Three Greater Manchester boroughs named among most dangerous places in the UK

Three Greater Manchester boroughs have been named among the top 10 most dangerous city centres in the UK.

Salford was named the second most dangerous place in the country, followed by Bolton in third and Wigan in sixth, according to data from the Office for National Statistics, analysed by jobs and training marketplace Get Licensed.

They looked at the total number of crimes recorded in each area between June 2021 and June 2022 and then, using population figures, worked out the number of crimes per 1,000 people. They also looked at specific crimes including violence against a person, sexual offences, robbery, theft, drug offences, possession of weapons and criminal damage and arson.

The City of London was ranked as the most dangerous place to live with 773 recorded crimes per 1,000 people. Looking at the total overall number of reported crimes, City of London actually has one of the lower figures at 6,632, compared to Salford’s 32,767, Bolton’s 36,775 and Wigan’s 37,178. However, the City of London, not to be confused with Greater London, has a much smaller population than the others.

Although Salford ranked second with 450, it had the highest figures in several of the crime categories. It took the top spot when it came to cases of violence against the person (173.5 per 1,000 people), criminal damage and arson (43) and possession of weapons (6.7).

Bolton closely followed as the third most dangerous place with 260 crimes reported per 1,000 people. While it may not have ranked as worst in any of the individual crime categories, it did have particularly high levels of violence against a person, theft and public order offences.

Wigan came in sixth, separated from its fellow Greater Manchester boroughs by two West Yorkshire city centres, Bradford and Leeds, which came fourth and fifth respectively. It recorded 212 crimes per 1,000 people during the reporting period. While it did not have the highest levels in any of the individual crimes categories, it does have a slightly higher rate of criminal damage and arson offences than Bolton with 24.2 offences reported per 1,000 people.

Northern cities dominated the list of most dangerous city centres, while the south ranked among the safest. According to the ONS data analysed by Get Licensed, Reading is the safest place to live in the country with just 56 reported offences per 1,000 people, followed by Swansea with 60 and Newport with 61. In fact, no northern cities featured on the top ten safest list at all.

Greater Manchester Police have been contacted about the public safety concerns highlighted in this data but are yet to comment.