Photo: A J Paxton · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in West Bromwich than in 96% of UK towns
The Safety Grade comes out at D−, drawn from crimes police recorded inside West Bromwich’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #27 of 35 in West Midlands. Police recorded 250 cases of possession of weapons here in the 12 months to August 2026, a rate of 2.4 per 1,000 against a typical 1.1. Recorded violence rose 7% in a year. Out of every 1,000 residents, 54.4 violent and sexual offences and 24.7 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in West Bromwich
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in West Bromwich 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 ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 65 UK towns and cities of 72,000 to 139,000 people, West Bromwich has the 56th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Hartlepool, Wakefield and Stockton-on-Tees, higher than Gloucester, Basildon and Burnley. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
29% of West Bromwich’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 4% 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.
Inside West Bromwich’s D− for safety
A firm grade. Built on 24,427 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks West Bromwich 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, West Bromwich runs highest on possession of weapons (2.4 per 1,000 against 1.1), vehicle crime (10.8 per 1,000 against 4.9) and robbery (1.9 per 1,000 against 1.4). Shoplifting and anti-social behaviour sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 5,241 | 50.8 | 38.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,110 | 10.8 | 4.9 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 944 | 9.2 | 7.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 855 | 8.3 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 753 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 673 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 474 | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 378 | 3.7 | 17.5 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 370 | 3.6 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 250 | 2.4 | 1.1 |
| Other crime | not graded | 249 | 2.4 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 199 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 94 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 49 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
“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.
Towns its size: West Bromwich comes 56th of 65
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrogate North Yorkshire | 75,522 | 27.3 | 10.5 | 13.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 6 | Royal Sutton Coldfield West Midlands | 93,392 | 26.6 | 17.5 | 17.8 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 10 | Solihull West Midlands | 107,754 | 28.4 | 19.2 | 26.7 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 53 | Gloucester Gloucestershire | 118,562 | 58.3 | 17.1 | 26.2 | D |
| 54 | Basildon Essex | 115,935 | 54.2 | 24.2 | 19.8 | D− |
| 55 | Burnley Lancashire | 78,266 | 52.7 | 26.2 | 23.4 | D− |
| 56 | West Bromwich West Midlands | 103,099 | 54.4 | 24.7 | 17.4 | D− |
| 57 | Newport Gwent | 130,882 | 55.8 | 25.6 | 26.1 | D− |
| 58 | Scunthorpe Lincolnshire | 81,286 | 58 | 24.6 | 26.4 | D− |
| 59 | Preston Lancashire | 94,502 | 60.8 | 26.8 | 27.7 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 65 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 West Bromwich, and others in West Midlands.
Crime in West Bromwich 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 24 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 16 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
29% of West Bromwich residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
4% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 29% 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.
West Bromwich’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.
Lowest recorded crime in Newton, Great Barr with Yew Tree and Charlemont with Grove Vale; highest in West Bromwich Central
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newton | 12,140 | 30.3 | 16.6 | |
| Great Barr with Yew Tree | 13,504 | 30.7 | 17.7 | |
| Charlemont with Grove Vale | 12,714 | 38.4 | 20.6 | |
| Wednesbury South | 10,662 | 40.7 | 20.4 | |
| Friar Park | 6,200 | 46.9 | 19.4 | |
| Hateley Heath | 15,116 | 50.1 | 22.6 | |
| Greets Green and Lyng | 14,717 | 72.9 | 29.1 | |
| Great Bridge | 2,340 | 71.8 | 33.6 | |
| West Bromwich Central | 15,429 | 103.4 | 40.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,875 | 61% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 1,453 | 41% violent |
| Shopping areas | 1,148 | 39% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 752 | 33% violent |
| Hospitals | 494 | 72% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 38 | 39% homes & vehicles |
| College and university buildings | 30 | 40% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 30 | 43% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so West Bromwich Central records 2.3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of West Bromwich. 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 West Bromwich. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside West Bromwich’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in West Bromwich identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 62% of West Bromwich’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% 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 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. 8,573 crimes.
How crime in West Bromwich 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 +7% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +1% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -5% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -60% (towns its size -2%).
Four people died in collisions on West Bromwich’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 756 collisions with injuries inside West Bromwich in five years, in which four people died (3 were pedestrians). 163 people were killed or seriously injured: 63 on foot and 15 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
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 West Bromwich’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so West Bromwich’s own rate (0.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, West Bromwich had 31.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 39% 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 West Bromwich’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around West Bromwich
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Bromwich | 103,099 | 54.4 | 24.7 | D− |
| Wednesbury | 20,321 | 51.6 | 30.8 | D− |
| Walsall | 70,777 | 62.9 | 26.3 | D− |
| Tipton | 47,202 | 49.1 | 21.6 | D |
| Darlaston | 21,541 | 53.7 | 25.5 | D− |
| Smethwick | 56,343 | 51.1 | 20.1 | D |
| Pheasey | 9,498 | 18 | 10.6 | B |
| Rowley Regis | 39,052 | 36.6 | 14.4 | C− |
West Bromwich records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Tipton, 3 miles away, records 49.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against West Bromwich’s 54.4.
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
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 494 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in West Bromwich’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- 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 West Bromwich 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 West Bromwich
Is West Bromwich safe?
Police recorded 54.4 violent and sexual offences and 24.7 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside West Bromwich’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 4% of UK towns. Among 65 UK towns of 72,000 to 139,000 people, West Bromwich is 56th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of West Bromwich?
By council ward, Newton, Great Barr with Yew Tree and Charlemont with Grove Vale record the least violent and household crime per resident: 30.3, 30.7 and 38.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 103.4 in West Bromwich Central.
Is crime going up in West Bromwich?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 5% and anti-social behaviour fell 60%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in West Bromwich?
Violence & sexual offences: 5,241 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came vehicle crime (1,110) and criminal damage & arson (944), with 378 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does West Bromwich 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 West Bromwich’s 54.4 and 24.7, 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.