OpenCrime

Worst areas for anti-social behaviour

Westminster in Greater London has the highest recorded rate of anti-social behaviour of the 306 local authority areas in England and Wales with a full year of data: 64.2 per 1,000 residents in the year to July 2026, against 14.5 nationally. It has 209,996 residents and 367,508 people in it on a working day, so that rate divides a city centre's crime by a village's population. Measured against the people actually there on a weekday, Blackpool comes top instead. On the resident measure, Camden, Islington and Blackpool come next. The 100 highest are listed below.

64.2 anti-social behaviour per 1,000 residents in Westminster, the highest of 306 areas
14.5 per 1,000 across England and Wales
-2.5% national change on the previous 12 months
15.9% of all recorded crime is anti-social behaviour

This ranks recorded crime, not danger. A high position means the police recorded more anti-social behaviour per resident, which is not the same as a place being more dangerous to be in. Somewhere people report readily looks worse than somewhere people do not, and a district that fills with visitors carries their crime against the few who live there.

The 100 worst areas for anti-social behaviour

Ranked by recorded offences per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to July 2026, across 306 local authority areas: cities, towns and rural districts alike.

# Area County Per 1,000 Per 1,000 workday Offences Year on year Share of its crime
1 Westminster Greater London 64.2 36.7 13,474 -0.8% 15.4%
2 Camden Greater London 42.0 31.7 9,121 -4.7% 19.5%
3 Islington Greater London 41.2 39.2 9,187 -2.6% 22.4%
4 Blackpool Lancashire 41.1 41.4 5,919 -33.2% 22.0%
5 Lincoln Lincolnshire 36.1 35.2 3,790 +1.1% 23.1%
6 Kensington and Chelsea Greater London 34.5 26.9 4,988 -1.7% 19.5%
7 Lambeth Greater London 32.3 31.9 10,250 +5.3% 21.1%
8 Tower Hamlets Greater London 32.2 31.6 10,691 -7.9% 22.3%
9 Hammersmith and Fulham Greater London 31.8 29.8 5,992 +3.3% 22.9%
10 Haringey Greater London 31.7 34.0 8,370 +2.9% 23.9%
11 Middlesbrough North Yorkshire 30.7 32.3 4,798 -10.2% 16.5%
12 Southwark Greater London 30.3 30.2 9,551 -1.4% 19.5%
13 Eastbourne East Sussex 30.1 30.8 3,138 +57.5% 21.8%
14 Blaenau Gwent Gwent 30.0 33.7 2,038 +10.4% 20.5%
15 Ealing Greater London 29.8 32.5 11,492 +4.7% 26.3%
16 Ceredigion Dyfed 29.7 30.1 2,157 +371.0% 32.2%
17 Darlington County Durham 29.6 30.3 3,333 +13.4% 23.8%
18 Hackney Greater London 29.6 30.6 7,894 +0.8% 20.2%
19 Preston Lancashire 29.2 30.4 4,762 -32.4% 22.8%
20 Burnley Lancashire 29.2 30.5 2,899 -26.5% 20.6%
21 Brent Greater London 29.2 31.6 10,303 -1.3% 23.9%
22 Hyndburn Lancashire 28.1 30.9 2,415 -30.1% 22.3%
23 Hastings East Sussex 27.8 28.4 2,534 +51.5% 19.4%
24 Newham Greater London 26.6 30.0 9,971 +3.9% 19.6%
25 Hillingdon Greater London 26.5 26.7 8,722 -2.6% 22.1%
26 Brighton and Hove East Sussex 25.4 25.7 7,217 +25.8% 20.6%
27 Nuneaton and Bedworth Warwickshire 25.3 28.9 3,580 +17.2% 23.4%
28 Redcar and Cleveland North Yorkshire 25.3 27.6 3,515 -13.9% 18.5%
29 Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire 24.6 25.4 6,661 +15.6% 17.7%
30 Waltham Forest Greater London 24.6 26.7 6,889 -1.2% 23.4%
31 Hartlepool County Durham 24.1 26.9 2,362 -17.4% 14.8%
32 Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear 24.0 23.9 7,700 -10.6% 20.1%
33 Newport Gwent 23.9 25.0 4,011 +3.2% 17.6%
34 Lewisham Greater London 23.9 26.1 7,190 +0.7% 19.5%
35 Enfield Greater London 23.8 24.4 7,789 -1.7% 21.1%
36 Blackburn with Darwen Lancashire 23.6 24.0 3,843 -31.6% 21.3%
37 Boston Lincolnshire 23.4 24.4 1,663 -2.2% 21.1%
38 Hounslow Greater London 23.3 25.3 6,982 -1.1% 21.1%
39 Torfaen Gwent 23.2 23.8 2,180 +6.6% 18.5%
40 Conwy Clwyd 23.0 23.9 2,641 +6.2% 21.5%
41 Nottingham Nottinghamshire 22.9 21.9 7,593 -12.6% 14.7%
42 Swale Kent 22.7 24.5 3,592 +18.6% 22.8%
43 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Dorset 22.6 23.2 9,252 +5.9% 26.1%
44 County Durham County Durham 22.5 24.1 12,112 +9.0% 18.9%
45 Crawley West Sussex 22.4 22.6 2,783 +33.4% 17.3%
46 Bristol Bristol 21.9 22.2 10,811 +10.5% 14.7%
47 East Lindsey Lincolnshire 21.8 22.8 3,167 +5.3% 22.4%
48 Lancaster Lancashire 21.8 22.5 3,161 -31.3% 22.2%
49 Barnet Greater London 21.8 23.6 8,815 +8.7% 23.5%
50 Watford Hertfordshire 21.7 22.5 2,325 -3.7% 19.7%
51 Greenwich Greater London 21.7 23.6 6,493 -5.1% 19.1%
52 Thanet Kent 21.7 22.7 3,093 +16.2% 18.9%
53 Wandsworth Greater London 21.7 22.4 7,318 -3.8% 21.9%
54 Pendle Lancashire 21.7 23.5 2,161 -32.3% 23.0%
55 Croydon Greater London 21.5 24.3 8,808 0.0% 20.7%
56 West Northamptonshire Northamptonshire 21.3 21.7 9,385 +23.7% 23.1%
57 Denbighshire Clwyd 21.1 21.2 2,070 -1.4% 18.7%
58 Medway Kent 20.9 23.2 6,117 +21.6% 20.5%
59 Welwyn Hatfield Hertfordshire 20.8 20.3 2,560 +6.3% 21.4%
60 Canterbury Kent 20.7 21.0 3,362 +41.3% 19.1%
61 Peterborough Cambridgeshire 20.7 20.9 4,627 -6.1% 16.6%
62 Stockton-on-Tees County Durham 20.6 21.6 4,260 -14.9% 14.5%
63 North Northamptonshire Northamptonshire 20.4 21.9 7,615 +8.5% 23.3%
64 Dacorum Hertfordshire 20.2 21.3 3,257 +3.9% 23.9%
65 Mansfield Nottinghamshire 20.1 22.4 2,274 +0.4% 17.2%
66 Worthing West Sussex 20.0 20.7 2,282 +46.7% 20.1%
67 Gravesham Kent 19.9 22.5 2,201 +23.2% 21.4%
68 Wrexham Clwyd 19.8 20.4 2,742 +2.8% 19.6%
69 Doncaster South Yorkshire 19.8 20.8 6,333 -0.2% 15.0%
70 South Tyneside Tyne and Wear 19.8 21.8 2,999 -6.6% 18.9%
71 Stevenage Hertfordshire 19.8 20.1 1,818 -9.7% 16.9%
72 Chesterfield Derbyshire 19.8 19.4 2,098 -1.0% 16.4%
73 Harrow Greater London 19.7 22.5 5,336 +2.9% 24.2%
74 Barking and Dagenham Greater London 19.7 23.1 4,577 +4.2% 18.8%
75 Caerphilly Gwent 19.6 20.9 3,474 +1.9% 18.5%
76 Fylde Lancashire 19.6 20.0 1,672 -20.0% 26.7%
77 Rossendale Lancashire 19.5 21.8 1,423 -38.3% 22.1%
78 Gateshead Tyne and Wear 19.4 19.7 3,928 +0.8% 20.1%
79 Redbridge Greater London 19.2 21.6 6,167 +0.3% 20.1%
80 Havering Greater London 19.1 20.8 5,265 +3.2% 21.5%
81 Sheffield South Yorkshire 19.0 19.4 11,080 +4.9% 16.9%
82 Kingston upon Thames Greater London 19.0 19.5 3,281 -1.0% 21.9%
83 South Ribble Lancashire 19.0 19.8 2,205 -30.2% 24.3%
84 Chichester West Sussex 18.8 18.2 2,429 +24.6% 23.7%
85 Broxbourne Hertfordshire 18.8 20.6 1,911 +0.6% 20.0%
86 South Holland Lincolnshire 18.7 19.6 1,853 +24.1% 23.6%
87 West Lindsey Lincolnshire 18.5 20.6 1,837 +1.4% 22.3%
88 Norwich Norfolk 18.5 18.0 2,724 -9.4% 14.8%
89 Rotherham South Yorkshire 18.3 19.5 5,060 +4.0% 16.5%
90 Gwynedd Gwynedd 18.3 18.6 2,205 +1.3% 20.8%
91 Northumberland Northumberland 18.0 19.3 5,972 +4.7% 22.7%
92 Maidstone Kent 18.0 19.4 3,376 +24.3% 20.8%
93 Arun West Sussex 17.8 19.8 3,021 +25.4% 20.1%
94 Dover Kent 17.6 19.1 2,104 +17.8% 20.1%
95 Barnsley South Yorkshire 17.5 18.9 4,399 +3.3% 16.3%
96 Warwick Warwickshire 17.4 17.0 2,697 +23.6% 20.7%
97 Wyre Lancashire 17.3 19.5 2,058 -29.9% 22.0%
98 North Warwickshire Warwickshire 17.3 14.4 1,162 +14.2% 21.9%
99 Adur West Sussex 17.3 18.2 1,120 +40.4% 25.0%
100 Hertsmere Hertfordshire 17.3 17.3 1,901 -6.0% 19.4%

The table stops at 100, by which point the rate has fallen from 64.2 per 1,000 to 17.3. The other 206 areas carry the same figure for anti-social behaviour on their own pages: search for a place by name, or see all 306 areas ranked by overall crime.

The first rate divides recorded offences by resident population, which is what the Office for National Statistics publishes. The second divides the same offences by the Census 2021 working-day population, which counts the people who are actually there on a weekday rather than the ones who sleep there. In this top ten, Westminster falls by more than a third once the same offences are divided by the working-day population instead of the resident one, which is the signature of a place that fills up by day and empties at night.

The last column is this category's share of all crime recorded in that same area. A high rate with an ordinary share is a busy place; a high rate with an unusually high share is a place with a particular problem, and the two are worth telling apart.

What counts as anti-social behaviour

The Home Office publishes this as a single category, Anti-social behaviour, covering personal, environmental and nuisance anti-social behaviour. Much of it is reported rather than detected, so this category moves with how willing an area is to report as much as with what happens in it. It is what most people mean by ASB.

Across England and Wales, police recorded 895,037 of them in the year to July 2026: 15.9% of all recorded crime, 2.5% down on the year before.

Areas are local authority districts, the level England and Wales actually publishes boundaries and populations for. A further 24 districts are left out because their police force has not filed a full year of returns; shown with a partial year, they would sit near the bottom of the table looking safe. How the figures work sets out the method, data sources lists where the numbers come from.

Where each offence peaks

City of London tops 9 of the 13 categories, and between them the 13 are led by only 4 different areas. That is what dividing by residents does: a place whose daytime crowds dwarf the people who live there wins almost everything, whatever the offence. Ordered by how much of all recorded crime each one accounts for, so the largest categories come first.

Offence Led by Rate there England and Wales Share of all crime
Violence City of London 99.3 32.4 35.5%
Anti-social behaviour (this page) Westminster 64.2 14.5 15.9%
Shoplifting City of London 108.1 7.8 8.6%
Criminal damage City of London 19.8 6.4 7.0%
Public order City of London 41.6 6.3 6.9%
Other theft City of London 158.5 6.1 6.6%
Vehicle crime Kensington and Chelsea 14.4 4.7 5.1%
Burglary City of London 31.4 3.3 3.7%
Drug offences City of London 30.5 3.1 3.4%
Theft from the person Westminster 85.0 1.6 1.8%
Robbery City of London 20.2 1.3 1.4%
Weapons Crawley 6.1 0.9 1.0%
Bicycle theft City of London 24.1 0.8 0.9%

Rates are per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to July 2026, across the same 306 areas. For crime as a whole rather than one category, see highest crime rates and safest places to live.