Two Welsh university locations named among UK’s safest for students

Nation.Cymru staff

Two places in Wales have been named among the safest in the UK for students during the Freshers period.

Bangor was ranked eighth safest overall, while Aberystwyth took 10th place in a league table comparing crime levels in 47 university destinations across the UK.

Bangor recorded 363 crimes during September and October 2025, equivalent to around 346 offences per 10,000 students. The figures included 136 violent offences and 60 incidents of antisocial behaviour.

The city received an overall safety score of 79.6 out of 100, making it the highest-ranked Welsh university destination.

Aberystwyth was close behind with a score of 75.5.

It recorded 326 crimes during the same two-month period – fewer than Bangor – but its smaller student population meant the rate was higher at around 416 offences per 10,000 students.

There were 136 violent offences and 33 incidents of antisocial behaviour recorded in Aberystwyth.

Further down the table, Swansea was ranked 15th, with a safety score of 65.9 and 1,140 crimes recorded during September and October, equivalent to around 511 per 10,000 students.

Cardiff was 25th, recording 2,528 crimes and a rate of around 744 per 10,000 students.

At the other end of the rankings, Wrexham was the lowest-placed Welsh city, coming 42nd with a safety score of 17.2.

It recorded 1,067 crimes over the two months. Although that was lower in raw numbers than any of the other cities in the UK bottom 10, its smaller student population resulted in a rate of around 1,246 crimes per 10,000 students.

The figures come from research by ID Card Centre, which analysed recorded crime in university destinations during September and October 2025, covering the main Freshers and welcome period.

For cities in Wales, England and Northern Ireland, researchers used police.uk crime data within a fixed 1.5km city-centre area and compared it with student enrolment figures.

The overall safety score gave a 60% weighting to total crime per 10,000 students, 25% to violent crime and 15% to antisocial behaviour. Student numbers were taken from 2024/25 HESA enrolment data.

St Andrews in Scotland topped the UK table, with 120 crimes during the two-month period and a rate of 103 per 10,000 students.

Dundee and Stirling completed the top three, while Derry/Londonderry was fourth.

Ben O’Brien, managing director at ID Card Centre, said the results showed how different the Freshers experience could be depending on where students went to university.

He said: “The places at the top are mostly smaller student cities, while quite a few of the big nightlife destinations sit much further down.

“That probably isn’t a coincidence. Somewhere like St Andrews has a very different city centre to London, Bristol or Newcastle. There are fewer people passing through, less late-night footfall and generally less going on in a much smaller area.”

Crime victim

He added that the figures should not be interpreted as showing an individual student’s likelihood of becoming a victim of crime.

“None of this means students should choose a university based on a crime table, and being lower down certainly doesn’t mean you’re going to have a bad or unsafe experience there,” he said.

“These are busy city-centre areas and the figures cover everyone using them, not just students.”

The researchers also cautioned that recorded crime reflects reporting and policing patterns as well as the number of people using an area.

Scottish crime data was compiled differently, meaning close comparisons between Scottish cities and those elsewhere in the UK should be treated with caution.

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