Crime and Safety in Castleford, West Yorkshire
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
Castleford is the most dangerous medium-sized town in West Yorkshire, and is among the top 10 most dangerous overall out of West Yorkshire's 118 towns, villages, and cities. The overall crime rate in Castleford in 2026 is 124 crimes per 1,000 people. This compares poorly to West Yorkshire's overall crime rate, coming in 28% higher than the West Yorkshire rate of 96 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Castleford is among the top 20 most dangerous medium-sized towns, and the 337th most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
In March 2026, Castleford had the worst crime rate in West Yorkshire for shoplifting, with 81 crimes reported and a crime rate of 1.6 per 1,000 daytime population. January 2023 was also a bad month for Castleford residents, when it was again West Yorkshire's most dangerous area for shoplifting, recording 124 crimes at a rate of 2.6 per 1,000 daytime population.
The most common crimes in Castleford are violence and sexual offences, with 2,679 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 55. This is 2.5% lower than 2025's figure of 2,747 offences and a difference of 1.40 from 2025's crime rate of 56. Castleford's least common crime is theft from the person, with 24 offences recorded in 2026, a decrease of 17% from 2025's figure of 29 crimes.
Castleford 2026 Crime Scorecard
Most Dangerous
Medium-Sized Towns, West Yorkshire
45% higher, regional crime rate
Yorkshire and The Humber
72% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Castleford is 45% higher than Yorkshire and The Humber and 72% higher than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Castleford Crime Rate Over Time
| Castleford | |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | |
| England, Wales & NI |
Castleford Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Castleford 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.
See How Castleford Compares
You can compare Castleford'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.
Introduction to Castleford's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Castleford up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Castleford's 1,084 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.
CrimeRate Insights
Looking into a specific address in Castleford? 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
Castleford • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Castleford has a crime risk score of 769. This is based on analysis of 1,084 nearby areas within Castleford, 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 Castleford's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Castleford, crime risk scores are typically around 769, while in West Yorkshire they are average 638.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 831 (666 for West Yorkshire), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 869 (West Yorkshire 702).
Trends in Crime Risk
Castleford
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.
No trend could be found in Castleford's crime risk scores over the last 10 years, and the trend may well be static.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Castleford's crime risk score is down by 6%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Over the last year, Castleford'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
Castleford
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
Castleford • 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.
Vehicle Crime offences have a crime rate of 10 reports per 1,000 people in Castleford, which is 2.33 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 491 crime reports logged by West Yorkshire Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, West Yorkshire Police recorded 2,679 reports of Violence and Sexual Offences in Castleford, resulting in a crime rate of 55 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.80.
The crime rate for Burglary is 1.79 times the national average at 5.59 reports per 1,000. This is from 273 crime reports reported to West Yorkshire Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Castleford
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.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.40 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 1.27 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 10% over this timeframe.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.80 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 0.67 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 19% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Castleford
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Shoplifting offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.36 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 3.12 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 56% over this timeframe.
Public Order offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.27 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 2.77 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 54% over this timeframe.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.33 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 0.15 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 120% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Castleford • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Castleford | West Yorkshire | Yorkshire and The Humber | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 692 | 14.13 | 1.00 | 28,357 | 10.30 | 0.73 | 77,875 | 12.35 | 0.87 |
| Bicycle Theft | 26 | 0.52 | 0.84 | 1,587 | 0.59 | 0.81 | 4,306 | 0.68 | 0.93 |
| Burglary | 273 | 5.59 | 1.79 | 14,188 | 5.18 | 1.65 | 27,843 | 4.41 | 1.41 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 432 | 8.81 | 1.40 | 20,740 | 7.54 | 1.20 | 47,570 | 7.55 | 1.20 |
| Drugs | 150 | 3.06 | 0.99 | 10,751 | 3.90 | 1.26 | 19,757 | 3.14 | 1.02 |
| Other Crime | 239 | 4.89 | 2.64 | 9,197 | 3.34 | 1.81 | 18,290 | 2.91 | 1.57 |
| Other Theft | 581 | 11.86 | 2.08 | 18,533 | 6.75 | 1.19 | 36,443 | 5.78 | 1.02 |
| Possession of Weapons | 44 | 0.88 | 1.13 | 2,561 | 0.93 | 1.09 | 5,827 | 0.93 | 1.09 |
| Public Order | 476 | 9.70 | 1.67 | 23,622 | 8.57 | 1.48 | 47,514 | 7.55 | 1.30 |
| Robbery | 65 | 1.30 | 1.10 | 3,718 | 1.35 | 1.14 | 7,156 | 1.13 | 0.96 |
| Shoplifting | 579 | 11.82 | 1.66 | 20,448 | 7.41 | 1.04 | 48,695 | 7.71 | 1.08 |
| Theft From the Person | 24 | 0.48 | 0.34 | 2,229 | 0.81 | 0.52 | 3,568 | 0.57 | 0.37 |
| Vehicle Crime | 491 | 10.03 | 2.33 | 15,694 | 5.69 | 1.32 | 30,637 | 4.87 | 1.13 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 2,679 | 54.69 | 1.80 | 122,302 | 44.42 | 1.46 | 239,898 | 38.04 | 1.25 |
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Total Crime by Year
Castleford | West Yorkshire | Yorkshire and The Humber | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 6,059 | 123.63 | 1.72 | 265,570 | 96.48 | 1.34 | 537,504 | 85.27 | 1.18 |
| 2025 | 6,457 | 132.10 | 1.79 | 277,491 | 101.23 | 1.37 | 553,826 | 88.44 | 1.19 |
| 2024 | 6,547 | 135.45 | 1.80 | 287,194 | 105.62 | 1.40 | 576,330 | 93.00 | 1.23 |
| 2023 | 7,891 | 166.34 | 2.11 | 312,915 | 116.19 | 1.47 | 611,034 | 99.55 | 1.26 |
| 2022 | 7,195 | 154.70 | 2.03 | 294,530 | 110.60 | 1.44 | 574,808 | 94.84 | 1.23 |
| 2021 | 5,416 | 118.34 | 1.73 | 250,751 | 94.53 | 1.38 | 501,180 | 83.02 | 1.21 |
| 2020 | 5,909 | 130.62 | 1.77 | 275,554 | 104.15 | 1.40 | 549,148 | 91.15 | 1.23 |
| 2019 | 6,431 | 143.92 | 1.89 | 287,851 | 109.31 | 1.43 | 568,297 | 94.66 | 1.24 |
| 2018 | 5,508 | 124.83 | 1.76 | 256,214 | 97.73 | 1.37 | 514,090 | 85.73 | 1.21 |
| 2017 | 4,386 | 100.89 | 1.59 | 226,333 | 86.57 | 1.35 | 456,998 | 76.46 | 1.20 |
| 2016 | 1,467 | 33.91 | 1.78 | 67,845 | 26.03 | 1.36 | 133,274 | 22.31 | 1.17 |
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Castleford Compared to Nearby Medium-Sized Towns
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
Comparing Castleford to the UK's Major Cities
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| City Name | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 36% safer |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 82.69 | 33% safer |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 32% safer |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 21% safer |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 15% safer |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 15% safer |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 14% safer |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 13% safer |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 13% safer |
| Castleford | 123.63 | - |
| Westminster | 125.00 | 1.1% 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 Castleford's Parks & Leisure Spaces
Limited to spaces in Castleford that are named and have had crimes recorded within their boundaries in the 12 months to Apr 2026.
| Name | ASB | Drugs | Public Order | Robbery | VSO | All Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Green | 51 | - | 6 | - | 25 | 36 |
| Betty's Garden | - | - | 1 | - | 21 | 9 |
| Castleford Rugby Union Football Ground | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 17 |
| King George's Field | 1 | 1 | 7 | - | 40 | 19 |
| Weetworth Allotments | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 17 |
| The Glasshoughton Centre | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 10 | 7 |
| Savile Park | 8 | 2 | 4 | - | 32 | 26 |
| Miner's Welfare Recreation Ground | 6 | - | 1 | - | 39 | 13 |
| Playground | 5 | - | 1 | - | 2 | 0 |
| Three Lane Ends Allotments | 5 | - | 1 | - | 2 | 0 |
| Lock Lane Sports Centre | 2 | 4 | 2 | - | 11 | 14 |
| Wheldon Road | 2 | - | - | - | 27 | 19 |
| Castleford Cemetery | 3 | 1 | - | - | 2 | 3 |
| Valley Gardens | 2 | - | 2 | - | 1 | 24 |
| Castleford High School Playing Field | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | 14 | 16 |
| Green Bowling Club | 11 | - | 1 | - | 17 | 11 |
| All Saints' Burial Ground | - | - | - | - | 3 | 2 |
Recent Crimes in Castleford
The 20 most recent crime reports in Castleford.
| Date | Crime Type | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Burglary | On or near Winnan Court | |
| April 2026 | Burglary | On or near Rhodes Street | |
| April 2026 | Burglary | On or near Brazil Street | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Queen'S Park Drive | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Smith Street | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Smith Street | |
| April 2026 | Other crime | On or near Toll Hill Drive | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near Bryan Close | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near Railway View | |
| April 2026 | Other theft | On or near Fulmar Road | |
| April 2026 | Public order | On or near Glebe Street | |
| April 2026 | Public order | On or near Kershaw Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Vehicle crime | On or near Bowness Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Smith Street | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Parking Area | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Smith Street | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Fulmar Road | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Winnan Court | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Barnsdale Estate | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Green Street |
Methodology & Data Sources
Castleford 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 Castleford during August 2026 will typically become available in October 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.
Castleford Data Points
For Castleford, CrimeRate uses the geographic boundaries provided by The Office for National Statistics in the December 2022 release of their Built Up Areas dataset, using the BUA22CD column value E63000910.
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 Castleford's daytime - or "workday" - population of 34,101 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 Castleford