Photo: Cutler at English Wikipedia · Public domainBlackheath sees more crime per resident than 97% of UK towns
Recorded violence rose 10% in a year. Each year brought 63.9 violent and sexual offences and 22.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents. Its letter for safety is D−, worked out from crimes police recorded inside Blackheath’s built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026: #30 of 35 in West Midlands. With 428 cases in the 12 months to August 2026, shoplifting reaches 61.6 per 1,000 residents here, well above the typical 1.8.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Blackheath
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 10% more violent crime per resident in Blackheath than in the year before; across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D− for Blackheath
A firm grade. Built on 1,793 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Blackheath 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, Blackheath runs highest on shoplifting (61.6 per 1,000 against 1.8), robbery (4.2 per 1,000 against 0.2) and possession of weapons (4.5 per 1,000 against 0.4). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shoplifting | not graded | 428 | 61.6 | 1.8 |
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 398 | 57.3 | 22.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 76 | 10.9 | 3.6 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 61 | 8.8 | 4.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 56 | 8.1 | 3.2 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 46 | 6.6 | 2 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 33 | 4.7 | 1.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 31 | 4.5 | 0.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 29 | 4.2 | 0.2 |
| Drugs | not graded | 28 | 4 | 1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 20 | 2.9 | 8.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 16 | 2.3 | 1.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 4 | 0.6 | 0 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 2 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
“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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
How Blackheath compares with UK towns of 5,000 to 9,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merley Dorset | 5,489 | 8.4 | 2.8 | 3.8 | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 67 | Balsall Common West Midlands | 7,094 | 13.5 | 10.2 | 10.5 | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 463 | Stone Kent | 6,438 | 54.7 | 28.2 | 236.2 | D− |
| 464 | Worsbrough South Yorkshire | 8,840 | 54.1 | 28.8 | 11.7 | D− |
| 465 | Brynmawr Gwent | 5,250 | 56 | 27.3 | 13.5 | D− |
| 466 | Blackheath West Midlands | 6,950 | 63.9 | 22.1 | 46.2 | D− |
| 467 | South Kirkby West Yorkshire | 8,880 | 63.8 | 22.7 | 22.3 | D− |
| 468 | Thrybergh and Dalton South Yorkshire | 5,858 | 62.2 | 25 | 14 | D− |
| 469 | Withernsea East Riding of Yorkshire | 5,766 | 66.3 | 21 | 10.3 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 481 | City of London London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | 710 | 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 Blackheath, and others in West Midlands.
Crime in Blackheath 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 20 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 71 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Blackheath’s neighbourhoods rank in England
0% 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.
Blackheath’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 Blackheath has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling twelve-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 +10% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -5% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +67% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -78% (towns its size +0%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 67% of Blackheath’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 18% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (69% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% 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. 631 crimes.
Where in Blackheath police recorded crime
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 625 | 73% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 275 | 38% violent |
| College and university buildings | 111 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 34 | 88% shoplifting & theft |
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 Blackheath. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Two people died in collisions on Blackheath’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 77 collisions with injuries inside Blackheath in five years, in which two people died. 24 people were killed or seriously injured: 9 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.
Most UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (81%) had no road deaths in these five years, so with numbers this small a single collision changes the picture; Blackheath’s two people are context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Blackheath had 69.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people (16.7).
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 Blackheath’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Blackheath
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackheath | 6,950 | 63.9 | 22.1 | D− |
| Oldbury | 45,188 | 49.6 | 22.7 | D |
| Cradley Heath | 18,819 | 52.5 | 20.2 | D |
| Rowley Regis | 39,052 | 36.6 | 14.4 | C− |
| Halesowen | 60,103 | 27.2 | 14.9 | C |
| Dudley | 64,277 | 61.2 | 27 | D− |
| Smethwick | 56,343 | 51.1 | 20.1 | D |
| Brierley Hill | 32,311 | 47.5 | 22.6 | D |
Blackheath records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Dudley records more. Oldbury, 1.3 miles away, records 49.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Blackheath’s 63.9.
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 Blackheath 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 Blackheath
Is Blackheath safe?
Police recorded 63.9 violent and sexual offences and 22.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Blackheath’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 3% of UK towns. Among UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Blackheath has less crime per resident than 3%.
Is crime going up in Blackheath?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 10%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 67% and anti-social behaviour fell 78%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Blackheath?
Shoplifting: 428 in the 12 months to August 2026. Next came violence & sexual offences (398) and public order (76), with 20 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Blackheath compare with Birmingham?
Birmingham records 62.8 violent and sexual offences and 28.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Blackheath’s 63.9 and 22.1, 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.