Photo: Originally uploaded by MarcusBritish (Transferred by Hogweard ) · CC BY-SA 3.0Crime per resident in Middlesbrough runs higher than in almost every UK town
Violent crime was up 7% in a year. On the record of crimes police recorded inside Middlesbrough’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it takes D− for safety. Robbery runs at 4.5 per 1,000 residents in the town, against 1.4 in a typical town its size: police recorded 668 in the 12 months to August 2026. Each year brought 70.8 violent and sexual offences and 40.1 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 Middlesbrough
One ward carries much of the rate
Central ward recorded 7,194 of Middlesbrough’s 31,484 violent and sexual offences in three years: 208.5 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Middlesbrough the figure is 59. Where in Middlesbrough ↓
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in Middlesbrough than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
60% of Middlesbrough’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 11% 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.
What’s behind Middlesbrough’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 49,290 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Middlesbrough against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
60% of Middlesbrough residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
11% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 60% 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.
Middlesbrough’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, Middlesbrough runs highest on robbery (4.5 per 1,000 against 1.4), criminal damage & arson (22 per 1,000 against 7.5) and other crime (5.9 per 1,000 against 2.1).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 9,751 | 65.8 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 4,739 | 32 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 3,537 | 23.9 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 3,254 | 22 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 2,348 | 15.8 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,343 | 9.1 | 4.9 |
| Other theft | not graded | 1,292 | 8.7 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,134 | 7.7 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1,123 | 7.6 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 877 | 5.9 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 668 | 4.5 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 297 | 2 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 154 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 128 | 0.9 | 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.
How Middlesbrough compares with UK towns of 104,000 to 200,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 13 | York North Yorkshire | 141,696 | 38 | 15.5 | 25.3 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 40 | Basildon Essex | 115,935 | 54.2 | 24.2 | 19.8 | D− |
| 41 | Newport Gwent | 130,882 | 55.8 | 25.6 | 26.1 | D− |
| 42 | Blackpool Lancashire | 149,087 | 79.1 | 26.3 | 24.8 | D− |
| 43 | Middlesbrough North Yorkshire | 148,232 | 70.8 | 40.1 | 30.1 | 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 Middlesbrough, and others in North Yorkshire.
Lowest recorded crime in Nunthorpe, Marton West and Trimdon; highest in Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nunthorpe | 4,729 | 13 | 8.8 | |
| Marton West | 5,339 | 14.3 | 7.6 | |
| Trimdon | 6,305 | 16.7 | 11.2 | |
| Linthorpe | 6,710 | 25.4 | 19.2 | |
| Marton East | 5,536 | 28.6 | 16 | |
| Kader | 4,810 | 22.7 | 22.2 | |
| Acklam | 5,899 | 28.3 | 19.6 | |
| Ormesby | 6,464 | 34.6 | 25.8 | |
| Ladgate | 5,514 | 40.4 | 24.8 | |
| Coulby Newham | 8,042 | 44.1 | 24.7 | |
| Ayresome | 6,310 | 52.6 | 27.7 | |
| Stainton & Thornton | 1,536 | 65.8 | 19.7 | |
| Park | 9,590 | 47.8 | 39.9 | |
| Berwick Hills & Pallister | 9,062 | 66.4 | 39.5 | |
| Hemlington | 6,565 | 69.4 | 55.1 | |
| Brambles & Thorntree | 9,312 | 78.2 | 46.5 | |
| Newport | 10,774 | 94.1 | 48.1 | |
| Park End & Beckfield | 8,326 | 93.8 | 57.3 | |
| Normanby | 1,409 | 114.7 | 66.7 | |
| North Ormesby | 3,265 | 125.9 | 63.8 | |
| Longlands & Beechwood | 11,233 | 122.2 | 70.1 | |
| Central | 11,502 | 208.5 | 82.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 3,691 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 2,582 | 62% violent |
| Police stations | 2,275 | 49% violent |
| Petrol stations | 1,993 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 1,701 | 54% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 1,065 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 374 | 49% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Central records 3.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Middlesbrough. 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 Middlesbrough. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Middlesbrough’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Middlesbrough 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 39 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 34 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How crime in Middlesbrough has moved
“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 +7% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +2% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +28% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -15% (towns its size -2%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 73% of Middlesbrough’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 10% of violent and 5% 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. 17,239 crimes.
Six people died in collisions on Middlesbrough’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 763 collisions with injuries inside Middlesbrough in five years, in which six people died (2 were pedestrians and 1 was a cyclist). 242 people were killed or seriously injured: 84 on foot and 49 on a bicycle.
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 Middlesbrough’s size would see about 8 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Middlesbrough’s own rate (0.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Middlesbrough had 32.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 35% 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 Middlesbrough’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Middlesbrough
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Middlesbrough | 148,232 | 70.8 | 40.1 | D− |
| Stainton | 1,817 | 25 | 15 | C+ |
| Eston | 29,625 | 62.1 | 42.7 | D− |
| Thornaby-on-Tees | 23,352 | 59.3 | 33.4 | D− |
| Ingleby Barwick | 23,380 | 15.2 | 5.7 | A− |
| Stockton-on-Tees | 84,824 | 63.5 | 32.2 | D− |
| Billingham | 33,917 | 38.6 | 24.3 | D |
| Great Ayton | 4,348 | 12.9 | 9.4 | A− |
Middlesbrough records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Stainton, 2.4 miles away, records 25 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Middlesbrough’s 70.8.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 2,582 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Middlesbrough’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 Middlesbrough 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 Middlesbrough
Is Middlesbrough safe?
Police recorded 70.8 violent and sexual offences and 40.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Middlesbrough’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: behind almost every UK town. Among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Middlesbrough has less crime per resident than 0%.
What are the safest areas of Middlesbrough?
By council ward, Nunthorpe, Marton West and Trimdon record the least violent and household crime per resident: 13, 14.3 and 16.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 208.5 in Central.
Is crime going up in Middlesbrough?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 28% and anti-social behaviour fell 15%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Middlesbrough?
Violence & sexual offences: 9,751 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (3,537) and criminal damage & arson (3,254), with 4,739 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.