Church of St Joseph and Presbytery Adjoining · Photo: Bill Henderson · CC BY-SA 2.0Per resident, Blaydon records more crime than 92% of UK towns
A Safety Grade of D follows from crimes police recorded inside Blaydon’s built-up area over the years September 2023 to August 2026: #26 of 34 in Tyne and Wear. Violence recorded locally dropped 31% in a year. Shoplifting stands out: 35.8 per 1,000 residents locally, against 6.1 in a typical town its size, with 509 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026. Its police logs show 43.4 violent and sexual offences and 25.1 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 Blaydon
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 31% less violent crime per resident in Blaydon 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 15% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Blaydon has the 315th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Colne, Bacup and Penzance, higher than Filton, Abergavenny and Chertsey. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D for Blaydon
A firm grade. Built on 2,836 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Blaydon 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 Blaydon 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 -31% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -15% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -9% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -3% (towns its size -4%).
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Blaydon runs highest on shoplifting (35.8 per 1,000 against 6.1), theft from the person (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.3) and vehicle crime (9.5 per 1,000 against 2.8).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoplifting | not graded | 509 | 35.8 | 6.1 |
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 419 | 29.4 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 362 | 25.4 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 138 | 9.7 | 6.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 135 | 9.5 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 118 | 8.3 | 5.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 111 | 7.8 | 4.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 61 | 4.3 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 33 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 16 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Drugs | not graded | 14 | 1 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 9 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 9 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 5 | 0.4 | 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.
Blaydon places 315th of 350 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 60 | Whickham Tyne and Wear | 15,680 | 19.2 | 10.7 | 9.3 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 139 | Shiney Row and Penshaw Tyne and Wear | 16,900 | 22.5 | 15.5 | 8.6 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 218 | Killingworth Tyne and Wear | 12,180 | 30.2 | 16.1 | 20.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 259 | Birtley Tyne and Wear | 13,840 | 32.8 | 20.6 | 14 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 312 | Filton Gloucestershire | 10,955 | 43.4 | 22.4 | 19.8 | D |
| 313 | Abergavenny Gwent | 13,689 | 47.5 | 20.8 | 21.3 | D |
| 314 | Chertsey Surrey | 14,558 | 50.6 | 17.8 | 14.4 | D |
| 315 | Blaydon Tyne and Wear | 14,237 | 43.4 | 25.1 | 51.8 | D |
| 316 | Newhaven East Sussex | 12,857 | 51.1 | 18.4 | 26 | D |
| 317 | Todmorden West Yorkshire | 12,971 | 52.3 | 17.2 | 16.7 | D |
| 318 | Chard Somerset | 14,287 | 54.2 | 15.5 | 18.1 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 350 | Haverfordwest Dyfed | 12,088 | 91.4 | 28.6 | 32.3 | 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 Blaydon, and others in Tyne and Wear.
Crime in Blaydon 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 21 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 45 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Blaydon’s neighbourhoods rank in England
4% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 23% 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.
Blaydon’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.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 71% of Blaydon’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 6% of violent and 3% 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. 1,032 crimes.
Where in Blaydon police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 886 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 551 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 532 | 69% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 386 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 42 | 45% violent |
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 Blaydon. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
No one died in a collision on Blaydon’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 95 collisions with injuries inside Blaydon in five years. 21 people were killed or seriously injured: 6 on foot and 1 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 Blaydon’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Blaydon’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Blaydon had 29.5 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above 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 Blaydon’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Blaydon
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blaydon | 14,237 | 43.4 | 25.1 | D |
| Ryton | 8,804 | 24 | 15.8 | C+ |
| Whickham | 15,680 | 19.2 | 10.7 | B |
| Newburn | 1,475 | 52 | 29.9 | D− |
| Crawcrook and Greenside | 7,544 | 18.7 | 8.3 | B |
| Rowlands Gill | 5,254 | 21.8 | 12 | B− |
| Sunniside | 3,422 | 22.7 | 13.2 | C+ |
| Throckley | 6,207 | 36.4 | 17.4 | C− |
Blaydon records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Newburn records more. Ryton, 1.6 miles away, records 24 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Blaydon’s 43.4.
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
- 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 Blaydon 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 Blaydon
Is Blaydon safe?
Police recorded 43.4 violent and sexual offences and 25.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Blaydon’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 8% of UK towns. Among 350 UK towns of 10,000 to 19,000 people, Blaydon is 315th from the least crime.
Is crime going up in Blaydon?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 31%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 15%, shoplifting and theft fell 9% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Blaydon?
Shoplifting: 509 in the 12 months to August 2026. Next came violence & sexual offences (419) and criminal damage & arson (138), with 362 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Blaydon compare with Newcastle upon Tyne?
Newcastle upon Tyne records 47.8 violent and sexual offences and 24.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Blaydon’s 43.4 and 25.1, 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.