Photo: Benoît Prieur · CC0Villeurbanne sees more crime per resident than 94% of compared French towns
The typical town its size sees 1.1 cases of robbery without a weapon per 1,000 residents; Villeurbanne sees 3.3, or 543 in 2025. Scored on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in Villeurbanne across 2023 to 2025, the town lands on D for safety: #94 of 107 in Rhône. What’s more, the crimes the grade counts rose 13% per resident from 2023 to 2025. The yearly rates were 9.5 violent crimes and 28.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle theft and damage per 1,000 residents.
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 Villeurbanne
Criminal damage rose sharply
Police and gendarmerie recorded 1,576 cases of criminal damage in Villeurbanne in 2023 and 2,425 in 2025. The grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓
Ranks better on violence than on burglary, vehicle theft and damage
Villeurbanne recorded an average of 9.5 violent incidents per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, fewer than in 29% of compared French towns, and 28.6 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, fewer than in 3%. Safety Grade ↓
Among towns its size
Among the 34 French towns of 114,600 to 221,000 people with a Safety Grade, Villeurbanne is 26th 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.
What’s behind Villeurbanne’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 18,736 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 163,684, a few cases more or fewer would not change the grade: D.
Hidden counts: every graded count is published for Villeurbanne.
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: robbery without a weapon (3.3 per 1,000 against 1.1), theft from vehicles (10.1 per 1,000 against 4.3) and drug dealing (2.8 per 1,000 against 1.3).
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.
Crime in Villeurbanne 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 29 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 27 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
Towns its size: Villeurbanne comes 26th of 34
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boulogne-Billancourt Hauts-de-Seine | 119,019 | 5.3 | 15.3 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 23 | Le Mans Sarthe | 146,249 | 13.7 | 22.2 | D |
| 24 | Tours Indre-et-Loire | 139,259 | 12.4 | 24.7 | D |
| 25 | Clermont-Ferrand Puy-de-Dôme | 146,351 | 9.9 | 28 | D |
| 26 | Villeurbanne Rhône | 163,684 | 9.5 | 28.6 | D |
| 27 | Paris 16e Paris | 159,386 | 7.5 | 31.1 | D |
| 28 | Reims Marne | 177,674 | 13 | 26.5 | D |
| 29 | Amiens Somme | 136,449 | 14.8 | 25.6 | D |
| … | |||||
| 34 | Grenoble Isère | 156,140 | 13.7 | 50.3 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Villeurbanne with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Villeurbanne and up to four from Rhône.
Villeurbanne, 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 | 574 | 605 | 597 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 641 | 715 | 624 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 259 | 271 | 277 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | 30 | 38 | 46 |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 745 | 748 | 522 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 674 | 517 | 463 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,378 | 1,644 | 1,660 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,576 | 1,707 | 2,425 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 2,746 | 3,042 | 3,022 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | 330 | 362 | 543 |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 271 | 503 | 339 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 1,325 | 1,516 | 1,500 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 901 | 1,474 | 1,556 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | 364 | 310 | 464 |
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).
Villeurbanne and the towns around it
| Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Villeurbanne | 163,684 | 9.5 | 28.6 | D |
| Lyon 3e | 100,679 | 11 | 34.9 | D− |
| Lyon 6e | 49,385 | 7.7 | 46.6 | D− |
| Vaulx-en-Velin | 53,069 | 11.2 | 29.3 | D− |
| Lyon | 519,127 | —1 | —1 | —1 |
| Lyon 8e | 85,943 | 9.9 | 27 | D |
| Bron | 42,982 | 9.5 | 25.3 | D |
1 Not graded: over 25% of the index would rest on département averages, where SSMSI doesn’t publish small counts.
2 of its 5 graded neighbors have a lower recorded rate in the graded categories than Villeurbanne.
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 Villeurbanne
Is Villeurbanne safe?
It has more crime per resident than 94% of compared French towns: an average of 9.5 recorded violent incidents and 28.6 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, #94 of 107 in Rhône. Among the 34 French towns of 114,600 to 221,000 people, it is 26th from the lowest rate.
Is crime going up in Villeurbanne?
The recorded rate in the graded categories rose 13% from 2023 to 2025: 35.9 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 40.4 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.
What is the most common recorded offense in Villeurbanne?
Theft without violence: 3,022 in 2025, shown for information, not in the grade. Then criminal damage (2,425), theft from vehicles (1,660) and drug use (1,556).
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 9, 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.