Photo: Tim Green from Bradford · CC BY 2.0Wakefield records more crime per resident than 98% of UK towns
Violence recorded locally dropped 6% in a year. Theft from the person stands out: 1.1 per 1,000 residents in Wakefield, against 0.7 in a typical town its size, with 107 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026. The grade is D−, built on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #81 of 91 in West Yorkshire. Police counts work out at 69.2 violent and sexual offences and 22.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Wakefield
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Wakefield 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 ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
52% of Wakefield’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 8% 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.
What’s behind Wakefield’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 26,990 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Wakefield against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
52% of Wakefield residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
8% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 52% 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.
Wakefield’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 Wakefield compares with UK towns of 69,000 to 132,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrogate North Yorkshire | 75,522 | 27.3 | 10.5 | 13.7 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 65 | Walsall West Midlands | 70,777 | 62.9 | 26.3 | 27.8 | D− |
| 66 | Barnsley South Yorkshire | 71,394 | 61 | 30.5 | 27.8 | D− |
| 67 | Hartlepool County Durham | 88,001 | 63.1 | 28.5 | 34.9 | D− |
| 68 | Wakefield West Yorkshire | 97,871 | 69.2 | 22.9 | 28 | D− |
| 69 | Stockton-on-Tees County Durham | 84,824 | 63.5 | 32.2 | 26.9 | D− |
| 70 | Halifax West Yorkshire | 88,111 | 74.5 | 25.9 | 22.7 | D− |
| 71 | Grimsby Lincolnshire | 85,915 | 69.6 | 32.4 | 29.1 | D− |
| 72 | 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 Wakefield, and others in West Yorkshire.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Wakefield runs highest on other crime (4.8 per 1,000 against 2.1), theft from the person (1.1 per 1,000 against 0.7) and violence & sexual offences (64.2 per 1,000 against 38.6). Anti-social behaviour sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 6,286 | 64.2 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,407 | 14.4 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,275 | 13 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,181 | 12.1 | 7.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 993 | 10.1 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 871 | 8.9 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 633 | 6.5 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 584 | 6 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 534 | 5.5 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 467 | 4.8 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 187 | 1.9 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 137 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 107 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 77 | 0.8 | 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.
Crime in Wakefield 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 22 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 24 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Police in Wakefield identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 64% of Wakefield’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 19% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 8% of violent and 9% 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. 9,018 crimes.
How crime in Wakefield 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 -6% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -2% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -13% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +1% (towns its size -2%).
Lowest recorded crime in Wrenthorpe and Outwood West, Stanley and Outwood East and Wakefield South; highest in Wakefield North
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wrenthorpe and Outwood West | 16,269 | 41.3 | 15.8 | |
| Stanley and Outwood East | 15,367 | 46 | 14.1 | |
| Wakefield South | 14,593 | 66.9 | 26.5 | |
| Wakefield East | 17,132 | 74 | 23.1 | |
| Wakefield West | 16,437 | 81.2 | 26.2 | |
| Wakefield North | 17,858 | 100 | 29.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,918 | 36% violent |
| Shopping areas | 1,319 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,182 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 1,164 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 573 | 41% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 421 | 48% violent |
| College and university buildings | 113 | 50% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 38 | 37% violent |
| Nightclubs | 36 | 39% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Wakefield North records 1.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Wakefield. 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 Wakefield. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Wakefield’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Five people died in collisions on Wakefield’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 821 collisions with injuries inside Wakefield in five years, in which five people died (3 were pedestrians). 234 people were killed or seriously injured: 75 on foot and 34 on a bicycle.
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 Wakefield’s size would see about 5 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Wakefield’s own rate (1.0) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Wakefield had 47.8 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 32% 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 Wakefield’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Wakefield
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wakefield | 97,871 | 69.2 | 22.9 | D− |
| Horbury | 9,868 | 47.3 | 15.3 | D |
| Crigglestone and Durkar | 6,672 | 31.4 | 10.6 | C |
| Ossett | 21,854 | 33.8 | 13.6 | C |
| Walton | 3,266 | 18.3 | 8.6 | B |
| Bottom Boat | 1,191 | 38.3 | 13.7 | C− |
| Thorpe on the Hill | 1,232 | 29.8 | 11.4 | C |
| Lofthouse and Robin Hood | 4,187 | 30 | 12.7 | C |
Wakefield records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Horbury, 2.6 miles away, records 47.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Wakefield’s 69.2.
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
- 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield
Is Wakefield safe?
Police recorded 69.2 violent and sexual offences and 22.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Wakefield’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 2% of UK towns. Among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Wakefield has less crime per resident than 4%.
What are the safest areas of Wakefield?
By council ward, Wrenthorpe and Outwood West, Stanley and Outwood East and Wakefield South record the least violent and household crime per resident: 41.3, 46 and 66.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 100 in Wakefield North.
Is crime going up in Wakefield?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 13% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Wakefield?
Violence & sexual offences: 6,286 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,275) and public order (1,181), with 1,407 reports of anti-social behaviour.
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.