Hull is one of the most crime-affected places to live outside of London, newly-revealed figures show. The latest Home Office figures show that in 2025, Hull was the ninth most crime-ravaged area in England and Wales, away from the capital.
Crime rates, which are calculated by dividing the number of crimes by the population size, have been compared for the over 250 councils outside of London. Blackpool tops the list, followed by Middlesbrough and Manchester.
Overall, Home Office figures show that recorded crime has continued to fall in England and Wales, with a 2 per cent drop in all non-fraud crime in 2025 compared to the previous year. That includes an 11 per cent drop in burglary, 8% fall in theft, and a 6 per cent decrease in homicide. However, some crime types went up, notably including sexual offences (by 5 per cent), weapons possession (6 per cent), and drug offences (18 per cent).
Despite overall reductions in crime, some areas remain much more impacted by crime than others. The top 10 places with the highest crime rates outside of London are as follows:
1 Blackpool
2 Middlesbrough
3 Manchester
4 Hartlepool
5 Bristol, City of
6 Liverpool
7 Nottingham
8 Southampton
9 Kingston upon Hull, City of
10 Bradford
It is important to note, however, that the data simply records crime figures and does not take the severity of each crime into account. Therefore, in the data, five thefts would appear ‘worse’ than two murders.
Humberside Police’s area commander for Hull, Chief Superintendent Matt Peach, said:
“Hull is a great place to live, work and visit and our teams work hard day and night to make sure that it remains that way. As a force we are committed to working with the people of Hull to listen to their concerns, support victims of crime, and robustly target offenders.
“We regularly hold police surgeries and meet with residents and workers in the community to discuss any concerns or information about crime. This has resulted in regular warrants to disrupt drugs criminality, targeted arrests for high harm offenders and additional foot patrols in areas identified as being higher risk in relation to crime.
“Our latest ONS figures show that crime has actually decreased in our area, which highlights our dedication to keeping people safe, not only in Hull, but across our Humberside region. The reductions in crime across our area is a real testament to the dedication of our teams, who put on their uniforms and step up to the challenge every single day so that people feel safe and are free to enjoy our wonderful city.
“We will never be complacent though, and we will continue to work hard to reduce crime, and to keep people safe within Hull and the wider Humberside force area. We urge residents to continue reporting incidents via our non-emergency number 101, 999 in an emergency or if a crime is ongoing, and to remain anonymous, you can also report via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
By: Andrew Spence, LDRS
