OpenCrime

Worst areas for criminal damage and arson

Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire has the highest recorded rate of criminal damage and arson of the 314 local authority areas in England and Wales with a full year of data: 20.0 per 1,000 residents in the year to June 2026, against 6.5 nationally. The spread is wide: the top of the table records 7 times the rate of the bottom. The next highest are City of London, Blaenau Gwent and Redcar and Cleveland. The 100 highest are listed below.

20.0 criminal damage and arson per 1,000 residents in Middlesbrough, the highest of 314 areas
6.5 per 1,000 across England and Wales
-4.6% national change on the previous 12 months
7.1% of all recorded crime is criminal damage and arson

This ranks recorded crime, not danger. A high position means the police recorded more criminal damage and arson 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 criminal damage and arson

Ranked by recorded offences per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to June 2026, across 314 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 Middlesbrough North Yorkshire 20.0 21.1 3,125 +0.7% 10.8%
2 City of London Greater London 20.0 3.3 302 -16.8% 3.0%
3 Blaenau Gwent Gwent 16.5 18.6 1,122 -5.8% 11.5%
4 Redcar and Cleveland North Yorkshire 15.7 17.1 2,179 +3.5% 11.4%
5 Hartlepool County Durham 15.3 17.1 1,502 +10.4% 9.4%
6 North East Lincolnshire Lincolnshire 14.3 14.7 2,291 -5.1% 10.5%
7 County Durham County Durham 14.3 15.3 7,667 +4.9% 12.1%
8 Torfaen Gwent 12.8 13.1 1,200 +10.6% 10.3%
9 Blackpool Lancashire 12.6 12.6 1,809 -7.5% 6.7%
10 Darlington County Durham 12.5 12.8 1,405 -1.7% 10.2%
11 Nottingham Nottinghamshire 12.2 11.6 4,022 +10.0% 7.9%
12 Kingston upon Hull East Riding of Yorkshire 11.8 12.1 3,239 +3.9% 8.5%
13 Stockton-on-Tees County Durham 11.6 12.2 2,400 +1.8% 8.3%
14 Newport Gwent 11.3 11.8 1,903 -10.2% 8.5%
15 Leicester Leicestershire 11.1 11.6 4,324 -1.0% 9.1%
16 Doncaster South Yorkshire 11.1 11.6 3,539 -6.6% 8.4%
17 Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire 11.0 11.4 2,985 +1.4% 8.0%
18 Burnley Lancashire 11.0 11.5 1,089 -3.0% 7.8%
19 Caerphilly Gwent 10.8 11.5 1,908 -0.3% 10.3%
20 Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria 10.7 10.7 727 +3.3% 10.5%
21 Hastings East Sussex 10.6 10.9 968 -5.5% 7.6%
22 Great Yarmouth Norfolk 10.4 10.8 1,043 -8.5% 9.4%
23 Thanet Kent 10.4 10.9 1,479 +1.9% 8.9%
24 Lincoln Lincolnshire 10.3 10.1 1,086 -11.6% 6.7%
25 South Tyneside Tyne and Wear 10.3 11.4 1,561 -9.4% 9.8%
26 Bristol Bristol 10.3 10.4 5,082 +19.0% 7.0%
27 Norwich Norfolk 10.1 9.9 1,490 -2.9% 8.1%
28 Sunderland Tyne and Wear 10.0 10.4 2,877 -14.1% 9.9%
29 Barnsley South Yorkshire 10.0 10.8 2,507 -6.3% 9.3%
30 Bradford West Yorkshire 10.0 10.4 5,615 +1.4% 7.7%
31 Liverpool Merseyside 9.9 9.9 5,050 -6.3% 7.3%
32 Wrexham Clwyd 9.8 10.1 1,361 -4.2% 9.8%
33 Swale Kent 9.7 10.5 1,537 -3.9% 9.7%
34 Canterbury Kent 9.6 9.7 1,557 +15.3% 8.8%
35 Preston Lancashire 9.5 9.9 1,550 +0.5% 7.3%
36 Merthyr Tydfil Mid Glamorgan 9.5 9.6 561 -2.1% 8.9%
37 Scarborough North Yorkshire 9.5 9.7 1,048 +10.6% 7.7%
38 Birmingham West Midlands 9.4 9.6 11,157 +3.6% 7.7%
39 Walsall West Midlands 9.4 10.2 2,781 +7.9% 9.3%
40 Peterborough Cambridgeshire 9.4 9.4 2,091 -4.9% 7.5%
41 Westminster Greater London 9.2 5.3 1,935 -22.1% 2.2%
42 Mansfield Nottinghamshire 9.2 10.3 1,040 -2.4% 8.0%
43 Torbay Devon 9.2 9.4 1,288 -7.3% 8.4%
44 Bassetlaw Nottinghamshire 9.1 9.8 1,140 +2.2% 9.6%
45 Pembrokeshire Dyfed 9.1 9.4 1,146 -2.6% 10.1%
46 Gravesham Kent 9.1 10.3 1,005 -13.3% 9.6%
47 Plymouth Devon 9.1 9.3 2,471 -8.2% 8.3%
48 Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne and Wear 9.1 9.0 2,906 -16.0% 7.5%
49 Dartford Kent 9.0 9.4 1,127 -3.3% 8.2%
50 Sheffield South Yorkshire 9.0 9.2 5,243 +3.3% 8.0%
51 Knowsley Merseyside 9.0 9.4 1,462 -3.3% 9.7%
52 Gateshead Tyne and Wear 9.0 9.1 1,818 -17.4% 9.1%
53 Hyndburn Lancashire 9.0 9.9 772 -13.4% 7.0%
54 Thurrock Essex 8.9 9.4 1,612 +5.5% 9.0%
55 Carlisle Cumbria 8.9 9.2 1,022 +0.4% 9.5%
56 Eastbourne East Sussex 8.9 9.1 928 -7.8% 6.6%
57 Lancaster Lancashire 8.9 9.2 1,291 -5.6% 9.1%
58 Medway Kent 8.8 9.7 2,560 -8.4% 8.6%
59 Calderdale West Yorkshire 8.7 9.0 1,844 -3.6% 7.4%
60 Leeds West Yorkshire 8.6 8.8 7,306 -3.4% 6.8%
61 Worcester Worcestershire 8.6 8.8 917 +0.9% 7.8%
62 Carmarthenshire Dyfed 8.5 8.9 1,629 +4.8% 9.9%
63 Denbighshire Clwyd 8.5 8.6 836 -7.4% 7.6%
64 Wakefield West Yorkshire 8.5 8.7 3,113 -4.2% 7.2%
65 Newark and Sherwood Nottinghamshire 8.4 8.8 1,078 +5.3% 10.1%
66 Ashfield Nottinghamshire 8.3 8.6 1,081 +2.2% 8.4%
67 Harlow Essex 8.3 9.1 819 -2.4% 7.8%
68 Dover Kent 8.3 9.0 989 -9.3% 9.5%
69 Derby Derbyshire 8.2 8.4 2,259 -4.6% 6.2%
70 North Lincolnshire Lincolnshire 8.2 8.2 1,410 -3.0% 8.7%
71 Blackburn with Darwen Lancashire 8.2 8.3 1,334 0.0% 7.3%
72 Exeter Devon 8.2 7.7 1,136 -4.9% 7.6%
73 Rotherham South Yorkshire 8.2 8.7 2,258 0.0% 7.4%
74 Southampton Hampshire 8.2 8.7 2,117 -12.1% 6.3%
75 Boston Lincolnshire 8.2 8.5 579 -4.3% 7.3%
76 Tendring Essex 8.1 9.0 1,268 -5.5% 8.8%
77 Chesterfield Derbyshire 8.0 7.9 852 -4.9% 6.7%
78 Maidstone Kent 8.0 8.6 1,503 -5.8% 9.2%
79 Cardiff South Glamorgan 8.0 8.0 3,069 -1.3% 7.5%
80 Solihull West Midlands 8.0 7.7 1,764 +24.8% 9.2%
81 St. Helens Merseyside 8.0 8.8 1,506 +5.6% 8.5%
82 Wolverhampton West Midlands 8.0 8.7 2,236 -2.1% 8.1%
83 Sandwell West Midlands 7.9 8.4 2,798 -1.8% 7.8%
84 Folkestone and Hythe Kent 7.9 8.3 887 -3.4% 9.4%
85 North Tyneside Tyne and Wear 7.8 8.4 1,686 -7.2% 8.7%
86 Basildon Essex 7.8 8.0 1,514 -6.0% 8.0%
87 Ipswich Suffolk 7.8 7.9 1,095 -10.1% 7.8%
88 Allerdale Cumbria 7.8 8.2 761 +10.3% 10.7%
89 West Lindsey Lincolnshire 7.8 8.6 769 -4.9% 9.3%
90 Fenland Cambridgeshire 7.7 8.2 812 -7.5% 8.4%
91 Charnwood Leicestershire 7.7 8.2 1,457 +13.0% 9.7%
92 Bolsover Derbyshire 7.6 8.2 638 +11.5% 8.9%
93 Stevenage Hertfordshire 7.6 7.7 697 +2.1% 6.5%
94 Conwy Clwyd 7.6 7.8 867 -15.6% 7.1%
95 Crawley West Sussex 7.5 7.6 935 +0.9% 5.8%
96 Copeland Cumbria 7.5 7.4 510 -0.4% 10.8%
97 Coventry West Midlands 7.5 8.2 2,771 -0.1% 7.9%
98 East Lindsey Lincolnshire 7.5 7.9 1,091 +6.2% 7.9%
99 Northumberland Northumberland 7.5 8.1 2,488 -12.4% 9.3%
100 Rossendale Lancashire 7.5 8.4 548 -7.6% 8.4%

The table stops at 100, by which point the rate has fallen from 20.0 per 1,000 to 7.5. The other 214 areas carry the same figure for criminal damage and arson on their own pages: search for a place by name, or see all 314 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, City of London 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 criminal damage and arson

The Home Office publishes this as a single category, Criminal damage and arson, covering damage to buildings and vehicles, and deliberate damage by fire. It is what most people mean by vandalism.

Across England and Wales, police recorded 400,555 of them in the year to June 2026: 7.1% of all recorded crime, 4.6% down on the year before.

Areas are local authority districts, the level England and Wales actually publishes boundaries and populations for. A further 16 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 8 of the 13 categories, and between them the 13 are led by only 5 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 100.3 32.4 35.5%
Anti-social behaviour Westminster 64.5 14.5 15.9%
Shoplifting City of London 112.1 7.7 8.5%
Criminal damage (this page) Middlesbrough 20.0 6.5 7.1%
Public order City of London 43.2 6.3 6.9%
Other theft City of London 160.3 6.0 6.6%
Vehicle crime Kensington and Chelsea 14.6 4.7 5.1%
Burglary City of London 31.6 3.3 3.7%
Drug offences City of London 31.7 3.2 3.5%
Theft from the person Westminster 89.0 1.6 1.8%
Robbery City of London 20.4 1.3 1.4%
Weapons Crawley 6.1 0.9 1.0%
Bicycle theft City of London 23.0 0.8 0.9%

Rates are per 1,000 residents over the 12 months to June 2026, across the same 314 areas. For crime as a whole rather than one category, see highest crime rates and safest places to live.