Crime in Belfast: Live PSNI Data
Live crime figures for Belfast town centre, updated monthly from official PSNI data. See what was recorded within a mile of the centre, the 12-month trend, an incident map, the official 10-year picture for the council area and how Belfast compares with other Northern Ireland towns. Check your own street with the postcode search below.
Latest published month of official PSNI data: August 2026.
Belfast, the full report
Recorded incidents within 1 mile of Belfast town centre. Latest published month: August 2026.
Latest month
1,696August 2026
12 reported months
17,807September 2025 to August 2026
Same month last year
+3081,388 to 1,696 incidents, 22% higher. August 2025 to August 2026.
These are recorded incident counts, not population-adjusted rates or a prediction of an individual property’s risk.
About these figures
In August 2026, PSNI recorded 1,696 crimes within 1 mile of Belfast centre (Belfast district), 22% higher than the same month last year. Over the last 12 reported months the same measure totals 17,807 incidents.
Source: Police Service of Northern Ireland via data.police.uk (UK Police API), data to August 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Locations are anonymised map points; a small number of crimes without usable locations are excluded. Figures describe a fixed 1-mile radius around the town centre, not council or town boundaries, see our methodology.
The postcode search above uses its own selected location and period. Choose a period, then press Search. It does not change the fixed town report below.
What was recorded?
Crime Breakdown
Categories reported in August 2026. Security-relevant categories, the ones the right CCTV, alarm and access control can help with, are highlighted.
Gold edge = security-relevant. Muted bars are categories a physical security system rarely affects.
Source: Police Service of Northern Ireland via data.police.uk (UK Police API), data to August 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Locations are anonymised map points; a small number of crimes without usable locations are excluded. Figures describe a fixed 1-mile radius around the town centre, not council or town boundaries, see our methodology.
Is the picture changing?
The last 12 reported months, using the same 1-mile town-centre measure.
12-month trend for Belfast
All crime Security-related · 1-mile radius of Belfast centre
Within 1 mile of Belfast town centre. September 2025 to August 2026. Source: PSNI via data.police.uk. Methodology.
View all monthly figures
| Month | All crime (1-mile radius) | Security-related* |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 1,696 | 822 |
| Jul 2026 | 1,580 | 779 |
| Jun 2026 | 1,604 | 792 |
| May 2026 | 1,586 | 726 |
| Apr 2026 | 1,400 | 646 |
| Mar 2026 | 1,596 | 752 |
| Feb 2026 | 1,350 | 676 |
| Jan 2026 | 1,179 | 554 |
| Dec 2025 | 1,477 | 731 |
| Nov 2025 | 1,412 | 748 |
| Oct 2025 | 1,618 | 764 |
| Sep 2025 | 1,309 | 627 |
*Security-related groups the categories a physical security system can influence: burglary, vehicle crime, robbery, theft from the person, other theft, criminal damage & arson, possession of weapons, and violence & sexual offences.
Explore trends by crime type
Compare crime types, last 12 months
Tick a category to add its line. Counts are incidents within 1 mile of the town centre per month, PSNI data.
Within 1 mile of Belfast town centre. September 2025 to August 2026. Source: PSNI via data.police.uk. Methodology.
Explore recorded locations
Incident map, August 2026. Within 1 mile of Belfast town centre.
View most-reported locations
Most-reported locations, August 2026
- Botanic Avenue76
- Stanley Street48
- High Street41
- Donegall Place38
- Castle Street30
Counts of PSNI's anonymised "on or near" map points, which group nearby incidents to protect privacy. High counts often reflect busy public places rather than dangerous streets.
Within 1 mile of Belfast town centre. August 2026. Source: PSNI via data.police.uk. Methodology.
How does Belfast compare?
Compare recorded incident counts in equally sized town-centre search areas.
Compare two towns (August 2026, same 1-mile centre measure)
Belfast
- Anti-Social Behaviour 504
- Violence & Sexual Offences 499
- Shoplifting 161
- Drugs 157
Lisburn
- Anti-Social Behaviour 86
- Violence & Sexual Offences 75
- Criminal Damage & Arson 25
- Other Theft 12
Both figures use the identical 1-mile town-centre measure, so this comparison is like-for-like. Bigger towns naturally record more incidents.
This monthly figure places it among the HIGHER third of the 51 Northern Ireland towns with published data for that month, on the same one mile measure.
These are counts within 1-mile circles, not population-adjusted crime rates or a ranking of personal safety.
Same 1-mile centre measure for each selected town. August 2026. Source: PSNI via data.police.uk. Methodology.
The longer-term picture
Annual figures use whole-town electoral wards and the wider council area. They are separate from the monthly 1-mile report above.
The whole of Belfast: the official record
Across all of Belfast (15 electoral wards, not just the town centre), police recorded 12,719 crimes in 2025/26, down 2.6% on 2024/25 and down 11.0% compared with 2015/16.
Whole-town figures sum the official police recorded crime tables for the electoral wards covering Belfast, published by NISRA. The council-area picture below gives the wider context.
View wider council context: Belfast
Police recorded 30,994 crimes in Belfast in 2025/26, down 3.8% on 2024/25 and down 13.2% compared with 2015/16. That is 33.1% of all crime recorded in Northern Ireland that year.
| Offence group | 2025/26 | vs 2024/25 | vs 5 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burglary residential | 615 | -11.5% | -46.9% |
| Burglary business & community | 210 | -34.4% | -29.5% |
| Vehicle offences | 797 | -22.9% | -7.2% |
| Robbery | 338 | +45.7% | +36.3% |
| Criminal damage | 4,031 | -8.8% | -18.7% |
Anti-social behaviour
13,934 incidents in Belfast in 2025/26, down 1.4% on 2024/25.
The annual council series uses burglary, vehicle offences, robbery and criminal damage groupings. The monthly town-centre security-related subtotal uses a broader set of categories. These definitions differ, so do not compare the two subtotals as the same measure.
Financial-year totals of crimes recorded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, published on the NISRA data portal. Recorded crime counts depend on reporting and recording practice and the offence classification changed in 2017/18, so long-run comparisons are indicative. Contains public sector information from NISRA and PSNI licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How safe do residents say they feel?
How safe do people say they feel?
Residents of Belfast surveyed in 2023/24 by the Northern Ireland Safe Community Telephone Survey:
above the NI average of 8%
in line with the NI average
Worry and reality often differ: compare these figures with the recorded trend above. Survey moved to telephone interviewing in 2020/21, so comparisons with earlier years are indicative.
Financial-year totals of crimes recorded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, published on the NISRA data portal. Recorded crime counts depend on reporting and recording practice and the offence classification changed in 2017/18, so long-run comparisons are indicative. Contains public sector information from NISRA and PSNI licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Your local policing team
This area is covered by the PSNI Lisburn Road neighbourhood policing team. Telephone 101 · BelfastCity@psni.pnn.police.uk · psni.police.uk. In an emergency always call 999; use 101 for non-emergencies.
Crime data for Belfast, your questions
Sources, geography and limitations
Source: Police Service of Northern Ireland via data.police.uk (UK Police API), data to August 2026. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Locations are anonymised map points; a small number of crimes without usable locations are excluded. Figures describe a fixed 1-mile radius around the town centre, not council or town boundaries, see our methodology.
Whole-town figures sum the official police recorded crime tables for the electoral wards covering Belfast, published by NISRA. Council figures cover the whole council area. Both are financial-year totals, separate from the monthly 1-mile measure.
The annual council series uses burglary, vehicle offences, robbery and criminal damage groupings. The monthly town-centre security-related subtotal uses a broader set of categories. These definitions differ, so do not compare the two subtotals as the same measure.
What is the difference between the Belfast centre figure and the whole-town figure?
Scale and source. The centre figure, 1,696 crimes in August 2026, is our one-mile radius count built from the PSNI open data. The whole-town record on this page, 12,719 crimes across Belfast in 2025/26, is the official series covering all 15 electoral wards. The first tells you about the town centre in one month, the second about the whole town across a financial year. The methodology explains why we never blend them.
How should I read the burglary figure for Belfast?
It is worth reading in proportion. Burglary was 23 of the 1,696 crimes recorded inside the one-mile circle that month, and 822 of them fell in the security-related group as a whole. Burglary is the category a monitored intruder alarm and a camera covering the approach are built for, so a small number does not make an alarm pointless. It makes the design question a practical one: which doors, which approach, and what happens when the alarm activates. Our survey looks at the property rather than the statistic.
How should I read the year on year change near Belfast?
Start with the boundary rather than the shopping list. The one-mile count for Belfast reached 1,696 crimes in August 2026, 22% higher than the same month a year earlier, with 17,807 across the twelve reported months. A single month is a small sample and it moves about, so the sensible first step is to look at how someone would actually reach your doors, what is visible from the road and where a camera would give a usable image at night. Our engineers cover the whole of Northern Ireland, and the survey is free. Our CCTV Installation Belfast page covers what that looks like locally.
Discuss security systems for your property
A survey considers your premises, access and existing systems. Local crime figures provide context; they do not decide what your property needs.