South Staffordshire vs Staffordshire Moorlands

South Staffordshire records less crime for its size than Staffordshire Moorlands: 58.1 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 67.4. That is about 16% 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.

South Staffordshire 58.1 crimes per 1,000 residents, Staffordshire
Staffordshire Moorlands 67.4 crimes per 1,000 residents, Staffordshire

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. South Staffordshire is about 36% below it. Staffordshire Moorlands is about 26% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in South Staffordshire and Staffordshire Moorlands
  South Staffordshire Staffordshire Moorlands
Crimes per 1,000 residents 58.1 67.4
Offences in the year to July 2026 6,644 6,517
Residents 114,423 96,651
Change on the previous 12 months +4.4% +1.8%
Rank in England and Wales 275 of 306 233 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. South Staffordshire records about 1.6 times as much vehicle crime per resident. Staffordshire Moorlands records about 1.5 times as much anti-social behaviour and 1.5 times as much possession of weapons per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents South Staffordshire Staffordshire Moorlands
Violence and sexual offences 25.5 28.8
Anti-social behaviour 7.4 11.4
Criminal damage and arson 4.2 5.5
Public order 4.0 5.3
Other theft 3.7 4.1
Vehicle crime 3.6 2.3
Shoplifting 2.6 2.8
Burglary 2.5 2.5
Drugs 2.0 1.5
Other crime 1.5 1.7
Possession of weapons 0.6 0.8
Robbery 0.6 0.5
Bicycle theft 0.1 0.2
Theft from the person 0.0 0.1
All recorded crime 58.1 67.4

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.

South Staffordshire Staffordshire Moorlands
204060800Covid lockdown58 South67 Staffordshire2012201420162018202020222024Jul 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 South Staffordshire safer than Staffordshire Moorlands?

South Staffordshire records less crime for its size than Staffordshire Moorlands: 58.1 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 67.4. That is about 16% 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 South Staffordshire or Staffordshire Moorlands 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.