Photo: McLeod · Public domainCrime per resident in Saint-Denis runs higher than in 96% of compared French towns
The typical town its size sees 1.3 cases of drug dealing per 1,000 residents; Saint-Denis sees 4.8, or 710 in 2025. Per resident, the graded crimes were down 20% from 2023 to 2025. The grade is D−, built on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded in the town from 2023 to 2025: #34 of 39 in Seine-Saint-Denis. Typical years here bring 14.4 violent crimes plus 26.1 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 Saint-Denis
Burglary fell sharply
Police and gendarmerie recorded 371 cases of burglary in Saint-Denis in 2023 and 225 in 2025. The grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓
Counted where it happens
101,900 jobs are based in Saint-Denis, for 58,850 working residents. Offenses are counted in the commune where they happen, then divided by its number of residents, so a town people come into for work and shops records more per resident than one they leave. How to read it ↓
Among towns its size
Among the 39 French towns of 104,400 to 201,300 people with a Safety Grade, Saint-Denis is 34th 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 Saint-Denis’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 18,093 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 149,077, a few cases more or fewer would move it between D− and D.
Hidden counts: every graded count is published for Saint-Denis.
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 dealing (4.8 per 1,000 against 1.3), armed robbery (0.4 per 1,000 against 0.1) and robbery without a weapon (3 per 1,000 against 1.1).
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.
Saint-Denis, 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 | 757 | 848 | 734 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 1,029 | 877 | 822 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 363 | 417 | 389 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | 77 | 56 | 61 |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 371 | 280 | 225 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 528 | 445 | 421 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,946 | 1,323 | 1,295 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 1,823 | 1,442 | 1,564 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 4,158 | 3,445 | 3,432 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | 943 | 575 | 452 |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 468 | 324 | 256 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 1,088 | 945 | 979 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 1,249 | 2,045 | 1,252 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | 817 | 734 | 710 |
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).
Of 39 towns its size, Saint-Denis is 34th from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boulogne-Billancourt Hauts-de-Seine | 119,019 | 5.3 | 15.3 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 25 | Montreuil Seine-Saint-Denis | 111,934 | 10 | 25.1 | D |
| … | |||||
| 31 | Paris 16e Paris | 159,386 | 7.5 | 31.1 | D |
| 32 | Reims Marne | 177,674 | 13 | 26.5 | D |
| 33 | Amiens Somme | 136,449 | 14.8 | 25.6 | D |
| 34 | Saint-Denis Seine-Saint-Denis | 149,077 | 14.4 | 26.1 | D− |
| 35 | Mulhouse Haut-Rhin | 104,978 | 18.5 | 22.4 | D− |
| 36 | Saint-Étienne Loire | 173,136 | 10.2 | 32.9 | D− |
| 37 | Perpignan Pyrénées-Orientales | 121,616 | 14.6 | 30 | D− |
| … | |||||
| 39 | Grenoble Isère | 156,140 | 13.7 | 50.3 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Saint-Denis 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-Denis and up to four from Seine-Saint-Denis.
Crime in Saint-Denis 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 26 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 31 thefts without violence and frauds: a year, 2023–2025 average.
Saint-Denis and the towns around it
| Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Denis | 149,077 | 14.4 | 26.1 | D− |
| L'Île-Saint-Denis | 8,696 | 10 | 15.6 | C |
| Villeneuve-la-Garenne Hauts-de-Seine | 26,021 | 9.7 | 19.4 | C− |
| Stains | 41,388 | 12.6 | 23 | D |
| Villetaneuse | 12,530 | 12.1 | 20.1 | D |
| La Courneuve | 47,167 | 14 | 20.9 | D |
| Aubervilliers | 88,365 | 13 | 32.1 | D− |
5 of its 6 graded neighbors have a lower recorded rate in the graded categories than Saint-Denis.
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 Saint-Denis
Is Saint-Denis safe?
It has more crime per resident than 96% of compared French towns: an average of 14.4 recorded violent incidents and 26.1 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, #34 of 39 in Seine-Saint-Denis. Among the 39 French towns of 104,400 to 201,300 people, it is 34th from the lowest rate. With 101,900 jobs for 58,850 working residents, Saint-Denis 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-Denis?
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 20% from 2023 to 2025: 46.2 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 37 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-Denis?
Theft without violence: 3,432 in 2025, shown for information, not in the grade. Then criminal damage (1,564), theft from vehicles (1,295) and drug use (1,252).
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.