Photo: Malc McDonald · CC BY-SA 2.0More crimes per resident are recorded in Redcar than in 94% of UK towns
On crimes police recorded inside Redcar’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #48 of 54 in North Yorkshire. The typical town its size sees 0.3 cases of bicycle theft per 1,000 residents; Redcar sees 1.1, or 42 in the 12 months to August 2026. Recorded violence held steady in a year. For every 1,000 residents, 48.8 violent and sexual offences and 24.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage were logged a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Redcar
One ward carries much of the rate
Coatham ward, where 42% of Redcar’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 1,432 of Redcar’s 5,508 violent and sexual offences in three years: 98.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Redcar the figure is 41.4. Where in Redcar ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 184 UK towns of 26,000 to 51,000 people, Redcar has the 162nd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Morecambe, Newark-on-Trent and Havant, higher than Oldbury, Blyth and Willenhall. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
32% of Redcar’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 12% 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.
Redcar: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 8,288 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Redcar 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, Redcar runs highest on bicycle theft (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.3), robbery (1.7 per 1,000 against 0.5) and burglary (6.5 per 1,000 against 2.4).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,721 | 45.7 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 852 | 22.6 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 487 | 12.9 | 6.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 420 | 11.2 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 357 | 9.5 | 5.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 245 | 6.5 | 2.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 204 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 163 | 4.3 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 134 | 3.6 | 1.9 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 131 | 3.5 | 2.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 63 | 1.7 | 0.5 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 44 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 42 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 12 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
“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 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Among 184 towns its size, Redcar ranks 162nd for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 159 | Oldbury West Midlands | 45,188 | 49.6 | 22.7 | 17.9 | D |
| 160 | Blyth Northumberland | 39,731 | 49.3 | 23.2 | 28.1 | D |
| 161 | Willenhall West Midlands | 49,582 | 44.1 | 28.8 | 21.6 | D |
| 162 | Redcar North Yorkshire | 37,666 | 48.8 | 24.6 | 19.2 | D |
| 163 | Colwyn Bay Clwyd | 29,273 | 58.1 | 15.4 | 17.8 | D |
| 164 | Bridlington East Riding of Yorkshire | 34,831 | 56.4 | 17.3 | 23.6 | D |
| 165 | Pontefract West Yorkshire | 32,982 | 57.2 | 17.8 | 19.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 182 | Eston North Yorkshire | 29,625 | 62.1 | 42.7 | 27.4 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 184 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Redcar, and others in North Yorkshire.
Crime in Redcar 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 23 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 18 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
32% of Redcar residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
12% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 32% 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.
Redcar’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 Wheatlands, Zetland and Newcomen; highest in Coatham
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheatlands | 5,440 | 14.2 | 8.3 | |
| Zetland | 4,367 | 26.2 | 12.5 | |
| Newcomen | 5,149 | 45.1 | 19 | |
| West Dyke | 5,953 | 52 | 21.8 | |
| Kirkleatham | 7,267 | 51.7 | 27.2 | |
| Dormanstown | 4,647 | 53.7 | 38.7 | |
| Coatham | 4,843 | 98.6 | 45.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 700 | 29% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 621 | 52% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 145 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 129 | 25% anti-social behaviour |
| Hospitals | 37 | 32% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Coatham records 2.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Redcar. 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 Redcar. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Redcar’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Redcar has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-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 +3% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +3% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -6% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -29% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of Redcar’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” (72% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 10% 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. 2,991 crimes.
One person died in collisions on Redcar’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 111 collisions with injuries inside Redcar in five years, in which one person died. 34 people were killed or seriously injured: 14 on foot and 7 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Redcar’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Redcar’s own rate (0.5) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Redcar had 17.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 41% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Redcar’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Redcar
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redcar | 37,666 | 48.8 | 24.6 | D |
| New Marske | 2,990 | 22.3 | 10.6 | B− |
| Marske-by-the-Sea | 7,576 | 25.3 | 11.2 | C+ |
| Saltburn-by-the-Sea | 5,874 | 31.7 | 16.5 | C− |
| Eston | 29,625 | 62.1 | 42.7 | D− |
| Skelton (Redcar and Cleveland) | 6,895 | 33.6 | 15.8 | C− |
| Guisborough | 18,091 | 31 | 16.6 | C− |
| Boosbeck | 1,124 | 28.2 | 14.5 | C |
Redcar records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Eston records more. New Marske, 2.2 miles away, records 22.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Redcar’s 48.8.
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 Redcar 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 Redcar
Is Redcar safe?
Police recorded 48.8 violent and sexual offences and 24.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Redcar’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 6% of UK towns. Among 184 UK towns of 26,000 to 51,000 people, Redcar is 162nd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Redcar?
By council ward, Wheatlands, Zetland and Newcomen record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.2, 26.2 and 45.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 98.6 in Coatham.
Is crime going up in Redcar?
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 fell 6% and anti-social behaviour fell 29%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Redcar?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,721 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (487) and shoplifting (420), with 852 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Redcar compare with Middlesbrough?
Middlesbrough records 70.8 violent and sexual offences and 40.1 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Redcar’s 48.8 and 24.6, 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.