,000 against 3.2).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 83 | 46.3 | 16.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 33 | 18.4 | 5.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 15 | 8.4 | 3.2 |
| Public order | not graded | 10 | 5.6 | 2.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 7 | 3.9 | 0 |
| Other theft | not graded | 3 | 1.7 | 2.5 |
| Other crime | not graded | 3 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 0 | 0 | 1.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Robbery | Violent | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 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 1,000 to 2,500 people.
How Penygroes compares with UK towns of 1,000 to 2,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clipsham Rutland | 1,150 | 0 | 0 | 0 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 155 | Tregarth Gwynedd | 1,252 | 12.3 | 2.1 | 0.8 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 289 | Bethel Gwynedd | 1,091 | 13.4 | 4 | 2.5 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 652 | Llanerchymedd Gwynedd | 1,155 | 21.9 | 3.5 | 2.6 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 720 | Criccieth Gwynedd | 1,737 | 20.7 | 6.1 | 8.6 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 1171 | Knowle Hampshire | 1,487 | 54.3 | 14.1 | 4.9 | D |
| 1172 | Trimdon Grange County Durham | 1,233 | 36 | 32.4 | 4.3 | D |
| 1173 | Point Clear Essex | 1,707 | 53.5 | 15.2 | 9.8 | D |
| 1174 | Penygroes Gwynedd | 1,793 | 54.8 | 13.9 | 6.1 | D |
| 1175 | Evenwood County Durham | 1,587 | 43.3 | 25.6 | 6.5 | D |
| 1176 | New Brancepeth County Durham | 1,280 | 55.2 | 14.8 | 4.7 | D |
| 1177 | Llandysul Dyfed | 1,321 | 48.5 | 21.9 | 6.2 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 1214 | Ingoldmells Lincolnshire | 1,928 | 259 | 64.7 | 57.2 | 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 Penygroes, and others in Gwynedd.
Crime in Penygroes 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 9 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 6 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police in Penygroes identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 61% of Penygroes’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% 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 8% 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. 124 crimes.
No one died in a collision on Penygroes’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 2 collisions with injuries inside Penygroes in five years. 1 person was killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people (94%) had no road deaths in these five years, and Penygroes is one of them.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Penygroes’s size at the median for UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people would see about 1 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Penygroes 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 Penygroes’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Penygroes
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penygroes | 1,793 | 54.8 | 13.9 | D |
| Caernarfon | 9,831 | 65.9 | 21 | D− |
| Llanrug | 1,537 | 20.8 | 6.5 | B |
| Llanberis | 1,838 | 31.9 | 14.2 | C |
| Bethel | 1,091 | 13.4 | 4 | A |
| Clwt-y-bont | 1,385 | 33.2 | 8.7 | C |
| Y Felinheli | 2,333 | 25.3 | 7.3 | B− |
| Criccieth | 1,737 | 20.7 | 6.1 | B |
Penygroes records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Caernarfon records more. Llanrug, 7.6 miles away, records 20.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Penygroes’s 54.8.
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 Penygroes 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 Penygroes
Is Penygroes safe?
Police recorded 54.8 violent and sexual offences and 13.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Penygroes’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 7% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, Penygroes has less crime per resident than 3%.
Is crime going up in Penygroes?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 28%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 48%, shoplifting and theft fell 23% and anti-social behaviour fell 58%. Across UK towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Penygroes?
Violence & sexual offences: 83 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (15) and public order (10), with 33 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.