Towns and cities were ranked to create a national crime listBig waves in Blackpool. The North West is set to be hit by severe weather, the Met Office saidBlackpool has been named the most dangerous part of England.(Image: PA)

A seaside town popular with families in the West Midlands has been named as the most violent place in the country.

Towns and cities were ranked on a national crime list based on how many serious crimes happen there.

Areas were given ‘crime severity scores’, with more weight placed on the most serious types of offending such as murder and rape.

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Blackpool was named as the most dangerous place in England according to this metric.

The seaside resort suffered the highest levels of violent crimes and sexual offences of any council area in the country, including central London.

More than two-thirds of its overall severity score of 31.7 was made up by these types of serious crime.

The holiday town has been popular with Midlanders for decades and is among the busiest seaside resorts in the UK.

The most dangerous place in our region, according to the data, is Birmingham.

It was listed sixth on the national list out of over 300 areas, with a crime severity score of 27.3. The England and Wales national average is 16.3.

Nottingham was the only other Midlands area to make the top 20, in 19th place.

After Blackpool, Middlesbrough was next nationally with a score of 29.9, also mainly due to high levels of violence and sexual offending.

At the other end of the scale, Wiltshire was the safest place to live with the lowest crime severity score of just 6.0.

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