Photo: wanderley santos vie… · CC BY-SA 3.0Sète has more crime per resident than 86% of compared French towns
From 2023 to 2025, offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in Sète put it at D for safety: #65 of 84 in Hérault.
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 Sète
Vehicle theft fell sharply
Police and gendarmerie recorded 177 cases of vehicle theft in Sète in 2023 and 97 in 2025. The grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓
Among towns its size
Among the 188 French towns of 31,700 to 61,200 people with a Safety Grade, Sète is 111th 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.
Sète grades D for safety
Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.
A fairly firm grade. Built on 4,388 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 45,337, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D and C−.
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, 0.1% of the index here. What isn’t published ↓
What police and gendarmerie recorded most in 2025
Per 1,000 residents in 2025; the tick is the median of the graded French towns of 10,000 to 50,000.
Well above the median of towns its size: drug dealing (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.3), robbery without a weapon (1.4 per 1,000 against 0.3) and theft without violence (14.2 per 1,000 against 7). Not published for 2025: armed robbery.
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.
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 12% per resident from 2023 to 2025
Offenses recorded each year. n.p.: not published (small: five or fewer in at least one of the last three years).
Violence · per 1,000 residents
Burglary, vehicle theft, damage · per 1,000 residents
| Kind | In the grade | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family violence | Violence | 173 | 196 | 147 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 199 | 240 | 232 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 90 | 63 | 92 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 169 | 135 | 142 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 177 | 92 | 97 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 242 | 141 | 142 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 521 | 574 | 524 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 789 | 643 | 644 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | 50 | 48 | 65 |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 41 | 36 | 70 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 348 | 368 | 372 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 141 | 264 | 126 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | 68 | 104 | 64 |
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”.
About 11 recorded violent incidents a year for every 1,000 residents
And 22 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 23 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
Each dot is one resident’s share: offenses are counted, not victims, and one person can be the victim of several.
Sète is 111th of 188 French towns of 31,700 to 61,200 people
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Sète and up to four from Hérault.
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Joseph Réunion | 39,207 | 9.4 | 4.7 | A |
| … | |||||
| 108 | Hyères Var | 55,858 | 9.3 | 22.7 | C− |
| 109 | Chartres Eure-et-Loir | 38,324 | 13.1 | 18.9 | D |
| 110 | Bourg-en-Bresse Ain | 42,372 | 11.7 | 20.4 | D |
| 111 | Sète Hérault | 45,337 | 10.5 | 21.7 | D |
| 112 | Sarcelles Val-d'Oise | 59,173 | 12.6 | 19.8 | D |
| 113 | Laval Mayenne | 49,400 | 12.3 | 20.2 | D |
| 114 | Vienne Isère | 31,778 | 10.8 | 21.7 | D |
| … | |||||
| 188 | Marseille 1er Bouches-du-Rhône | 37,599 | 27.4 | 70.7 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Sète with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
Sète and the towns around it
The nearest towns of 2,500 or more, per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 average.
| Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sète | 45,337 | 10.5 | 21.7 | D |
| Balaruc-les-Bains | 7,139 | 8.3 | 18.5 | C |
| Balaruc-le-Vieux | 2,737 | 6.6 | 14.3 | B− |
| Frontignan | 24,136 | 8.6 | 19.3 | C |
| Mèze | 12,669 | 9.2 | 15.7 | C+ |
| Poussan | 6,797 | 9 | 14.1 | C+ |
| Gigean | 6,639 | 10 | 17.6 | C |
Sète’s recorded rate in the graded categories is higher than each of its 6 graded neighbors’.
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 Sète
Is Sète safe?
It has more crime per resident than 86% of compared French towns: an average of 10.5 recorded violent incidents and 21.7 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, #65 of 84 in Hérault. Among the 188 French towns of 31,700 to 61,200 people, it is 111th from the lowest rate. With 18,000 jobs for 14,200 working residents, Sète 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 Sète?
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 12% from 2023 to 2025: 34.7 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 30.4 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.
What is the most common recorded offense in Sète?
Theft without violence: 644 in 2025, shown for information, not in the grade. Then criminal damage (524), fraud (372) and other physical violence (232).
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 October 30, 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.