Photo: Robert Graham · CC BY-SA 2.0Set against UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Whickham records less crime than 86%
Violent crime was down 17% in a year. On violence it beats 62% of UK towns; on burglary, vehicle crime and damage, only 41%. Overall, it grades B for safety (#6 of 34 in Tyne and Wear). Typical years here bring 19.2 violent and sexual offences plus 10.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 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 Whickham
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% less violent crime per resident in Whickham 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than most places its size
Of 341 UK towns of 11,000 to 21,000 people, Whickham has the 50th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Codsall, Longfield, New Ash Green and Hartley and Ilkley, higher than Neston, Gillingham and Sidmouth. 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. 44% of Whickham’s residents live in one of the lowest-crime 10%, and 9% 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 sits behind Whickham’s B
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,370 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Whickham against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A third of Whickham residents live in one of England’s lowest-crime neighbourhoods
52% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 9% 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.
Whickham’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 crime in Whickham 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 -17% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +2% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -16% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -3% (towns its size -4%).
Set against 341 towns its size, Whickham is 50th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesgrave Suffolk | 14,947 | 13 | 3.3 | 2.7 | A |
| … | ||||||
| 47 | Neston Cheshire | 14,963 | 23 | 6.4 | 6.7 | B |
| 48 | Gillingham Dorset | 11,009 | 20 | 9.4 | 8 | B |
| 49 | Sidmouth Devon | 13,258 | 21.9 | 7.6 | 6.3 | B |
| 50 | Whickham Tyne and Wear | 15,680 | 19.2 | 10.7 | 9.3 | B |
| 51 | Uckfield East Sussex | 15,037 | 21.4 | 8.7 | 7.6 | B |
| 52 | Haslemere Surrey | 11,897 | 19.4 | 10.9 | 11.3 | B |
| 53 | Penryn Cornwall | 11,194 | 21.6 | 8.7 | 11 | B |
| … | ||||||
| 129 | Shiney Row and Penshaw Tyne and Wear | 16,900 | 22.5 | 15.5 | 8.6 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 200 | Killingworth Tyne and Wear | 12,180 | 30.2 | 16.1 | 20.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 245 | Birtley Tyne and Wear | 13,840 | 32.8 | 20.6 | 14 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 284 | Houghton-le-Spring Tyne and Wear | 12,552 | 37 | 24.7 | 18.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 341 | 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 Whickham, and others in Tyne and Wear.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Whickham runs highest on other crime (2.8 per 1,000 against 1.8) and burglary (3 per 1,000 against 2.4). Other theft and violence & sexual offences sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 235 | 15 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 179 | 11.4 | 12.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 70 | 4.5 | 5.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 65 | 4.1 | 6.2 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 59 | 3.8 | 6.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 47 | 3 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 44 | 2.8 | 1.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 39 | 2.5 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 39 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
| Drugs | not graded | 18 | 1.1 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 13 | 0.8 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 5 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 4 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 4 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Dunston Hill and Whickham East, Whickham South and Sunniside and Whickham North; highest in Whickham North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunston Hill and Whickham East | 3,839 | 8.9 | 2.5 | |
| Whickham South and Sunniside | 4,109 | 11.3 | 5.6 | |
| Whickham North | 7,732 | 27.5 | 16.9 |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Whickham North records 2.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Whickham.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Whickham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026.
Crime in Whickham 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 7 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 70% of Whickham’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 36% 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 10% of violent and 2% 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. 481 crimes.
No one died in a collision on Whickham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 51 collisions with injuries inside Whickham in five years. 9 people were killed or seriously injured: 4 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 Whickham’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Whickham’s own rate (0.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, a town of Whickham’s size at the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people would see about 19 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Whickham had 9.
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 Whickham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Whickham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whickham | 15,680 | 19.2 | 10.7 | B |
| Sunniside | 3,422 | 22.7 | 13.2 | C+ |
| Blaydon | 14,237 | 43.4 | 25.1 | D |
| Rowlands Gill | 5,254 | 21.8 | 12 | B− |
| Burnopfield | 2,998 | 15.8 | 8.5 | B+ |
| Ryton | 8,804 | 24 | 15.8 | C+ |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 286,472 | 47.8 | 24.2 | D |
| Newburn | 1,475 | 52 | 29.9 | D− |
Whickham records more graded crime per resident than 1 of its 7 neighbours. Burnopfield, 3.4 miles away, records 15.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Whickham’s 19.2.
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 Whickham 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 Whickham
Is Whickham safe?
Police recorded 19.2 violent and sexual offences and 10.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Whickham’s built-up area). That earns a B for safety: less crime per resident than 56% of UK towns. Among 341 UK towns of 11,000 to 21,000 people, Whickham is 50th from the least crime. 44% of residents live in neighbourhoods in England’s lowest-crime 10%.
What are the safest areas of Whickham?
By council ward, Dunston Hill and Whickham East, Whickham South and Sunniside and Whickham North record the least violent and household crime per resident: 8.9, 11.3 and 27.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 27.5 in Whickham North.
Is crime going up in Whickham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 16% 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 Whickham?
Violence & sexual offences: 235 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came public order (70) and criminal damage & arson (65), with 179 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Whickham 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 Whickham’s 19.2 and 10.7, 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.