Safest Places in North East England

North East England is home to almost 3 million people living in Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear and the Tees Valley. With safety at the forefront these days, the ValuePenguin team analysed the most recent data from police.uk through the UKCrimeStats website to find the safest places in North East England.

The 52 post towns considered in this study have minimum populations of 3,000 residents. The resulting crime scores range from 688 to 4,321 (with a lower score indicating less crime), taking into account both violent crime and property crime adjusted for population size.

For more information about how we calculated the crime scores, please read the Methodology section below.

5 Safest Places in North East England

The safest five post towns in the North East have an average crime score of 1,078, which is 59% lower than other towns in the area. Northumberland County dominated the list with four of the five safest places as did small towns, as you might expect.

1. Stocksfield

With a population of only around 5,000, the Stocksfield post town in Northumberland is the safest in the North East with an overall crime score of 688. Of particular note, NE43 has the lowest property crime rate with a score of 706, a whopping 79% lower than average across the North East. Average income levels hover around £44,000.

2. Corbridge

The Corbridge postcode district NE45 is home to just 4,000 people including the villages of Corbridge, Dilston, Aydon and Halton and comes second in overall safety with an overall crime score of 923. Corbridge's violent crime score is particularly impressive, ranking first with a score of only 620, 74% lower than the North East average.

The site of the most northerly Roman town, household income levels in this relatively affluent area fall just north of £44,000, the highest of this top five group.

3. Barnard Castle

Located in County Durham, the Barnard Castle post town DL12 is home to over 12,000 people, incorporating Barnard Castle, Bowes and Middleton-in-Teesdale. Barnard Castle’s overall crime score of 1,182 ranks it as the 3rd safest post town in the North East. Barnard Castle is the only post town outside of Northumberland in the top five.

Local policing priorities center around speeding vehicles in this safe place. Home to Barnard Castle and the Bowes Museum, average household income in the area is a bit lower than other top-five towns, just over £31,000 per year.

4. Haltwhistle

The Haltwhistle post town of NE49 is home to just 4,000 residents or so, and includes the small village of Melkridge. An overall crime score of 1,263 ranks Haltwhistle a solid 4th in terms of safest places in the North East. With the police station closing last year, officers now work out of the town's fire station. Average household incomes come close to £33,000 per year.

5. Hexham

Located just 5 miles west of Corbridge, Hexham is the largest post town to make the top five safest places in the north east. Home to almost 30,000 people, the Hexham post town includes NE46, NE47 and NE48, covering Hexham, Anick, Acomb, Allendale Town, Allenheads, Haydon Bridge, Bardon Mill, Bellingham, Wark, Hexhamshire, Falstone and Kielder. Residents of these many villages enjoy an overall crime score of 1,334. It is a reasonably affluent area with average household incomes over £39,000.

Population Breakdown

Despite the fact that we adjust our crime scores for populations, it can still be difficult to compare a small village to a large town or city. You’ll notice that the largest post town in our top five safest places in North East England has a population of only 30,000 people. To account for this, we separated the post towns into three categories by population size: small post towns with between 3,000 and 20,000 residents, midsize post towns with between 20,000 and 50,000 residents and large post towns with over 50,000 residents. Here are our findings:

Safest Places in the North East of England, according to Town Size

Full List of Places in North East England

Here you can find all 52 North East England post towns that we included in our "Safest Places in North East England" study (reflecting post towns with populations over 3,000). We've listed the towns here, from the most safe to the least safe according to our research. The crime score calculation methodology can be found below.