Ashfield vs Newark and Sherwood

Newark and Sherwood records less crime for its size than Ashfield: 83.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 99.4. That is about 19% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

Ashfield 99.4 crimes per 1,000 residents, Nottinghamshire
Newark and Sherwood 83.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, Nottinghamshire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Ashfield is about 9% above it. Newark and Sherwood is about 8% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Ashfield and Newark and Sherwood
  Ashfield Newark and Sherwood
Crimes per 1,000 residents 99.4 83.8
Offences in the year to June 2026 12,883 10,719
Residents 129,572 127,886
Change on the previous 12 months +0.3% -2.2%
Rank in England and Wales 101 of 314 167 of 314

Rank 1 is the highest recorded rate. Both areas are local authority areas, so the two populations are counted the same way and the rates are directly comparable.

Offence by offence

The mix differs more than the totals do. Ashfield records about 2.1 times as much robbery, 1.8 times as much drugs and 1.5 times as much possession of weapons per resident. Newark and Sherwood records about 1.5 times as much bicycle theft per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Ashfield Newark and Sherwood
Violence and sexual offences 35.1 28.7
Anti-social behaviour 16.4 14.4
Shoplifting 11.1 9.0
Criminal damage and arson 8.3 8.4
Other theft 5.7 4.9
Public order 5.7 4.1
Other crime 4.0 4.3
Vehicle crime 3.7 2.9
Burglary 3.4 3.0
Drugs 2.3 1.3
Possession of weapons 1.4 0.9
Robbery 1.3 0.6
Bicycle theft 0.6 0.9
Theft from the person 0.4 0.4
All recorded crime 99.4 83.8

Both places since 2011

Each line is a rolling twelve-month rate per 1,000 residents, so seasonality is taken out and the two areas are on the same scale despite their different sizes.

Ashfield Newark and Sherwood
3060901200Covid lockdown99 Ashfield84 Newark20122014201620182020202220242026
A line breaks wherever the twelve months behind it include a return the force never filed, because a twelve-month total missing three of its months is not a total.

Questions

Is Ashfield safer than Newark and Sherwood?

Newark and Sherwood records less crime for its size than Ashfield: 83.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 99.4. That is about 19% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

What does this comparison not tell you?

Recorded crime counts what the police wrote down, so a place where people report more looks worse than a place where they report less, whatever actually happened. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority: a town with one busy centre and quiet suburbs carries a rate that describes neither. And the denominator is residents, so somewhere that fills up with commuters, students or shoppers by day records crime against a population it is not credited with. How the figures work sets all of this out.

Where else can I compare?

Pick any other two areas, or start from Ashfield or Newark and Sherwood and use the neighbouring areas listed on each. The ranked lists of the safest places and the highest crime rates cover all of them at once.

Figures cover the 12 months to June 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.