Photo: Fagairolles 34 · CC BY-SA 4.0Few compared French towns record more crime per resident than Palavas-les-Flots
That puts it at D− for safety, judged on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in Palavas-les-Flots from 2023 to 2025. With 647 cases in 2025, drug use reaches 105.5 per 1,000 residents in the town, well above the typical 1.2. The rate the grade counts dropped 13% from 2023 to 2025. For every 1,000 residents, 16.2 violent crimes and 34.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle theft and damage were logged a year.
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’s behind Palavas-les-Flots’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 939 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 6,133, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D− and D−.
Hidden counts: for armed robbery, this figure isn’t published when it’s small (five or fewer in at least one of the last three years); the index uses the département’s average instead, 0.2% of the index here. What isn’t published ↓
Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.
What police and gendarmerie recorded most in 2025
Well above the median of towns its size: drug use (105.5 per 1,000 against 1.2), theft without violence (32.8 per 1,000 against 4.2) and theft of vehicle parts (2.9 per 1,000 against 0.4). Not published for 2025: armed robbery, robbery without a weapon and drug dealing.
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 2,500 to 10,000.
1,294th of 1,306: Palavas-les-Flots among towns its size
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mouguerre Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 5,428 | 0.8 | 5.5 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 21 | Teyran Hérault | 4,787 | 3.7 | 5.3 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 61 | Saint-Mathieu-de-Tréviers Hérault | 4,979 | 2.8 | 7.9 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 194 | Clapiers Hérault | 6,006 | 2.6 | 10.8 | A |
| … | |||||
| 280 | Prades-le-Lez Hérault | 6,184 | 3.9 | 11 | A− |
| … | |||||
| 1291 | Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise Pas-de-Calais | 4,677 | 28.1 | 20.1 | D− |
| 1292 | Ambilly Haute-Savoie | 6,355 | 9.7 | 39.1 | D− |
| 1293 | Hesdin-la-Forêt Pas-de-Calais | 4,480 | 26 | 23.5 | D− |
| 1294 | Palavas-les-Flots Hérault | 6,133 | 16.2 | 34.9 | D− |
| 1295 | Guingamp Côtes-d'Armor | 7,111 | 20 | 31.6 | D− |
| 1296 | La Réole Gironde | 4,487 | 21.2 | 30.7 | D− |
| 1297 | Gruissan Aude | 5,032 | 13.4 | 38.5 | D− |
| … | |||||
| 1306 | Rungis Val-de-Marne | 5,611 | 19.3 | 44.6 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Palavas-les-Flots with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Palavas-les-Flots and up to four from Hérault.
Crime in Palavas-les-Flots 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 35 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 49 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
Palavas-les-Flots, year by year
Violence · per 1,000 residents
Burglary, vehicle theft, damage · per 1,000 residents
| Kind | In the grade | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family violence | Violence | 50 | 32 | 39 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 38 | 34 | 48 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 20 | 15 | 20 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | n.p. | 0 | n.p. |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 52 | 43 | 37 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 26 | 32 | 23 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 45 | 32 | 36 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 109 | 114 | 94 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 260 | 224 | 201 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 11 | 25 | 18 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 61 | 66 | 86 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 517 | 652 | 647 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. |
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).
Palavas-les-Flots and the towns around it
| Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palavas-les-Flots | 6,133 | 16.2 | 34.9 | D− |
| Pérols | 9,615 | 6.5 | 22.6 | C− |
| Lattes | 17,351 | 8.1 | 29.4 | D |
| Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone | 10,872 | 11.6 | 15.7 | C |
| Mauguio | 16,522 | 7.1 | 28.2 | D |
| Saint-Jean-de-Védas | 13,328 | 9.2 | 28.4 | D |
| Montpellier | 310,240 | 9.4 | 30.9 | D |
Palavas-les-Flots’ 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 Palavas-les-Flots
Is Palavas-les-Flots safe?
It has more crime per resident than 99% of compared French towns: an average of 16.2 recorded violent incidents and 34.9 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.
Is crime going up in Palavas-les-Flots?
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 13% from 2023 to 2025: 55.6 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 48.6 in 2025. In a town this size a few dozen cases move the figure, so the grade uses the three-year average.
What is the most common recorded offense in Palavas-les-Flots?
Drug use: 647 in 2025, shown for information, not in the grade. Then theft without violence (201), criminal damage (94) and fraud (86).
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.