With a medium crime rating, Welwyn Hatfield stands 13th among 25 comparable boroughs in crime rate. The year 2023 saw the reporting of 11,854 criminal incidents, against a backdrop of a population of 119,837, translating to a crime rate of 98.92 per 1,000 inhabitants, reflecting a 2.07% uptick from the prior year.
The primary crime categories in Welwyn Hatfield include Violence and sexual offences (29.0%), Anti-social behaviour (26.4%), and Other theft (8.2%), with Theft from the person (1.2%), Robbery (0.9%), and Possession of weapons (0.8%) occurring less frequently.
Among its 16 wards, those with the highest crime rates are Hatfield Central (202.7), Handside (199.1), and Peartree (158.4), whereas the safest wards include Welwyn West (59.3), Welwyn East (48.3), and Northaw and Cuffley (47.0).
When assessing postcode districts, AL8 (133.9), AL10 (116.0), and EN2 (114.0) report the highest crime rates, in contrast, the safest are AL4 (49.8), AL6 (45.8), and SG4 (43.8).
In Welwyn Hatfield, Anti-social behaviour saw an increase of 3.41% in 2020, followed by a decrease of 4.18% in 2021. The year 2022 witnessed a rise in Other theft by 2.26%. Meanwhile, Vehicle crime experienced a decline of 2.08% in 2020.