Newcastle upon Tyne vs North Tyneside

North Tyneside records less crime for its size than Newcastle upon Tyne: 89.6 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 119.6. That is about 33% 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.

Newcastle upon Tyne 119.6 crimes per 1,000 residents, Tyne and Wear
North Tyneside 89.6 crimes per 1,000 residents, Tyne and Wear

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Newcastle upon Tyne is about 31% above it. North Tyneside is close to it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside
  Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside
Crimes per 1,000 residents 119.6 89.6
Offences in the year to July 2026 38,331 19,275
Residents 320,605 215,025
Change on the previous 12 months -14.4% -12.3%
Rank in England and Wales 50 of 306 133 of 306

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. Newcastle upon Tyne records about 1.9 times as much drugs, 1.7 times as much vehicle crime and 1.6 times as much robbery per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside
Violence and sexual offences 33.5 26.6
Anti-social behaviour 24.0 17.2
Shoplifting 15.1 12.9
Criminal damage and arson 8.9 7.6
Public order 8.4 6.1
Other theft 7.2 4.5
Vehicle crime 6.0 3.6
Burglary 4.6 3.8
Other crime 3.3 2.9
Drugs 2.9 1.6
Robbery 2.0 1.2
Theft from the person 1.5 0.5
Bicycle theft 1.2 0.5
Possession of weapons 1.0 0.7
All recorded crime 119.6 89.6

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.

Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside
501001502000Covid lockdown120 Newcastle90 North2012201420162018202020222024Jul 2026
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 Newcastle upon Tyne safer than North Tyneside?

North Tyneside records less crime for its size than Newcastle upon Tyne: 89.6 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 119.6. That is about 33% 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 Newcastle upon Tyne or North Tyneside 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 July 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.