YORK has been labelled more crime-ridden than Birmingham in a new study.

Think tank Reform ranked urban areas with populations of more than 100,000 using data from police on burglary, murder, rape, robbery, car and gun crime.

It rated places according to the number of crimes per head of the population.

York was placed 42nd in the overall crime comparison - above Birmingham, in 49th place.

It came seventeenth out of the 57 towns and cities for burglary, with 2,742 burglaries in 2005.

It was 24th for vehicle crime, with 2,988 vehicle crimes, but it was also named the place where you are least likely to be assaulted, with 703 assaults.

The city was also placed 47th for rape, 49th for gun crime, 50th for robbery and 51st for murder.

The independent think tank's researchers used the data to come up with an overall crime level per 1,000 residents for each area.

Nottingham was found to be the most dangerous city to live in, followed by Leeds, Stockport, Greater Manchester, and Bradford.

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said they were unable to comment because they were still waiting for the validity of the figures to be assessed.

The Press revealed last month how recorded crime fell by one per cent in York between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006.

Domestic burglaries dropped by three per cent, but non-domestic burglaries went up by six per cent.

Vehicle crime rose by 12.2 per cent, but violent crime dropped by 5.1 per cent.

Updated: 09:49 Wednesday, May 24, 2006