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Safety in Saint-Étienne · SSMSI, 2023–2025

Saint-Étienne sees more crime per resident than 97% of compared French towns

Robbery without a weapon runs at 4.4 per 1,000 residents in Saint-Étienne, against 1.1 in a typical town its size: police and gendarmerie recorded 766 in 2025. The crimes the grade counts rose 8% per resident from 2023 to 2025. What’s more, that puts it at D− for safety, judged on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded locally from 2023 to 2025. Year on year, 10.2 violent crimes and 32.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle theft and damage occur per 1,000 residents.

C⁻Violence D⁻Burglary, vehicle theft, damage

Violence

10.2

recorded per 1,000 residents a year · in the grade

Burglary, vehicle theft, damage

32.9

burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles, criminal damage · in the grade

Theft and fraud

22.3

theft without violence, fraud, per 1,000 residents a year · Not in the grade

Drug use

7.1

recorded offenses per 1,000 residents a year · Not in the grade

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 · In brief

What stands out about safety in Saint-Étienne

×1.6theft from vehicles, 2023 to 2025 24% · 2%of compared French towns have more violence · more burglary, vehicle theft and damage

Theft from vehicles rose sharply

Police and gendarmerie recorded 1,157 cases of theft from vehicles in Saint-Étienne in 2023 and 1,844 in 2025. The grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓

Less violence than burglary, vehicle theft and damage

Saint-Étienne recorded an average of 10.2 violent incidents per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, fewer than in 24% of compared French towns, and 32.9 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, fewer than in 2%. Safety Grade ↓

Written from the SSMSI and INSEE data on this page. Figures are offenses police and gendarmerie recorded, not convictions.

Safety Grade

What sits behind Saint-Étienne’s D−

Violence: physical, sexual, armed robbery (10.2 per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 average)Lower rate than in 24% of compared French towns

Burglary, vehicle theft and damage (32.9 per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 average)Lower rate than in 2% of compared French towns

D⁻D⁻

A firm grade. Built on 22,417 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 173,136, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D− and D−.

Hidden counts: every graded count is published for Saint-Étienne.

Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.

By type

What police and gendarmerie recorded most in 2025

Theft without violence15.3

Criminal damage15.2

Theft from vehicles10.7

Drug use8.2

Fraud7

Burglary5.8

Robbery without a weapon4.4

Other physical violence4.3

Family violence3.9

Theft of vehicle parts3.7

Vehicle theft2.8

Sexual violence1.5

Drug dealing0.6

Armed robbery0.3

ViolenceBurglary, vehicle theft, damageNot in the gradeMedian of towns its size

Well above the median of towns its size: robbery without a weapon (4.4 per 1,000 against 1.1), theft of vehicle parts (3.7 per 1,000 against 1.3) and theft from vehicles (10.7 per 1,000 against 4.3).

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.

Towns its size

Saint-Étienne is 30th of 32 French towns of 121,200 to 233,700 people

#	Town	People	Violence	Homes, vehicles	Safety
1	Saint-Denis Réunion	155,634	12.6	11.4	C⁺
…
27	Reims Marne	177,674	13	26.5	D
28	Amiens Somme	136,449	14.8	25.6	D
29	Saint-Denis Seine-Saint-Denis	149,077	14.4	26.1	D⁻
30	Saint-Étienne Loire	173,136	10.2	32.9	D⁻
31	Perpignan Pyrénées-Orientales	121,616	14.6	30	D⁻
32	Grenoble Isère	156,140	13.7	50.3	D⁻

Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Saint-Étienne with every compared French town, not just towns its size.

Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Saint-Étienne and up to four from Loire.

For every 1,000 residents

Crime in Saint-Étienne per 1,000 residents

ViolenceBurglary, vehicle theft, damageTheft and fraud (not in the grade)

recorded violent incidents

burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage

thefts without violence and frauds

of the three together

Each dot is one resident’s share: offenses are counted, not victims, and one person can be the victim of several.

And 33 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 22 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.

Year by year

Saint-Étienne, year by year

Violence · per 1,000 residents

202310.6

202410.1

202510

Burglary, vehicle theft, damage · per 1,000 residents

202330.7

202433.7

202534.4

Kind	In the grade	2023	2024	2025
Family violence	Violence	693	626	678
Other physical violence	Violence	855	832	747
Sexual violence	Violence	237	258	262
Armed robbery	Violence	43	30	46
Burglary	Burglary, vehicle theft, damage	782	739	1,005
Vehicle theft	Burglary, vehicle theft, damage	443	551	484
Theft from vehicles	Burglary, vehicle theft, damage	1,157	1,897	1,844
Criminal damage	Burglary, vehicle theft, damage	2,928	2,649	2,631
Theft without violence	Not in the grade	2,947	2,462	2,643
Robbery without a weapon	Not in the grade	417	485	766
Theft of vehicle parts	Not in the grade	439	644	633
Fraud	Not in the grade	1,212	1,114	1,216
Drug use	Not in the grade	966	1,294	1,426
Drug dealing	Not in the grade	72	102	105

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).

Neighbors

Saint-Étienne and the towns around it

La RicamarieSaint-Jean-BonnefondsVillarsSaint-Priest-en-JarezSaint-Genest-LerptLa TalaudièreSaint-Étienne

ABCDNot graded

Town	People	Violence	Homes, vehicles	Safety
Saint-Étienne	173,136	10.2	32.9	D⁻
La Ricamarie	8,039	10.1	25.4	D
Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds	6,563	2.3	14.9	B⁺
Villars	7,664	4.5	22.5	C
Saint-Priest-en-Jarez	6,471	8.2	21.2	C⁻
Saint-Genest-Lerpt	6,181	2.4	18.6	B⁻
La Talaudière	7,133	9.7	17.4	C

Saint-Étienne’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.

How to read these numbers

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.

How the Safety Grade works in France →

Questions about safety in Saint-Étienne

Is Saint-Étienne safe?

It has more crime per resident than 97% of compared French towns: an average of 10.2 recorded violent incidents and 32.9 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. With 84,150 jobs for 60,900 working residents, Saint-Étienne 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 Saint-Étienne?

The recorded rate in the graded categories rose 8% from 2023 to 2025: 41.2 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 44.5 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.

What is the most common recorded offense in Saint-Étienne?

Theft without violence: 2,643 in 2025, shown for information, not in the grade. Then criminal damage (2,631), theft from vehicles (1,844) and drug use (1,426).

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.