Crime and Safety in Alway
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
Gwent Police are behind schedule with their crime data updates.
Please see below for details.
Alway is among the top 10 safest small towns in the preserved county of Gwent, and is among the top 20 safest overall out of Gwent's 117 towns, villages, and cities. The overall crime rate in Alway in 2026 is 32 crimes per 1,000 people. This compares poorly to Gwent's overall crime rate, coming in 6% higher than the Gwent rate of 30 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Alway is among the top 10 safest small towns, and among the top 10 safest locations out of all towns, cities, and villages.
In February 2023, Alway had the worst crime rate in Gwent for robbery, with 4 crimes reported and a crime rate of 0.47 per 1,000 daytime population. November 2020 was also a bad month for Alway residents, when it was Gwent's most dangerous area for criminal damage and arson, recording 6 crimes at a rate of 0.70 per 1,000 daytime population.
The most common crimes in Alway are violence and sexual offences, with 132 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 15. This is 47% lower than 2025's figure of 250 offences and a difference of 13.72 from 2025's crime rate of 29. Alway's least common crime is bicycle theft, with 0 offences recorded in 2026.
Alway 2026 Crime Scorecard
Top 10 Safest
Small Towns, Gwent
47% lower, regional crime rate
Wales
55% lower, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of August 2025, the crime rate in Alway is 47% lower than Wales and 55% lower than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Alway Crime Rate Over Time
| Alway | |
| Wales | |
| England, Wales & NI |
Alway Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Alway represent the time frame between January 2016 and August 2025. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
See How Alway Compares
You can compare Alway's crime statistics against any other town, village, or city from across the country. Search for a location's name below to see how they stack up.
Crime data status: caution advised
Gwent Police are behind schedule with their crime data updates, and the most recent data on data.police.uk for Gwent Police is for August 2025.
The most recent month for all other forces is April 2026. This affects all platforms, systems, and users that rely on data.police.uk.
We advise exercising caution with statistics for areas within Gwent Police's boundaries, particularly if comparing against areas with more recent data, until Gwent Police are back on schedule.
Crime data on data.police.uk is typically updated once per month, and includes new data with a two-month delay.
Introduction to Alway's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Alway up to August 2025, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Alway's 154 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending August 2025 unless otherwise stated.
CrimeRate Insights
Looking into a specific address in Alway? CrimeRate Insights reports convert raw numbers into practical insight for any location, from single addresses and postcodes, up to major towns and cities.
Crime rates don’t happen by themselves; they follow people and patterns. Where crowds gather - near pubs and late-night venues, around the station, by supermarkets and forecourts - incidents naturally concentrate.
That doesn’t mean an area is "bad"; it usually means footfall is higher.
Your report explores these factors in a calm, non-judgemental way, putting the numbers in context and helping you spot what’s typical for places like this.
Crime Risk Scores
Alway • 12 Months Ending August 2025
The typical five-minute walk within Alway has a crime risk score of 764. This is based on analysis of 154 nearby areas within Alway, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Alway's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Alway, crime risk scores are typically around 764, while in Gwent they are average 675.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 839 (709 for Gwent), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 889 (Gwent 733).
Trends in Crime Risk
Alway
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates an increase of 0.13% in Alway's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Alway's crime risk score is up by 4.0%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Alway's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 3.7%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Alway
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Alway • 12 Months Ending August 2025
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Robbery offences have a crime rate of 0.82 reports per 1,000 people in Alway, which is 2.41 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 7 crime reports logged by Gwent Police during the 12-month period ending August 2025.
For the same period, Gwent Police recorded 128 reports of Criminal Damage and Arson in Alway, resulting in a crime rate of 15 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 2.27.
The crime rate for Possession of Weapons is 2.13 times the national average at 0.83 reports per 1,000. This is from 7 crime reports reported to Gwent Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Alway
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Criminal Damage and Arson offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of January 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.36 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of January 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 1.96 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Drugs offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of January 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Drugs CrimeRate Index was 0.55 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Alway
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Shoplifting offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of January 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 0.29 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.05 for the month of January 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 1.56 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 97% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Alway • 12 Months Ending August 2025
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Alway | Gwent | Wales | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 177 | 20.58 | 1.42 | 12,174 | 18.74 | 1.30 | 46,290 | 13.54 | 0.94 |
| Bicycle Theft | 1 | 0.12 | 1.50 | 271 | 0.42 | 0.52 | 2,050 | 0.60 | 0.74 |
| Burglary | 53 | 6.18 | 1.81 | 2,226 | 3.43 | 1.00 | 9,284 | 2.72 | 0.80 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 128 | 14.89 | 2.27 | 6,863 | 10.55 | 1.61 | 26,194 | 7.66 | 1.17 |
| Drugs | 33 | 3.84 | 1.83 | 1,653 | 2.53 | 0.89 | 8,717 | 2.55 | 0.90 |
| Other Crime | 51 | 5.93 | 3.06 | 1,701 | 2.62 | 1.35 | 7,399 | 2.17 | 1.12 |
| Other Theft | 41 | 4.78 | 0.85 | 3,786 | 5.83 | 0.96 | 16,534 | 4.83 | 0.80 |
| Possession of Weapons | 7 | 0.83 | 2.13 | 581 | 0.90 | 1.13 | 2,434 | 0.70 | 0.87 |
| Public Order | 111 | 12.91 | 2.13 | 7,517 | 11.58 | 1.91 | 29,768 | 8.73 | 1.44 |
| Robbery | 7 | 0.82 | 2.41 | 326 | 0.50 | 0.47 | 1,153 | 0.33 | 0.31 |
| Shoplifting | 9 | 1.05 | 0.28 | 4,892 | 7.53 | 1.01 | 24,355 | 7.12 | 0.95 |
| Theft From the Person | - | - | - | 186 | 0.29 | 0.15 | 1,491 | 0.42 | 0.22 |
| Vehicle Crime | 56 | 6.52 | 1.35 | 2,758 | 4.25 | 0.88 | 11,040 | 3.24 | 0.67 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 374 | 43.50 | 1.44 | 25,809 | 39.74 | 1.31 | 116,810 | 34.21 | 1.13 |
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Total Crime by Year
Alway | Gwent | Wales | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2025 | 871 | 101.37 | 1.55 | 58,569 | 90.17 | 1.22 | 257,229 | 75.28 | 1.02 |
| 2024 | 750 | 87.61 | 1.34 | 53,530 | 82.97 | 1.10 | 238,672 | 70.43 | 0.93 |
| 2023 | 721 | 85.01 | 1.30 | 50,113 | 78.34 | 0.99 | 255,615 | 75.95 | 0.96 |
| 2022 | 635 | 75.04 | 1.10 | 45,569 | 71.98 | 0.94 | 245,565 | 73.85 | 0.96 |
| 2021 | 627 | 73.74 | 1.19 | 41,430 | 65.68 | 0.96 | 217,266 | 65.68 | 0.96 |
| 2020 | 633 | 74.62 | 1.12 | 46,932 | 74.67 | 1.01 | 237,502 | 72.15 | 0.97 |
| 2019 | 707 | 83.59 | 1.22 | 49,113 | 78.20 | 1.03 | 244,905 | 74.66 | 0.98 |
| 2018 | 600 | 71.52 | 1.09 | 40,466 | 64.64 | 0.91 | 218,341 | 66.57 | 0.94 |
| 2017 | 535 | 64.07 | 1.17 | 37,689 | 60.33 | 0.94 | 199,059 | 60.80 | 0.95 |
| 2016 | 188 | 22.52 | 1.34 | 12,388 | 19.84 | 1.04 | 61,849 | 18.94 | 0.99 |
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Alway Compared to Nearby Small Towns
12 Months Ending Aug 2025
| Small Town | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackwood | 368 | 42.19 | 31% more dangerous |
| Ringland | 361 | 39.98 | 24% more dangerous |
| Rhymney | 393 | 44.31 | 37% more dangerous |
| Bettws | 316 | 36.97 | 14% more dangerous |
| Abertillery | 463 | 40.16 | 24% more dangerous |
| Gaer | 334 | 35.68 | 10% more dangerous |
| Tredegar | 635 | 41.49 | 28% more dangerous |
| Nantyglo and Blaina | 312 | 32.89 | 1.8% more dangerous |
| Liswerry | 612 | 41.79 | 29% more dangerous |
| Victoria | 332 | 31.41 | 2.8% safer |
| Alway | 278 | 32.32 | - |
| Bargoed | 508 | 40.12 | 24% more dangerous |
| St. Julians | 368 | 37.02 | 15% more dangerous |
| Abergavenny | 366 | 29.94 | 7% safer |
| Beechwood | 218 | 27.69 | 14% safer |
| Caerphilly | 562 | 30.71 | 5.0% safer |
Comparing Alway to the UK's Major Cities
12 Months Ending Aug 2025
| City Name | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Alway | 32.32 | - |
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 146% more dangerous |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 82.69 | 156% more dangerous |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 160% more dangerous |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 203% more dangerous |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 224% more dangerous |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 225% more dangerous |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 229% more dangerous |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 231% more dangerous |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 233% more dangerous |
| Westminster | 125.00 | 287% more dangerous |
CrimeRate Pro
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You can find out more, or get a CrimeRate Insights report that includes further analysis.
Offences In and Around Alway's Parks & Leisure Spaces
Limited to spaces in Alway that are named and have had crimes recorded within their boundaries in the 12 months to Aug 2025.
| Name | ASB | Drugs | Public Order | Robbery | VSO | All Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beechwood Park | 2 | - | 1 | - | 5 | 11 |
Recent Crimes in Alway
The 20 most recent crime reports in Alway.
| Date | Crime Type | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Beecham Street | |
| December 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Conway Court | |
| August 2025 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Beecham Street | |
| August 2025 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Hawthorne Fosse | |
| August 2025 | Burglary | On or near Gibbs Road | |
| August 2025 | Burglary | On or near Penkin Hill | |
| August 2025 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Aberthaw Place | |
| August 2025 | Other crime | On or near The Redlands | |
| August 2025 | Other theft | On or near Penkin Hill | |
| August 2025 | Possession of weapons | On or near The Redlands | |
| August 2025 | Public order | On or near Penkin Close | |
| August 2025 | Vehicle crime | On or near Gibbs Road | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Henry Wood Walk | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Arthur Bliss Road | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Arthur Bliss Road | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Arthur Bliss Road | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Hawthorne Square | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Hawthorne Square | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Arthur Bliss Road | |
| August 2025 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Arthur Bliss Road |
Methodology & Data Sources
Alway Crime Report
Data Sources & Processing
Every month, CrimeRate processes crime reports from data.police.uk, the UK's official provider of open crime report data. Each crime report includes anonymised coordinates, most often "snapped" to the middle of the nearest street, or to the nearest major landmark. The reports also include the month and year the crime was reported, as well as the type of crime.
Data releases on data.police.uk happen once a month, with a two-month delay. This means that, for example, crimes reported in Alway during June 2026 will typically become available in August 2026. The latest release is for Apr 2026 and was released in Jun 2026. To provide current and historical crime statistics, CrimeRate processed 61,669,232 crime reports for the latest release.
Alway Data Points
For Alway, CrimeRate uses the geographic boundaries provided by The Office for National Statistics in the December 2023 release of their Parishes and Non Civil Parished Areas dataset, using the PARNCP23CD column value W04000809.
Due to the 2021 Census being conducted during a UK-wide Coronavirus lockdown, the daytime population figures released so far cannot be relied on for purposes such as comparing crime rates. Instead, CrimeRate uses Alway's daytime - or "workday" - population of 5,985 from the ONS 2011 Census for calculations throughout the site.
All geographic boundaries use the full resolution - extent of the realm versions where provided to avoid missing crime reports near coastlines and rivers - the banks of the Thames in particular - that would otherwise not be included when using the clipped to the coastline datasets.
Calculating Crime Rates
CrimeRate locates the UK region, county, and town/city/village locality for each crime report, and calculates the crime rate by taking the sum of all crime reports, dividing it by the locality's daytime / "workday" population, and multiplying the result by 1,000 to get the crime rate per 1,000.
Crime Risk Score Calculations
CrimeRate calculates crime counts for local, nearby, and wider areas for every postcode in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The postcodes locations are deduplicated by a process that ensures distinct points are approximately 50 metres apart. This process removes the bias that would otherwise come from counting the same crimes several times in heavily populated areas.
Using a custom algorithm developed in-house, CrimeRate applies a crime severity weighting to each area's crime counts, based on the type of crime reported. This increases or decreases the crime count, or zeroes it out entirely, depending on the crime type. A separate crime severity rate is then calculated, standardised, and scaled to fit the crime risk score range of 1 to 1,000, with 1 being the lowest score, and 1,000 the highest.
Crime risk scores undergo further analysis per town, city, and village plus other areas including police forces and neighbourhoods. CrimeRate uses percentiles to work out the most common range of crime risk scores in each locality. This includes identifying the high and low bounds where approximately 68% of scores fall, and finding the median (50th percentile) for easy reference.
The crime types with a weight of zero are: Anti-Social Behaviour; Bicycle Theft; Other Crime; Other Theft; and Shoplifting. The highest weights to are assigned to Violence & Sexual Offences, and the lowest to Vehicle Crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Alway