Photo: Richard Webb · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Ashington than in 96% of UK towns
Year on year, 53.4 violent and sexual offences and 27.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents. Violent crime was down 13% in a year. Still, the grade is D−, built on crimes police recorded inside Ashington’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026. Burglary stands out: 5.2 per 1,000 residents in the town, against 2.4 in a typical town its size, with 148 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 Ashington
One ward carries much of the rate
Ashington Central ward, where 30% of Ashington’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 1,534 of Ashington’s 4,395 violent and sexual offences in three years: 108.6 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Ashington the figure is 40.5. Where in Ashington ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 13% less violent crime per resident in Ashington than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 6% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
55% of Ashington’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 24% 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.
Ashington: D− for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 6,602 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Ashington against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
55% of Ashington residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
24% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 55% 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.
Ashington’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.
How Ashington compares with UK towns of 20,000 to 38,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 99 | Cramlington Northumberland | 28,846 | 31 | 14.4 | 13.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 203 | Wisbech Cambridgeshire | 26,800 | 54.1 | 21.9 | 28.4 | D |
| 204 | Spennymoor County Durham | 20,401 | 49.7 | 27.6 | 14.3 | D− |
| 205 | Darlaston West Midlands | 21,541 | 53.7 | 25.5 | 13.4 | D− |
| 206 | Ashington Northumberland | 28,279 | 53.4 | 27.2 | 26.7 | D− |
| 207 | Shipley West Yorkshire | 29,228 | 57 | 23.9 | 18.5 | D− |
| 208 | Workington Cumbria | 21,276 | 59.3 | 22.1 | 21.8 | D− |
| 209 | Wednesbury West Midlands | 20,321 | 51.6 | 30.8 | 35.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 220 | 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 Ashington, and others in Northumberland.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Ashington runs highest on burglary (5.2 per 1,000 against 2.4), other crime (4 per 1,000 against 1.8) and anti-social behaviour (25.7 per 1,000 against 12.4).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,150 | 40.7 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 726 | 25.7 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 329 | 11.6 | 6.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 300 | 10.6 | 6.1 |
| Public order | not graded | 239 | 8.5 | 5.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 148 | 5.2 | 2.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 146 | 5.2 | 2.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 136 | 4.8 | 4.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 113 | 4 | 1.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 60 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 34 | 1.2 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 30 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 21 | 0.7 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 18 | 0.6 | 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.
Crime in Ashington 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 22 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 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 Ashington has moved
Northumbria Police published two months short or not at all (Jan 2026 and Feb 2026), so the line breaks there and those months are left out of the rates. “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 -13% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -6% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -33% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +11% (towns its size -4%).
Lowest recorded crime in Haydon, Bothal and College; highest in Ashington Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Haydon | 4,218 | 24.2 | 13.7 | |
| Bothal | 4,905 | 29.7 | 15.3 | |
| College | 4,756 | 38 | 17.2 | |
| Seaton with Newbiggin West | 4,592 | 40.1 | 17.1 | |
| Hirst | 5,100 | 66.9 | 34.2 | |
| Ashington Central | 4,708 | 108.6 | 57.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 976 | 32% violent |
| Petrol stations | 522 | 30% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 460 | 75% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 288 | 50% violent |
| Hospitals | 251 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Ashington Central records 2.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Ashington. 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 Ashington. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Ashington’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 73% of Ashington’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 38% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (0% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 4% 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. 2,492 crimes.
One person died in collisions on Ashington’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 139 collisions with injuries inside Ashington in five years, in which one person died. 28 people were killed or seriously injured: 12 on foot and 2 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 Ashington’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Ashington’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Ashington had 19.8 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).
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 Ashington’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Ashington
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashington | 28,279 | 53.4 | 27.2 | D− |
| Stakeford | 8,197 | 30.7 | 13.4 | C |
| Newbiggin-by-the-Sea | 5,951 | 36.8 | 21.7 | D |
| Lynemouth | 1,685 | 44.6 | 27 | D |
| Ellington | 2,131 | 18.2 | 14.9 | B− |
| Bedlington | 16,186 | 41.3 | 16.2 | D |
| Pegswood | 3,302 | 26.2 | 14.6 | C |
| Blyth | 39,731 | 49.3 | 23.2 | D |
Ashington records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Stakeford, 1.5 miles away, records 30.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Ashington’s 53.4.
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 251 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Ashington’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Some months are short. Northumbria Police published January 2026 and February 2026 only in part or not at all. Those months are left out of the rates, which average the months that were published in full; the raw counts include what was published.
- 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 Ashington 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 Ashington
Is Ashington safe?
Police recorded 53.4 violent and sexual offences and 27.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Ashington’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 4% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Ashington has less crime per resident than 6%.
What are the safest areas of Ashington?
By council ward, Haydon, Bothal and College record the least violent and household crime per resident: 24.2, 29.7 and 38 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 108.6 in Ashington Central.
Is crime going up in Ashington?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 13%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 6%, shoplifting and theft fell 33% and anti-social behaviour rose 11%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Ashington?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,150 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (329) and shoplifting (300), with 726 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Ashington compare with Blyth?
Blyth records 49.3 violent and sexual offences and 23.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Ashington’s 53.4 and 27.2, 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.