Gwynedd vs Isle of Anglesey

Isle of Anglesey records less crime for its size than Gwynedd: 71.6 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 86.8. That is about 21% 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.

Gwynedd 86.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, Gwynedd
Isle of Anglesey 71.6 crimes per 1,000 residents, Gwynedd

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Gwynedd is close to it. Isle of Anglesey is about 21% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Gwynedd and Isle of Anglesey
  Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey
Crimes per 1,000 residents 86.8 71.6
Offences in the year to June 2026 10,484 4,948
Residents 120,813 69,097
Change on the previous 12 months +2.1% +1.5%
Rank in England and Wales 149 of 314 217 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. Gwynedd records about 1.6 times as much shoplifting, 1.5 times as much other theft and 1.5 times as much possession of weapons per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey
Violence and sexual offences 34.4 30.5
Anti-social behaviour 17.5 16.0
Criminal damage and arson 7.5 5.2
Public order 6.2 5.0
Shoplifting 6.5 4.0
Other theft 5.3 3.5
Drugs 2.4 2.0
Burglary 2.3 1.9
Other crime 1.7 1.4
Vehicle crime 1.4 1.2
Possession of weapons 0.9 0.6
Bicycle theft 0.3 0.3
Robbery 0.3 0.1
Theft from the person 0.2 0.0
All recorded crime 86.8 71.6

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.

Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey
3060901200Covid lockdown87 Gwynedd72 Isle20122014201620182020202220242026
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 Gwynedd safer than Isle of Anglesey?

Isle of Anglesey records less crime for its size than Gwynedd: 71.6 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 86.8. That is about 21% 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 Gwynedd or Isle of Anglesey 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.