Charnwood vs North West Leicestershire

North West Leicestershire records less crime for its size than Charnwood: 70.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 80.0. That is about 14% 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.

Charnwood 80.0 crimes per 1,000 residents, Leicestershire
North West Leicestershire 70.0 crimes per 1,000 residents, Leicestershire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Charnwood is about 12% below it. North West Leicestershire is about 23% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Charnwood and North West Leicestershire
  Charnwood North West Leicestershire
Crimes per 1,000 residents 80.0 70.0
Offences in the year to June 2026 15,062 7,829
Residents 188,385 111,881
Change on the previous 12 months -0.1% -5.1%
Rank in England and Wales 180 of 314 224 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. Charnwood records about 1.5 times as much shoplifting and 1.4 times as much burglary per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Charnwood North West Leicestershire
Violence and sexual offences 26.8 25.4
Anti-social behaviour 12.2 11.2
Criminal damage and arson 7.7 6.5
Shoplifting 7.7 5.0
Public order 6.0 5.5
Other theft 5.0 4.5
Vehicle crime 4.5 4.1
Burglary 4.1 3.0
Other crime 1.7 1.9
Drugs 1.6 1.4
Bicycle theft 1.0 0.3
Possession of weapons 0.6 0.4
Theft from the person 0.5 0.6
Robbery 0.5 0.3
All recorded crime 80.0 70.0

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.

Charnwood North West Leicestershire
2550751000Covid lockdown80 Charnwood70 North20122014201620182020202220242026
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 Charnwood safer than North West Leicestershire?

North West Leicestershire records less crime for its size than Charnwood: 70.0 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 80.0. That is about 14% 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 Charnwood or North West Leicestershire 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.