Photo: Thesupermat · CC BY-SA 3.0Per resident, Brest records more burglary, vehicle theft and damage than 86% of compared French towns
Counting offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in Brest from 2023 to 2025, it grades D for safety: #57 of 59 in Finistère. Violence and property crime split as 10.9 violent crimes and 21.4 incidents of burglary, vehicle theft and damage per 1,000 residents a year. Of all the kinds of crime, armed robbery is where Brest departs most from towns its size: 0.2 per 1,000 against 0.1. The rate the grade counts held about level from 2023 to 2025.
Offenses recorded per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 average (INSEE population of each year). Violence, and burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and criminal damage, count equally.
What stands out about safety in Brest
Among towns its size
Among the 41 French towns of 99,600 to 192,200 people with a Safety Grade, Brest is 17th from the lowest recorded rate per resident. Towns its size ↓
Written from the SSMSI and INSEE data on this page. Figures are offenses police and gendarmerie recorded, not convictions.
Inside Brest’s D for safety
A fairly firm grade. Built on 13,809 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 142,346, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D and C−.
Hidden counts: every graded count is published for Brest.
Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.
Crime in Brest per 1,000 residents
Each dot is one resident’s share: offenses are counted, not victims, and one person can be the victim of several.
And 21 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 18 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
What police and gendarmerie recorded most in 2025
Well above the median of towns its size: armed robbery (0.2 per 1,000 against 0.1).
Theft without violence, robbery without a weapon, theft of vehicle parts, fraud and drug offenses are shown for information but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence plus burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and criminal damage per resident.
Per 1,000 residents in 2025; the tick is the median of the graded French towns of 50,000 or more.
Year by year, the graded rate held steady from 2023 to 2025
Violence · per 1,000 residents
Burglary, vehicle theft, damage · per 1,000 residents
| Kind | In the grade | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family violence | Violence | 584 | 518 | 590 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 616 | 621 | 657 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 315 | 323 | 368 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | 28 | 26 | 29 |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 404 | 311 | 400 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 308 | 471 | 312 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 504 | 404 | 538 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,994 | 1,835 | 1,653 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 1,828 | 1,602 | 1,602 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | 238 | 167 | 224 |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 214 | 181 | 157 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 953 | 834 | 942 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 438 | 462 | 561 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | 107 | 137 | 154 |
Counts mix units, as SSMSI publishes them: victims for violence, offenses for burglary and damage, vehicles for vehicle theft. That’s why the page never adds them into one “total crimes”.
Offenses recorded each year. n.p.: not published (small: five or fewer in at least one of the last three years).
Of 41 towns its size, Brest is 17th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boulogne-Billancourt Hauts-de-Seine | 119,019 | 5.3 | 15.3 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 14 | Paris 17e Paris | 159,212 | 7.7 | 22.9 | C− |
| 15 | Aix-en-Provence Bouches-du-Rhône | 149,695 | 8.2 | 23.5 | C− |
| 16 | Nîmes Gard | 151,839 | 11.3 | 20.9 | D |
| 17 | Brest Finistère | 142,346 | 10.9 | 21.4 | D |
| 18 | Toulon Var | 179,116 | 12 | 20.7 | D |
| 19 | Caen Calvados | 109,400 | 12.2 | 21 | D |
| 20 | Limoges Haute-Vienne | 129,937 | 10.8 | 22.5 | D |
| … | |||||
| 41 | Grenoble Isère | 156,140 | 13.7 | 50.3 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Brest with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Brest and up to four from Finistère.
Brest and the towns around it
Brest’s recorded rate in the graded categories is higher than each of its 6 graded neighbors’.
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 average.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Where offenses happen, not where victims live. SSMSI counts each offense in the commune where police or gendarmerie recorded it happening. Towns with shops, stations, a hospital or nightlife record more per resident, and visitors are part of that count but not of the population it is divided by.
- An index, not a total. The kinds are counted in different units (victims, offenses, vehicles), so the grade adds their rates per 1,000 residents into an index and never shows a “total crimes” or a chance of being a victim.
- Hidden counts. SSMSI doesn’t publish a commune’s count when it’s small (five or fewer in at least one of the last three years). In its place it gives the average among the département’s communes whose count is hidden; the grade uses that average, never zero, and a town gets no Safety Grade when over a quarter of its index would come from such averages.
- Recorded, not all crime. Only offenses reported to or found by police and gendarmerie are counted. Reporting rates differ by kind: most vehicle thefts are reported, much family and sexual violence isn’t.
Questions about safety in Brest
Is Brest safe?
It has more crime per resident than 86% of compared French towns: an average of 10.9 recorded violent incidents and 21.4 recorded burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. It grades D for safety, #57 of 59 in Finistère. Among the 41 French towns of 99,600 to 192,200 people, it is 17th from the lowest rate. With 85,350 jobs for 59,600 working residents, Brest draws people from neighboring communes, and crimes are counted in the commune where they happen, then divided by its number of residents.
Is crime going up in Brest?
The recorded rate in the graded categories held steady from 2023 to 2025: 33.4 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 31.9 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.
What is the most common recorded offense in Brest?
Criminal damage: 1,653 in 2025. Then theft without violence (1,602), fraud (942) and other physical violence (657).
Sources: SSMSI (Interior Ministry), recorded crime by commune, 2023–2025 (base communale de la délinquance enregistrée, 2026 edition) · INSEE, legal populations for each year · INSEE, census 2023 (jobs and working residents) · IGN Admin Express (boundaries) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranking French towns against each other only, updated November 4, 2026. Under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab).
Contains public sector information under the Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab): INSEE, DGFiP, the Interior Ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI), the Ministry of Education (DEPP), the Health Ministry’s statistics service (DREES) and the Housing Ministry (Carte des loyers). Commune boundaries: IGN Admin Express.