Photo: Marathon · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Birkenhead than in 92% of UK towns
Each year brought 50.1 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents. Counting crimes police recorded inside Birkenhead’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #22 of 25 in Merseyside. Drugs stands out: 7.6 per 1,000 residents in the town, against 3.8 in a typical town its size, with 830 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Birkenhead
About the middle for a city its size
Of 57 UK towns and cities of 77,000 to 148,000 people, Birkenhead has the 34th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Hastings, Darlington and Kensington and Chelsea, higher than Eastbourne, Bedford and Harlow. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
44% of Birkenhead’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 17% 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.
Birkenhead: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 22,125 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Birkenhead against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
44% of Birkenhead residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
17% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 44% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Birkenhead’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Birkenhead runs highest on drugs (7.6 per 1,000 against 3.8), public order (11.8 per 1,000 against 7.4) and other crime (3 per 1,000 against 2.1). Robbery and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 5,153 | 46.9 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,533 | 14 | 17.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,294 | 11.8 | 7.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,137 | 10.4 | 7.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,033 | 9.4 | 10.3 |
| Drugs | not graded | 830 | 7.6 | 3.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 614 | 5.6 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 370 | 3.4 | 4.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 330 | 3 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 321 | 2.9 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 145 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 111 | 1 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 74 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 40 | 0.4 | 0.7 |
“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 and cities of 50,000 or more.
Crime in Birkenhead 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 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 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 Moreton West and Saughall Massie, Prenton and Oxton; highest in Birkenhead and Tranmere
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moreton West and Saughall Massie | 2,834 | 14 | 4.8 | |
| Prenton | 14,581 | 24.7 | 8.2 | |
| Oxton | 13,690 | 30.9 | 12.5 | |
| Upton | 16,385 | 44.5 | 13.3 | |
| Claughton | 14,697 | 42.5 | 16 | |
| Rock Ferry | 14,655 | 54 | 17.7 | |
| Bidston and St James | 15,688 | 55.8 | 24.5 | |
| Birkenhead and Tranmere | 16,294 | 100.6 | 29.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,789 | 45% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 964 | 38% violent |
| Hospitals | 651 | 57% violent |
| Shopping areas | 605 | 47% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 257 | 53% violent |
| Petrol stations | 206 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 142 | 54% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 138 | 37% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 111 | 41% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 21 | 48% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Birkenhead and Tranmere records 2.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Birkenhead. 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 Birkenhead. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Birkenhead’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Among 57 towns its size, Birkenhead ranks 34th for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | 12.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 6 | Southport Merseyside | 94,438 | 37.2 | 9.8 | 12.7 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 8 | Wallasey Merseyside | 85,619 | 38.2 | 12 | 7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 31 | Eastbourne East Sussex | 99,171 | 46.2 | 17.5 | 33 | D |
| 32 | Bedford Bedfordshire | 97,226 | 44.5 | 20.3 | 23.9 | D |
| 33 | Harlow Essex | 93,570 | 45.5 | 20.5 | 19.4 | D |
| 34 | Birkenhead Merseyside | 109,854 | 50.1 | 17.2 | 13.7 | D |
| 35 | Gateshead Tyne and Wear | 115,278 | 44.1 | 24 | 20.7 | D |
| 36 | Colchester Essex | 130,259 | 51.1 | 17.1 | 20.6 | D |
| 37 | St Helens Merseyside | 107,684 | 52 | 16.9 | 16.1 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 57 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 Birkenhead, and others in Merseyside.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 67% of Birkenhead’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 12% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (70% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 11% of violent and 8% 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. 7,457 crimes.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -1% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -6% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +29% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +14% (towns its size -2%).
Seven people died in collisions on Birkenhead’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 757 collisions with injuries inside Birkenhead in five years, in which seven people died (1 was a cyclist). 230 people were killed or seriously injured: 54 on foot and 72 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
That is about what is typical for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: at their median rate (1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Birkenhead’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Birkenhead’s own rate (1.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Birkenhead had 42.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 23% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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 Birkenhead’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Birkenhead
Birkenhead records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Wallasey, 2.4 miles away, records 38.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Birkenhead’s 50.1.
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 651 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Birkenhead’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 Birkenhead 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 Birkenhead
Is Birkenhead safe?
Police recorded 50.1 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Birkenhead’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 8% of UK towns. Among 57 UK towns of 77,000 to 148,000 people, Birkenhead is 34th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Birkenhead?
By council ward, Moreton West and Saughall Massie, Prenton and Oxton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14, 24.7 and 30.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 100.6 in Birkenhead and Tranmere.
Is crime going up in Birkenhead?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 6%, shoplifting and theft rose 29% and anti-social behaviour rose 14%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Birkenhead city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 257 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 53% of them violent, and Birkenhead and Tranmere ward records 100.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in January.
What is the most common crime in Birkenhead?
Violence & sexual offences: 5,153 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (1,294) and criminal damage & arson (1,137), with 1,533 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Birkenhead compare with Liverpool?
Liverpool records 54 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Birkenhead’s 50.1 and 17.2, 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 · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · 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.