Photo: Christine Matthews · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Liverpool runs higher than in 95% of UK towns
Of all the kinds of crime, drugs is where Liverpool departs most from towns its size: 15.3 per 1,000 against 3.8. Its letter for safety is D, worked out from crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026. For every 1,000 residents, 54.0 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were logged a year. Violent crime barely moved 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 Liverpool
More crime than many places its size
Of 27 UK towns and cities of 284,000 to 855,000 people, Liverpool has the 23rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Bristol, Leeds and Bradford, higher than Coventry, Newcastle upon Tyne and Leicester. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
43% of Liverpool’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 14% 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.
Liverpool: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 112,614 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Liverpool 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, Liverpool runs highest on drugs (15.3 per 1,000 against 3.8), theft from the person (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.7) and public order (12.8 per 1,000 against 7.4). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 26,254 | 51.8 | 38.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 7,759 | 15.3 | 3.8 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 6,623 | 13.1 | 17.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 6,466 | 12.8 | 7.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 5,492 | 10.8 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 5,133 | 10.1 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 4,046 | 8 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 2,689 | 5.3 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1,796 | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 1,720 | 3.4 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 819 | 1.6 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 713 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 613 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 605 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
“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.
43% of Liverpool residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
14% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 43% 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.
Liverpool’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.
Lowest recorded crime in Swanside, Church and Woolton; highest in Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swanside | 1,150 | 11.3 | 7.2 | |
| Church | 13,569 | 16.8 | 10.4 | |
| Woolton | 13,130 | 18.5 | 11.6 | |
| Halewood North | 10,010 | 26.1 | 7.5 | |
| Allerton and Hunts Cross | 15,242 | 23.4 | 10.6 | |
| Mossley Hill | 11,755 | 22.9 | 11.9 | |
| Cressington | 15,152 | 25.5 | 10 | |
| Childwall | 13,263 | 23.7 | 12.8 | |
| Wavertree | 14,259 | 24.8 | 12 | |
| Yew Tree | 15,923 | 33.1 | 10.8 | |
| Croxteth | 14,170 | 31.9 | 12.5 | |
| Greenbank | 15,269 | 32.2 | 16.5 | |
| West Derby | 13,840 | 33.3 | 16.3 | |
| Halewood South | 10,157 | 37.7 | 15.4 | |
| Clubmoor | 15,885 | 39.5 | 14.9 | |
| Belle Vale | 15,617 | 41.3 | 14.1 | |
| Warbreck | 15,398 | 43.6 | 15 | |
| Fazakerley | 16,378 | 44.3 | 15.3 | |
| St Michael's | 12,484 | 43.9 | 20.1 | |
| Knotty Ash | 14,355 | 50.3 | 17.9 | |
| Old Swan | 15,594 | 51.8 | 18.7 | |
| Norris Green | 19,610 | 60.5 | 17.2 | |
| Picton | 18,902 | 57.6 | 21.8 | |
| Speke-Garston | 21,402 | 52.9 | 26.6 | |
| Tuebrook and Stoneycroft | 15,776 | 58.5 | 21.3 | |
| Princes Park | 19,007 | 63.9 | 22.6 | |
| Anfield | 14,731 | 67.7 | 23 | |
| Everton | 17,452 | 72.4 | 29.9 | |
| Kensington and Fairfield | 16,521 | 74.8 | 28.7 | |
| Riverside | 23,045 | 78.3 | 25.6 | |
| Kirkdale | 18,655 | 68.3 | 36.2 | |
| County | 13,460 | 118.2 | 34.7 | |
| Central | 24,849 | 162.7 | 47.4 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 7,286 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 6,360 | 29% drugs, public order & other |
| Nightclubs | 4,492 | 45% violent |
| Shopping areas | 3,868 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 2,898 | 42% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 1,899 | 34% violent |
| Police stations | 1,376 | 60% drugs, public order & other |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 1,121 | 37% violent |
| Hospitals | 817 | 49% violent |
| Prisons | 641 | 54% drugs, public order & other |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Central records 3.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Liverpool. 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 Liverpool. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Liverpool’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Of 27 towns its size, Liverpool is 23rd from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barnet London | 388,572 | 25.3 | 21 | 18.8 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 20 | Coventry West Midlands | 344,289 | 47.6 | 23.7 | 20.2 | D |
| 21 | Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear | 286,472 | 47.8 | 24.2 | 29.9 | D |
| 22 | Leicester Leicestershire | 406,612 | 49 | 23.2 | 22.1 | D |
| 23 | Liverpool Merseyside | 506,564 | 54 | 20.2 | 20.9 | D |
| 24 | Nottingham Nottinghamshire | 299,786 | 53.3 | 23.3 | 31.9 | D− |
| 25 | Bristol Bristol | 425,196 | 55.3 | 25.9 | 26.9 | D− |
| 26 | Leeds West Yorkshire | 536,262 | 65.4 | 29.8 | 30.6 | D− |
| 27 | Bradford West Yorkshire | 333,968 | 72.2 | 28.3 | 19.3 | 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 Liverpool, and others in Merseyside.
Crime in Liverpool 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 21 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
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 +3% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -4% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +9% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -4% (towns its size -2%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Liverpool’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% 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 9% of violent and 11% 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. 38,234 crimes.
34 people died in collisions on Liverpool’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 4,525 collisions with injuries inside Liverpool in five years, in which 34 people died (21 were pedestrians). 1,328 people were killed or seriously injured: 556 on foot and 255 on a bicycle.
That is 1.3 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Liverpool had 52.4 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). 42% 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 Liverpool’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Liverpool
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 506,564 | 54 | 20.2 | D |
| Huyton with Roby | 59,844 | 38.8 | 13.3 | C− |
| Knowsley | 2,345 | 25.2 | 15.5 | C |
| Bootle | 53,722 | 61.5 | 19.9 | D− |
| Aintree | 6,212 | 24.1 | 11.9 | C+ |
| Prescot | 39,227 | 40.6 | 12.4 | C− |
| Kirkby | 45,559 | 43 | 15 | D |
| Litherland | 18,752 | 42 | 13.5 | C− |
Liverpool records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Bootle records more. Huyton with Roby, 3 miles away, records 38.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Liverpool’s 54.
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
- A prison inside the boundary. police.uk counted 641 at or near a prison (39% violent), 817 at or near a hospital and 355 at an airport or airfield over three years. They count in Liverpool’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 Liverpool 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 Liverpool
Is Liverpool safe?
Police recorded 54 violent and sexual offences and 20.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Liverpool’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among 27 UK towns of 284,000 to 855,000 people, Liverpool is 23rd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Liverpool?
By council ward, Swanside, Church and Woolton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.3, 16.8 and 18.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 162.7 in Central.
Is crime going up in Liverpool?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 9% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Liverpool city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 4,492 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 45% of them violent, and Central ward records 162.7 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 February.
What is the most common crime in Liverpool?
Violence & sexual offences: 26,254 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came drugs (7,759) and public order (6,466), with 6,623 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 · 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.