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High Street in UptonPhoto: Jonathan Clitheroe · CC BY-SA 2.0
DSafety Grade
Safety in Upton · police.uk, 2023–2026

Upton records possession of weapons at 4.4 times the rate of a typical town its size

Recorded violence fell 10% in a year. Of all the kinds of crime, possession of weapons is where Upton departs most from towns its size: 1.7 per 1,000 against 0.4. The town’s overall Safety Grade is D (#59 of 91 in West Yorkshire): more crime per resident than 86% of UK towns, on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026.

Violent crime
40.7
per 1,000 residents a year · graded
Homes & vehicles
17.4
burglary, vehicle crime, damage · graded
Shoplifting & theft
7.1
per 1,000 a year · not graded
Anti-social behaviour
12.4
reports per 1,000 a year · not graded

Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.

What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Upton

Violent crime fell over the year

In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 10% less violent crime per resident in Upton 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 ↓

More crime than many places its size

Of 715 UK towns of 4,000 to 9,000 people, Upton has the 628th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Coleshill, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Sandwich, higher than Coleford, Stanton Hill and Skegby and Mablethorpe. Towns its size ↓

Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

What’s behind Upton’s grade

Compared with UK towns its sizeLess crime per resident than 11% of the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people: more crime than most for its size. Context only, not part of the grade.
Violent and sexual offences (40.7 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 14% of UK towns
Homes and vehicles (17.4 per 1,000 a year, 3-year average)Less crime than 13% of UK towns
DC−

A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,103 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Upton against every UK town of 1,000 or more.

Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.

By type

What police recorded in the last 12 months

Violence & sexual offences36.6
Anti-social behaviour8.8
Criminal damage & arson6.8
Vehicle crime5.1
Other theft4.9
Other crime3.8
Public order3.5
Drugs2.5
Burglary2.4
Shoplifting1.9
Possession of weapons1.7
Theft from the person0.5
Robbery0.2
Bicycle theft0
Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Not gradedTypical town its size

Against the typical town its size, Upton runs highest on possession of weapons (1.7 per 1,000 against 0.4), other crime (3.8 per 1,000 against 1.5) and vehicle crime (5.1 per 1,000 against 2).

Show as a table
CategoryIn the gradeReportsPer 1,000Typical
Violence & sexual offencesViolent23236.622.4
Anti-social behaviournot graded568.88.8
Criminal damage & arsonHome & vehicle436.84.5
Vehicle crimeHome & vehicle325.12
Other theftnot graded314.93.2
Other crimenot graded243.81.5
Public ordernot graded223.53.6
Drugsnot graded162.51
BurglaryHome & vehicle152.41.9
Shopliftingnot graded121.91.8
Possession of weaponsViolent111.70.4
Theft from the personnot graded30.50
RobberyViolent10.20.2
Bicycle theftnot graded000.1

“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.

Towns its size

Towns its size: Upton comes 628th of 715

#TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesShops & theftSafety
1Bailrigg Lancashire4,7884.72.57.9A+
…
115Burley in Wharfedale West Yorkshire6,80615.18.63.8B+
…
163Boston Spa West Yorkshire6,35820.16.42.8B+
…
246Menston West Yorkshire5,90520.59.14.5B
…
252Ripponden West Yorkshire4,77520.39.64.5B
…
625Coleford Gloucestershire5,02343.613.914.1D
626Stanton Hill and Skegby Nottinghamshire4,56839.91811.1D
627Mablethorpe Lincolnshire7,63344.613.411.4D
628Upton West Yorkshire6,33240.717.47.1D
629St Ives Cornwall5,41344.313.813.2D
630Havercroft and Ryhill West Yorkshire5,20443.814.44.4D
631Alnwick Northumberland8,43242.415.715.9D
…
715City of London London7,820252.8111.5710D−

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 Upton, and others in West Yorkshire.

1,000 residents · one year

For every 1,000 residents, about 39 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026

Violent (graded)Homes & vehicles (graded)Shoplifting & theft (not graded)
244
violent and sexual offences, 12 months to August 2026
90
homes & vehicles
46
shoplifting & theft
60
of the three, per 1,000

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 14 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.

Neighbourhoods · England-wide rank

How Upton’s neighbourhoods rank in England

22%1
0%2
50%3
23%4
0%5
0%6
5%7
0%8
0%9
0%10
Higher crimeLower crime

0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 22% 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.

Upton’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.

Trend · monthly

How crime in Upton 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 +2% (towns its size -1%), shoplifting and theft +10% (towns its size +2%), anti-social behaviour -24% (towns its size +0%).

What happened next

Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns

Violent crime
Upton
All UK towns
Homes & vehicles
Upton
All UK towns
Went to courtSuspect identified, unable to prosecuteNo suspect identifiedCaution, local resolution, otherStill open

No suspect was identified for 68% of Upton’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” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 13% 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. 411 crimes.

On the roads

One person died in collisions on Upton’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 15 collisions with injuries inside Upton in five years, in which one person died. 5 people were killed or seriously injured: 0 on foot and 0 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; Upton’s one death is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, a town of Upton’s size at the median for UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people would see about 5 people killed or seriously injured in five years; Upton had 5.

1
people killed, 2021–2025
5
killed or seriously injured
0
of them on foot
0
of them on a bicycle

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 Upton’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Upton

ABCD
TownPeopleViolentHomes & vehiclesSafety
Upton6,33240.717.4D
South Elmsall11,18759.928.4D−
South Kirkby8,88063.822.7D−
Ackworth Moor Top6,27527.412.1C+
Hemsworth9,17763.724.6D−
Darrington1,19425.426C−
Campsall1,8793320.6C−
Fitzwilliam and Kinsley4,99359.916.7D−

Upton records more graded crime per resident than 3 of its 7 neighbours. Ackworth Moor Top, 3.3 miles away, records 27.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Upton’s 40.7.

Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

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 Upton 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 Upton

Is Upton safe?

Police recorded 40.7 violent and sexual offences and 17.4 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Upton’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 14% of UK towns. Among 715 UK towns of 4,000 to 9,000 people, Upton is 628th from the least crime.

Is crime going up in Upton?

In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 10%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft rose 10% and anti-social behaviour fell 24%. Across UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, violent crime held steady.

What is the most common crime in Upton?

Violence & sexual offences: 232 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (43) and vehicle crime (32), with 56 reports of anti-social behaviour.

How does Upton compare with Pontefract?

Pontefract records 57.2 violent and sexual offences and 17.8 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Upton’s 40.7 and 17.4, 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.