Photo: Marc Ryckaert ( MJJR ) · CC BY 3.0On violent crime, Dunkerque has a higher rate per resident than 88% of compared French towns
Per resident, the graded crimes were down 18% from 2023 to 2025. Police counts work out at 12.9 violent crimes and 19.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle theft and damage per 1,000 residents annually. Graded on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in Dunkerque from 2023 to 2025, it scores C− for safety: #142 of 189 in Nord.
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 Dunkerque
Theft from vehicles fell sharply
Police and gendarmerie recorded 285 cases of theft from vehicles in Dunkerque in 2023 and 168 in 2025. The grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓
Among towns its size
Among the 69 French towns of 60,400 to 116,500 people with a Safety Grade, Dunkerque is 35th 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.
The C− for Dunkerque, and how it is built
A fairly firm grade. Built on 8,264 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 86,263, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D and C−.
Hidden counts: every graded count is published for Dunkerque.
Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.
Dunkerque, 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 | 470 | 466 | 360 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 485 | 446 | 423 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 233 | 214 | 207 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | 10 | 13 | 7 |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 277 | 219 | 202 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 161 | 132 | 128 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 285 | 272 | 168 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,145 | 922 | 1,019 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 847 | 850 | 903 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | 82 | 60 | 81 |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 72 | 71 | 54 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 365 | 372 | 420 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 302 | 347 | 424 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | 37 | 40 | 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”.
Offenses recorded each year. n.p.: not published (small: five or fewer in at least one of the last three years).
What police and gendarmerie recorded most in 2025
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.
Crime in Dunkerque 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 19 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 15 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
Dunkerque places 35th of 69 towns its size, the least crime first
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le Tampon Réunion | 82,579 | 10.5 | 6.9 | B+ |
| … | |||||
| 32 | Nanterre Hauts-de-Seine | 97,783 | 9.9 | 20.9 | C− |
| 33 | Évry-Courcouronnes Essonne | 66,919 | 13.1 | 17.9 | C− |
| 34 | Bourges Cher | 64,186 | 9.1 | 22.4 | C− |
| 35 | Dunkerque Nord | 86,263 | 12.9 | 19.1 | C− |
| 36 | Marseille 12e Bouches-du-Rhône | 64,399 | 5.5 | 26.8 | D |
| 37 | Caen Calvados | 109,400 | 12.2 | 21 | D |
| 38 | Troyes Aube | 62,088 | 15.9 | 17.4 | D |
| … | |||||
| 48 | Tourcoing Nord | 98,772 | 13.5 | 23.6 | D |
| … | |||||
| 55 | Villeneuve-d'Ascq Nord | 62,868 | 8.2 | 32.4 | D− |
| … | |||||
| 64 | Roubaix Nord | 98,286 | 17.5 | 32.5 | D− |
| … | |||||
| 69 | Lyon 7e Rhône | 88,326 | 10.4 | 56.4 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Dunkerque with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Dunkerque and up to four from Nord.
Dunkerque and the towns around it
| Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunkerque | 86,263 | 12.9 | 19.1 | C− |
| Coudekerque-Branche | 20,787 | 8.1 | 12.4 | B− |
| Cappelle-la-Grande | 7,839 | 6.8 | 11.7 | B+ |
| Téteghem-Coudekerque-Village | 8,247 | 4.1 | 9.5 | A |
| Leffrinckoucke | 4,078 | 4 | 8 | A |
| Grande-Synthe | 20,239 | 11 | 16.9 | C |
| Bergues | 3,525 | 7.6 | 12.8 | B |
Dunkerque’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 Dunkerque
Is Dunkerque safe?
It has more crime per resident than 85% of compared French towns: an average of 12.9 recorded violent incidents and 19.1 recorded burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. It grades C− for safety, #142 of 189 in Nord. Among the 69 French towns of 60,400 to 116,500 people, it is 35th from the lowest rate. With 45,300 jobs for 31,550 working residents, Dunkerque 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 Dunkerque?
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 18% from 2023 to 2025: 35.5 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 29.1 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.
What is the most common recorded offense in Dunkerque?
Criminal damage: 1,019 in 2025. Then theft without violence (903), drug use (424) and other physical violence (423).
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.