Powys Crime Statistics
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The overall crime rate in Powys as of April 2026 is 58 crimes per 1,000 people, and the most common crimes are violence and sexual offences, with reports coming from roughly every 31 out of 1,000 daytime population.
Comparing Powys's larger towns and cities, and using Crime Risk Scores - which are calculated by taking severity of each crime type into account - Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn is the most dangerous. The next most dangerous is Ystradgynlais, and Brecon comes in as third most dangerous.
Powys Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Powys represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. 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.
Introduction to Powys's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Powys up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Powys's 7,153 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 April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Powys • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Powys has a crime risk score of 721. This is based on analysis of 7,153 nearby areas within Powys, 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 Powys's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Powys, crime risk scores are typically around 721, while in Wales they are average 606.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 708 (634 for Wales), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 715 (Wales 654).
Trends in Crime Risk
Powys
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 8% in Powys'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.
The five-year trend may be static; no significant trend was identified in Powys's crime risk scores during this timeframe.
Over the last year, Powys's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 1.7%, 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
Powys
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
Powys • 12 Months Ending April 2026
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.
Violence and Sexual Offences have a crime rate of 31 reports per 1,000 people in Powys, which is 1.02 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 4,509 crime reports logged by Dyfed-Powys Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Dyfed-Powys Police recorded 918 reports of Criminal Damage and Arson in Powys, resulting in a crime rate of 6.30 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.00.
The crime rate for Possession of Weapons is 1.00 times the national average at 0.85 reports per 1,000. This is from 123 crime reports reported to Dyfed-Powys Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Powys
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 0.94 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Criminal Damage and Arson CrimeRate Index was 0.24 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 292% over this timeframe.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending upwards, though the CrimeRate Index three years ago is too low to measure, and the trend should be reviewed with caution.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.14 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 0.29 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 293% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Powys
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Public Order offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.83 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 0.30 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 177% over this timeframe.
Shoplifting offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.33 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 0.08 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 312% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Powys • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Powys | Wales | Dyfed-Powys Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 1,375 | 9.46 | 0.67 | 37,683 | 10.96 | 0.78 | 5,647 | 9.94 | 0.70 |
| Bicycle Theft | 29 | 0.19 | 0.30 | 1,599 | 0.46 | 0.63 | 139 | 0.24 | 0.33 |
| Burglary | 352 | 2.44 | 0.78 | 6,704 | 1.94 | 0.62 | 1,418 | 2.51 | 0.80 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 918 | 6.30 | 1.00 | 21,045 | 6.12 | 0.97 | 4,137 | 7.28 | 1.16 |
| Drugs | 393 | 2.71 | 0.88 | 7,344 | 2.14 | 0.69 | 1,676 | 2.96 | 0.96 |
| Other Crime | 238 | 1.63 | 0.88 | 6,008 | 1.76 | 0.95 | 1,109 | 1.96 | 1.06 |
| Other Theft | 572 | 3.93 | 0.69 | 13,307 | 3.88 | 0.68 | 2,428 | 4.29 | 0.75 |
| Possession of Weapons | 123 | 0.85 | 1.00 | 2,296 | 0.68 | 0.80 | 487 | 0.86 | 1.01 |
| Public Order | 784 | 5.40 | 0.93 | 23,747 | 6.91 | 1.19 | 3,444 | 6.07 | 1.05 |
| Robbery | 21 | 0.15 | 0.17 | 1,461 | 0.43 | 0.36 | 91 | 0.16 | 0.14 |
| Shoplifting | 261 | 1.79 | 0.25 | 19,180 | 5.58 | 0.78 | 1,822 | 3.21 | 0.45 |
| Theft From the Person | 31 | 0.22 | 0.14 | 1,019 | 0.28 | 0.18 | 165 | 0.28 | 0.18 |
| Vehicle Crime | 196 | 1.37 | 0.32 | 8,617 | 2.52 | 0.59 | 780 | 1.37 | 0.32 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 4,509 | 31.03 | 1.02 | 99,099 | 28.83 | 0.95 | 19,767 | 34.86 | 1.15 |
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Total Crime by Year
Powys | Wales | Dyfed-Powys Police | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 8,427 | 58.01 | 0.81 | 211,426 | 61.53 | 0.85 | 37,463 | 66.05 | 0.92 |
| 2025 | 8,684 | 60.30 | 0.82 | 257,229 | 75.28 | 1.02 | 38,706 | 69.00 | 0.93 |
| 2024 | 4,940 | 34.45 | 0.49 | 238,672 | 70.43 | 0.93 | 20,916 | 37.49 | 0.52 |
| 2023 | 10,146 | 71.07 | 0.91 | 255,615 | 75.95 | 0.96 | 44,039 | 79.29 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 9,105 | 64.50 | 0.85 | 245,565 | 73.85 | 0.96 | 39,549 | 71.93 | 0.94 |
| 2021 | 6,918 | 49.60 | 0.73 | 217,266 | 65.68 | 0.96 | 30,648 | 56.21 | 0.82 |
| 2020 | 6,639 | 48.18 | 0.66 | 237,502 | 72.15 | 0.97 | 30,356 | 56.36 | 0.76 |
| 2019 | 6,659 | 48.41 | 0.64 | 244,905 | 74.66 | 0.98 | 29,871 | 55.67 | 0.73 |
| 2018 | 6,331 | 45.86 | 0.65 | 218,341 | 66.57 | 0.94 | 26,992 | 50.21 | 0.71 |
| 2017 | 5,663 | 40.93 | 0.65 | 199,059 | 60.80 | 0.95 | 23,482 | 43.66 | 0.68 |
| 2016 | 1,689 | 12.23 | 0.65 | 61,849 | 18.94 | 0.99 | 6,920 | 12.88 | 0.68 |
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The Powys Streets With The Highest Crime Counts
Each police crime report that CrimeRate receives has a street name automatically assigned to it by the police data team, and this table uses the coordinates to count crimes, rather than the street name alone. That way, if Powys has multiple identical street names - which is not unusual - they will be treated separately by CrimeRate's systems.
| Street | Crime Count | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lôn Yr Ywen Llangyniew | 94 | ||||||||
| Pentre Clawdd Meifod | 76 | ||||||||
| New Road Llanfair Caereinion | 70 | ||||||||
| Lon Derw Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn | 32 | ||||||||
| Pen-Y-Bryn Ystradgynlais | 27 | ||||||||
| Ashridge Close Llandrindod Wells | 24 | ||||||||
| Bryn-Y-Castell Welshpool | 19 | ||||||||
| Maes Y Dafarn Carno | 19 | ||||||||
| Heol Y Ffynnon Brecon | 18 | ||||||||
| Pentre Gwyn Trewern | 17 | ||||||||
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Town and City Comparison
| Town / City | Crime Count | Crime Rate | CrimeRate Index | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn | 1,598 | 115.44 | 1.69 | ||||||
| Brecon | 786 | 80.68 | 1.20 | ||||||
| Ystradgynlais | 697 | 79.92 | 1.24 | ||||||
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