Huge spike in offensive and racist graffiti as city's worst areas named

Hundreds of reports of offensive graffiti have been received by Sunderland City Council in recent years, along with a recent spike in reports about “racist graffiti”, new figures have revealed.

- by Chris Binding

Data obtained via a Freedom of Information request has revealed the scale of the issue on Wearside, with around 3,112 reports of graffiti and flyposting since 2020-21.

FOI data covers the last five full financial years and the current financial year (2025-26), specifically the period from April 1, 2025, to the end of October, 2025.

Of the 3,112 graffiti reports to the council over the period, around 889 graffiti reports were classed as “offensive” and around 184 reports were classed as “racist”, with 153 reports of offensive graffiti and more than 65 reports of racist graffiti recorded this financial year (2025-26) up to October 30, 2025.

When comparing full-year data from 2024-25 to partial-year data from 2025-26 (the seven months up to October 30), racist graffiti reports have more than doubled, with a jump from 32 reports to 68 reports.