Photo: Bill Boaden · CC BY-SA 2.0For violent crime, Cannock trails 83% of UK towns per resident
For its size, it sits below 76% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more on crime per resident. Overall, it grades C− for safety (#38 of 46 in Staffordshire). On top of that, recorded violence rose 16% in a year. Violence and property crime split as 39.1 violent and sexual offences and 10.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Cannock
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 16% more violent crime per resident in Cannock 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 ↓
Less crime than many places its size
Of 114 UK towns and cities of 44,000 to 85,000 people, Cannock has the 35th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Tamworth, Andover and Huyton with Roby, higher than Salisbury, Weymouth and Bognor Regis. Towns its size ↓
Many neighbourhoods rank low for crime nationally
The government’s Indices of Deprivation 2025 rank every neighbourhood in England on recorded crime. 17% of Cannock’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 5% in one of the highest-crime 20%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Cannock’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 9,427 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Cannock against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Cannock 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 +16% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -5% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -19% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +10% (towns its size -2%).
1 in 6 Cannock residents lives in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
31% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 5% 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.
Cannock’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
Other theft and burglary sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,614 | 41.5 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 834 | 13.2 | 17.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 490 | 7.8 | 7.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 442 | 7 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 334 | 5.3 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 241 | 3.8 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 201 | 3.2 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 169 | 2.7 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 114 | 1.8 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 113 | 1.8 | 3.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 72 | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 49 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 28 | 0.4 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 10 | 0.2 | 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.
Police in Cannock identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 58% of Cannock’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 9% 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 7% 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. 3,003 crimes.
Cannock places 35th of 114 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 32 | Salisbury Wiltshire | 47,690 | 34.3 | 15.1 | 16.4 | C− |
| 33 | Weymouth Dorset | 55,540 | 37.7 | 11.7 | 14.5 | C− |
| 34 | Bognor Regis West Sussex | 68,443 | 33.6 | 16.3 | 16.6 | C− |
| 35 | Cannock Staffordshire | 63,057 | 39.1 | 10.9 | 12.8 | C− |
| 36 | Shrewsbury Shropshire | 76,013 | 37.4 | 12.6 | 19.1 | C− |
| 37 | Macclesfield Cheshire | 54,352 | 40.2 | 10.2 | 14.3 | C− |
| 38 | Royal Leamington Spa Warwickshire | 51,321 | 34 | 16.8 | 19.3 | C− |
| 39 | Tamworth Staffordshire | 76,074 | 36.8 | 14.7 | 13.4 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 43 | Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire | 76,511 | 39.5 | 13.3 | 14.5 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 53 | Stafford Staffordshire | 71,695 | 43.8 | 12.8 | 16 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 61 | Burton upon Trent Staffordshire | 76,264 | 45.2 | 13.4 | 14.6 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 114 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | 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 Cannock, and others in Staffordshire.
Crime in Cannock 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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 11 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 Cheslyn Hay North and Saredon, Hawks Green and Hednesford South; highest in Cannock South
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheslyn Hay North and Saredon | 524 | 14 | 2.5 | |
| Hawks Green | 7,133 | 17.4 | 6.4 | |
| Hednesford South | 5,055 | 23.1 | 6.3 | |
| Heath Hayes East and Wimblebury | 6,279 | 23.1 | 6.8 | |
| Hednesford Green Heath | 6,970 | 30.4 | 6.2 | |
| Cannock East | 7,102 | 37.4 | 11 | |
| Cannock North | 7,344 | 42.3 | 8.4 | |
| Hednesford North | 6,946 | 44.6 | 13.9 | |
| Cannock West | 7,110 | 58.7 | 13.8 | |
| Cannock South | 8,299 | 63.3 | 21.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,495 | 31% violent |
| Shopping areas | 518 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 320 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 271 | 36% violent |
| College and university buildings | 204 | 50% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 144 | 49% violent |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 129 | 29% drugs, public order & other |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Cannock South records 1.8× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Cannock. 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 Cannock. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Cannock’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Five people died in collisions on Cannock’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 241 collisions with injuries inside Cannock in five years, in which five people died. 62 people were killed or seriously injured: 14 on foot and 6 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 Cannock’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Cannock’s own rate (1.6) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Cannock had 19.7 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below 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 Cannock’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Cannock
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cannock | 63,057 | 39.1 | 10.9 | C− |
| Huntington | 4,715 | 33.3 | 6.6 | C+ |
| Rawnsley | 2,470 | 24.8 | 6.9 | B− |
| Norton Canes | 8,155 | 37.1 | 13.2 | C− |
| Great Wyrley and Cheslyn Hay | 17,647 | 24.7 | 10.8 | C+ |
| Burntwood | 27,891 | 27.5 | 10.5 | C+ |
| Penkridge | 8,364 | 27.5 | 9.8 | C+ |
| Clayhanger | 1,698 | 20.6 | 11 | B− |
Cannock records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Norton Canes records more. Huntington, 1.5 miles away, records 33.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Cannock’s 39.1.
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
- 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 Cannock 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 Cannock
Is Cannock safe?
Police recorded 39.1 violent and sexual offences and 10.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Cannock’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 22% of UK towns. Among 114 UK towns of 44,000 to 85,000 people, Cannock is 35th from the least crime. 17% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Cannock?
By council ward, Cheslyn Hay North and Saredon, Hawks Green and Hednesford South record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14, 17.4 and 23.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 63.3 in Cannock South.
Is crime going up in Cannock?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 16%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 19% and anti-social behaviour rose 10%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Cannock?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,614 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (490) and shoplifting (442), with 834 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.