Data: police.uk neighbourhood data, September 2025 to August 2026 (latest month published); CrimeRate.co.uk, 12 months to April 2026; ONS Census 2021 · Updated 8 October 2026
The safest areas in Cardiff on the latest police data are the northern suburbs: Cyncoed recorded 451 crimes and Llandaff 468 in the 12 months to August 2026, against 5,534 in Castle (the city centre) and 7,287 in Cathays. These are police.uk neighbourhood counts, including anti-social behaviour. Across the whole city, Cardiff’s crime rate is 79.55 crimes per 1,000 people (CrimeRate, 12 months to April 2026).
Overview: for the city-wide crime rate, the trend and whether Cardiff is safe overall, see is Cardiff safe? What the police data says. This page focuses on the safest and least safe neighbourhoods.
Key figures
- Cardiff crime rate: 79.55 per 1,000 people, 34,910 crimes excluding anti-social behaviour, down 6.5% from 37,325 the year before (CrimeRate, 12 months to April 2026).
- Per resident: about 96 crimes per 1,000 residents, using the ONS Census 2021 population of 362,400 (our calculation).
- Quietest neighbourhoods we checked: Cyncoed 451 and Llandaff 468 crimes, September 2025 to August 2026 (police.uk).
- Busiest: Cathays 7,287 and Castle 5,534 — Castle alone records about 12 times as many crimes as Cyncoed.
- Most common crime: violence and sexual offences, 12,453 or 35.7% of Cardiff’s recorded crime.
CrimeRate’s ward-level analysis of South Wales Police, already used for the force’s overall rate in our general Cardiff post, goes a level deeper than city vs city: it names Castle — the Cardiff Castle and city-centre ward — as the single highest-crime location anywhere in the force area, and Cyncoed, a leafy Cardiff suburb, as one of its three safest. Both are Cardiff wards, so this is a genuine within-city comparison, not just Cardiff vs Swansea.
What one month actually showed
Each figure is every recorded crime within a small area (roughly 200–300 metres across, kept small enough to stay well under the police API’s 500-record cap) around one representative postcode, for July 2026, counted by hand from the raw data. Cardiff centre and City Road are the same verified samples already published in our general Cardiff post; Cyncoed is new.
Cyncoed
Llandaff
City Road (Roath)
Cardiff centre (Castle ward)
Where the reputation and the sample agree — and where they don’t
This is one of the cleaner matches we’ve found in this series. Castle ward — officially more than six times Cyncoed’s crime index over a full year — produced 28 incidents in a month against Cyncoed’s single incident, the same gap in direction the long-run figures describe. Cyncoed’s one incident also landed on exactly the same count as Llandaff, a different Cardiff suburb entirely: two quiet, leafy, mostly residential areas a few miles apart producing an identical one-month number, which is what you’d expect from two places that are both genuinely low-activity, not a coincidence needing explanation the way some ties elsewhere in this series have been. City Road sits in between, closer to Castle’s end of the scale than to the two suburbs — consistent with it being a dedicated nightlife strip rather than a residential ward.
See it for yourself
These open live with both postcodes already loaded, using twelve months of data rather than the single month above:
- Cyncoed vs Cardiff centre — the force’s named-safest and named-highest-crime wards, head to head.
- Cyncoed vs Llandaff — two quiet suburbs that tied in our one-month sample.
- Cyncoed vs City Road — the safest ward against Roath’s nightlife strip.
What is the Cardiff crime rate?
Cardiff’s crime rate is 79.55 recorded crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026, according to CrimeRate’s analysis of South Wales Police data: 34,910 crimes, not counting 4,879 anti-social behaviour reports. That is roughly 17 per cent above England’s rate of about 68 per 1,000, and 6.5 per cent fewer crimes than the previous year’s 37,325.
CrimeRate divides by a daytime population, which flatters a city that draws in commuters and shoppers. Dividing the same 34,910 crimes by Cardiff’s 362,400 residents (ONS Census 2021) gives about 96 per 1,000 residents. CrimeRate also puts Cardiff about 9 per cent above the South Glamorgan rate of 73. The mix of crime matters more than the headline:
| Crime type (Cardiff, 12 months to April 2026) | Crimes | Share | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violence and sexual offences | 12,453 | 35.7% | 28.37 |
| Shoplifting | 4,917 | 14.1% | 11.20 |
| Public order | 4,143 | 11.9% | 9.45 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 3,006 | 8.6% | 6.84 |
| Vehicle crime | 2,875 | 8.2% | 6.54 |
| Other theft | 2,224 | 6.4% | 5.06 |
| Burglary | 1,222 | 3.5% | 2.79 |
| Drugs | 1,139 | 3.3% | 2.59 |
| Other categories (other crime, bicycle theft, robbery, weapons, theft from the person) | 2,931 | 8.4% | – |
| Total, excluding anti-social behaviour | 34,910 | 100% | 79.55 |
Source: CrimeRate.co.uk, Cardiff (South Wales Police data via data.police.uk). Shares are our calculation. Theft from the person is unusually rare at 325 crimes (0.9%), and burglary — the crime that most affects where people live — is only 3.5%.
Which Cardiff neighbourhoods report the most and least crime?
Of the six Cardiff neighbourhoods we checked on police.uk for September 2025 to August 2026, Cathays reported the most crime (7,287) and Castle, the city centre, the second most (5,534). Cyncoed (451) and Llandaff (468) reported the least. Counts include anti-social behaviour and are not adjusted for population or footfall.
| Neighbourhood (police.uk, South Wales Police) | Crimes, Sep 2025 – Aug 2026 | August 2026 | Top categories, August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cathays | 7,287 | 763 | Violence 239, shoplifting 174, ASB 92 |
| Castle (city centre) | 5,534 | 516 | Violence 165, ASB 85, shoplifting 73 |
| Adamsdown | 2,948 | 310 | – |
| Splott | 1,752 | 179 | – |
| Llandaff | 468 | 45 | ASB 10, vehicle crime 9, violence 7 |
| Cyncoed | 451 | 42 | Violence 10, ASB 9, vehicle crime 7 |
Source: police.uk neighbourhood pages, monthly totals summed by us. Police neighbourhood boundaries are not the same as council wards, so these totals will not match ward figures elsewhere on this site.
Two patterns stand out in our count. First, crime in the busy neighbourhoods climbed through 2026: Cathays went from 460 crimes in January to 763 in August (+66%), and the six neighbourhoods together went from 1,244 in February to 1,891 in July (+52%). Second, the quiet suburbs swing a lot in relative terms because their numbers are small — Cyncoed ranged from 19 crimes in December 2025 to 63 in July 2026 — so one month on its own says little. A high count in Castle or Cathays mostly reflects how many people shop, work, study and go out there, not a higher risk to the people who live there.
Is Cyncoed the safest area in Cardiff?
Cyncoed is one of the quietest areas in Cardiff on police data: police.uk recorded 451 crimes there in the 12 months to August 2026, about 38 a month, with violence and sexual offences the most common category in August 2026 (10 of 42). Llandaff was almost identical at 468. Both are under a tenth of Castle’s 5,534.
How do I check a Cardiff street on the crime map?
- Enter a Cardiff postcode in our address checker. It counts police-recorded crime within about one mile over the last 12 months, by category.
- Compare two postcodes side by side — the links in “See it for yourself” above open Cyncoed against the city centre, Llandaff and City Road.
- Open the UK crime map to see where individual crimes were mapped street by street.
- For month-by-month totals, open the neighbourhood page for that area on police.uk (South Wales Police).
- Read the result as a count of reports near anonymised map points, not an exact address history (see below).
Safety App UK shows this police data on a live map, plans safer walking routes and sends SOS to your trusted circle. It is not a police service: in an emergency, call 999, and for non-emergencies 101.
What doesn’t the Cardiff crime map show?
The latest month on data.police.uk is August 2026, so the map always runs one to two months behind. Crime locations are moved to the nearest anonymous map point, so a street can show crimes that happened nearby. British Transport Police, which covers railway stations such as Cardiff Central, did not provide crime data for August 2026 (data.police.uk changelog). Unreported crime is missing altogether. More on this in where our crime data comes from.
The limits of this data
This is recorded crime — what was reported and logged, not everything that happened — from one month, in small areas chosen to stay well under the police API’s reporting cap. It is not a verdict on any of these wards or the people who live there. For the full picture, see is Cardiff safe?, our Cardiff post, the police force crime rate ranking, or our breakdown of specifically violent crime across these same four wards. Every one of Cardiff’s 28 wards, measured the same way, is in our full ward-by-ward breakdown. And as always: none of this replaces calling 999 in an emergency.
Frequently asked questions
What are the safest areas in Cardiff?
On police.uk data for September 2025 to August 2026, the quietest Cardiff neighbourhoods we checked were Cyncoed (451 crimes) and Llandaff (468). CrimeRate’s ward analysis also names Cyncoed among South Wales Police’s three safest wards. Use the address checker to test any other Cardiff postcode.
What is the crime rate in Cardiff?
79.55 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026 (CrimeRate): 34,910 crimes excluding anti-social behaviour, down 6.5% on the year before. Per resident (Census 2021, 362,400) it is about 96 per 1,000.
Is Cardiff city centre safe?
The Castle neighbourhood, which covers the city centre, recorded 5,534 crimes in the 12 months to August 2026, with violence (165) and anti-social behaviour (85) the top categories in August. Most of this is linked to shopping and the night-time economy, where huge numbers of visitors pass through.
Which area of Cardiff has the most crime?
Of the neighbourhoods we checked, Cathays had the highest count: 7,287 crimes in the 12 months to August 2026, rising from 460 in January to 763 in August. Counts are not adjusted for population, so busy areas look higher.
Is Cardiff safe compared with the rest of the UK?
Cardiff’s 79.55 per 1,000 is roughly 17% above England’s rate of about 68. For the full city answer, see is Cardiff safe? and the UK crime map.