Handside
WardNorth west Welwyn Hatfield. About 6,987 people (mid-2024 estimate) in 3.6 square kilometres.
Radon Affected Area by ward
Worked out by Open Index · 2022
About 87% of people in Handside live in a 1 km square that the radon atlas marks as a radon Affected Area.
How Handside compares
Each dot is a ward. The black line marks the middle one.
Is Handside safe? What police records show
In the 12 months to August 2026, police recorded crimes and anti-social behaviour in Handside at a rate of 225.3 per 1,000 people.
That compares with 99.6 per 1,000 people across Welwyn Hatfield.
Across England as a whole, the recorded crime rate was 96.3 per 1,000 people.
In August 2026 alone, 136 cases of crime and anti-social behaviour were recorded in Handside.
In the 12 months to August 2026, the most common types were shoplifting (475), anti-social behaviour (460) and violence and sexual offences (305).
Worked out by Open Index from police.uk crime records and ONS and NISRA population estimates.
Rates are per resident, so places that many people work in or visit, such as Westminster, the City of London and other city centres, have far higher rates than their residents alone would suggest.
Figures for the whole of Welwyn Hatfield
These figures are published for the whole of Welwyn Hatfield, not for each ward, so they describe all of Welwyn Hatfield and not Handside alone. See Welwyn Hatfield
Handside in brief
Handside had 6,925 usual residents at the census.
About 87% of people in Handside live in a 1 km square that the radon atlas marks as a radon Affected Area.
In Handside, 87.0% of homes and businesses could get gigabit-capable broadband in January 2026.
In Handside, 2.1% of residents aged 16 to 64 were claiming out-of-work benefits in August 2026.