Photo: Roger D Kidd · CC BY-SA 2.0Bilston has more crime per resident than 98% of UK towns
Year on year, 58.9 violent and sexual offences and 29.4 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents. For its size, it sits below 4% of the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people on crime per resident. Measured on crimes police recorded inside Bilston’s built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026, it earns a Safety Grade of D−: #32 of 35 in West Midlands.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Bilston
Neighbourhood ranks
65% of Bilston’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 0% 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.
The D− for Bilston, and how it is built
A firm grade. Built on 9,152 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Bilston 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, Bilston runs highest on vehicle crime (11.5 per 1,000 against 2.8), possession of weapons (2.6 per 1,000 against 0.7) and robbery (1.7 per 1,000 against 0.5). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 1,851 | 53.4 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 630 | 18.2 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 434 | 12.5 | 6.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 398 | 11.5 | 2.8 |
| Other theft | not graded | 314 | 9.1 | 4.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 208 | 6 | 5.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 162 | 4.7 | 12.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 157 | 4.5 | 2.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 92 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 90 | 2.6 | 0.7 |
| Drugs | not graded | 73 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 58 | 1.7 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 29 | 0.8 | 0.3 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 19 | 0.5 | 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.
65% of Bilston residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 65% 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.
Bilston’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 Bilston compares with UK towns of 24,000 to 47,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 100 | Sedgley West Midlands | 31,976 | 32 | 19 | 7.8 | C− |
| 101 | Rowley Regis West Midlands | 39,052 | 36.6 | 14.4 | 7.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 124 | Coseley West Midlands | 25,206 | 35.8 | 19.6 | 9.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 164 | Brierley Hill West Midlands | 32,311 | 47.5 | 22.6 | 29.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 184 | Wrexham Clwyd | 44,781 | 62.3 | 23.3 | 33.7 | D− |
| 185 | Dover Kent | 36,349 | 65.9 | 21.9 | 24.8 | D− |
| 186 | Cleethorpes Lincolnshire | 29,660 | 62.5 | 25.5 | 26.6 | D− |
| 187 | Bilston West Midlands | 34,631 | 58.9 | 29.4 | 26.7 | D− |
| 188 | Castleford West Yorkshire | 45,363 | 61.7 | 27.1 | 30.3 | D− |
| 189 | Eston North Yorkshire | 29,625 | 62.1 | 42.7 | 27.4 | D− |
| 190 | Rhyl Clwyd | 26,982 | 89.1 | 22.9 | 29 | D− |
| 191 | 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 Bilston, and others in West Midlands.
Crime in Bilston 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 29 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 29 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 65% of Bilston’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (73% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 5% 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. 3,318 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Bilston North, Darlaston South and Bilston East; highest in Ettingshall
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilston North | 8,331 | 46.4 | 21.2 | |
| Darlaston South | 3,963 | 54.3 | 27.3 | |
| Bilston East | 15,755 | 56 | 28.2 | |
| East Park | 625 | 72.5 | 31.5 | |
| Ettingshall | 5,957 | 84.7 | 44.1 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 666 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 346 | 37% violent |
| Petrol stations | 194 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 161 | 44% violent |
| College and university buildings | 77 | 45% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Ettingshall records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Bilston. 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 Bilston. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Bilston’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“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 +2% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +11% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft +6% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -62% (towns its size -4%).
Three people died in collisions on Bilston’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 304 collisions with injuries inside Bilston in five years, in which three people died. 60 people were killed or seriously injured: 26 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 Bilston’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Bilston’s own rate (1.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Bilston had 34.7 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). 43% 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 Bilston’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Bilston
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilston | 34,631 | 58.9 | 29.4 | D− |
| Darlaston | 21,541 | 53.7 | 25.5 | D− |
| Coseley | 25,206 | 35.8 | 19.6 | C− |
| Tipton | 47,202 | 49.1 | 21.6 | D |
| Wednesbury | 20,321 | 51.6 | 30.8 | D− |
| Willenhall | 49,582 | 44.1 | 28.8 | D |
| Wolverhampton | 234,029 | 50.6 | 21.7 | D |
| Sedgley | 31,976 | 32 | 19 | C− |
Bilston records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Darlaston, 1.4 miles away, records 53.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Bilston’s 58.9.
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 Bilston 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 Bilston
Is Bilston safe?
Police recorded 58.9 violent and sexual offences and 29.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Bilston’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 2% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Bilston has less crime per resident than 4%.
What are the safest areas of Bilston?
By council ward, Bilston North, Darlaston South and Bilston East record the least violent and household crime per resident: 46.4, 54.3 and 56 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 84.7 in Ettingshall.
Is crime going up in Bilston?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 11%, shoplifting and theft rose 6% and anti-social behaviour fell 62%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Bilston?
Violence & sexual offences: 1,851 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (630) and criminal damage & arson (434), with 162 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Bilston compare with Wolverhampton?
Wolverhampton records 50.6 violent and sexual offences and 21.7 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Bilston’s 58.9 and 29.4, 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.