Photo: Dileborn · CC BY-SA 4.0Challans records drug dealing at 2.6 times the rate of a typical town its size
Challans grades C+ for safety overall (#38 of 46 in Vendée): more crime per resident than 65% of compared French towns, on offenses police and gendarmerie recorded from 2023 to 2025.
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 Challans
Vehicle theft fell sharply
Police and gendarmerie recorded 63 cases of vehicle theft in Challans in 2023 and 36 in 2025. Small counts swing from year to year; the grade averages the three years. Year by year ↓
Counted where it happens
12,750 jobs are based in Challans, for 8,400 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 336 French towns of 16,100 to 31,000 people with a Safety Grade, Challans is 121st 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.
Challans grades C+ for safety
Per resident, against the 4,295 compared French towns with a Safety Grade.
A fairly firm grade. Built on 1,705 offenses recorded in the graded categories over three years; with a town of 22,943, a few cases more or fewer would move it between C 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 (0.7 per 1,000 against 0.3). Not published for 2025: armed robbery and robbery without a weapon.
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 8% 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 | 62 | 68 | 72 |
| Other physical violence | Violence | 70 | 76 | 61 |
| Sexual violence | Violence | 53 | 55 | 39 |
| Armed robbery | Violence | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. |
| Burglary | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 50 | 65 | 49 |
| Vehicle theft | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 63 | 65 | 36 |
| Theft from vehicles | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 54 | 93 | 49 |
| Criminal damage | Burglary, vehicle theft, damage | 201 | 221 | 203 |
| Theft without violence | Not in the grade | 141 | 196 | 143 |
| Robbery without a weapon | Not in the grade | n.p. | n.p. | n.p. |
| Theft of vehicle parts | Not in the grade | 26 | 34 | 23 |
| Fraud | Not in the grade | 114 | 141 | 132 |
| Drug use | Not in the grade | 37 | 35 | 70 |
| Drug dealing | Not in the grade | n.p. | n.p. | 16 |
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”.
Challans is 121st of 336 French towns of 16,100 to 31,000 people
Lowest rate in the graded categories first, 2023–2025 average, with the closest to Challans and up to four from Vendée.
| # | Town | People | Violence | Homes, vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beaupréau-en-Mauges Maine-et-Loire | 23,989 | 5.4 | 8 | A |
| … | |||||
| 9 | Montaigu-Vendée Vendée | 21,134 | 4.9 | 10.3 | A− |
| … | |||||
| 21 | Les Herbiers Vendée | 16,521 | 6.7 | 11.3 | B+ |
| … | |||||
| 118 | Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy Meurthe-et-Moselle | 29,942 | 8.2 | 16.5 | C+ |
| 119 | Tassin-la-Demi-Lune Rhône | 23,200 | 6.3 | 18.4 | C+ |
| 120 | Rodez Aveyron | 23,981 | 9.6 | 15.1 | C+ |
| 121 | Challans Vendée | 22,943 | 8.1 | 16.7 | C+ |
| 122 | Fresnes Val-de-Marne | 29,528 | 9.4 | 15.4 | C+ |
| 123 | Lunel Hérault | 26,623 | 9.7 | 15.2 | C+ |
| 124 | Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume Var | 17,896 | 8.1 | 16.9 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 336 | Marseille 2e Bouches-du-Rhône | 24,378 | 20.1 | 103.2 | D− |
Per 1,000 residents a year. Context only: the grade compares Challans with every compared French town, not just towns its size.
About 8 recorded violent incidents a year for every 1,000 residents
And 17 burglaries, vehicle thefts, thefts from vehicles and acts of criminal damage, and 13 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.
Challans 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Challans | 22,943 | 8.1 | 16.7 | C+ |
| Soullans | 4,654 | 3.6 | 8.5 | A |
| Sallertaine | 3,518 | 3.7 | 10.5 | A |
| La Garnache | 5,515 | 3.8 | 10.3 | A |
| Saint-Christophe-du-Ligneron | 2,727 | —1 | —1 | —1 |
| Commequiers | 3,735 | —1 | —1 | —1 |
| Saint-Gervais | 2,781 | —1 | —1 | —1 |
1 Not graded: over 25% of the index would rest on département averages, where SSMSI doesn’t publish small counts.
Challans’ recorded rate in the graded categories is higher than each of its 3 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 Challans
Is Challans safe?
It has more crime per resident than 65% of compared French towns: an average of 8.1 recorded violent incidents and 16.7 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, #38 of 46 in Vendée. Among the 336 French towns of 16,100 to 31,000 people, it is 121st from the lowest rate. With 12,750 jobs for 8,400 working residents, Challans 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 Challans?
The recorded rate in the graded categories fell 8% from 2023 to 2025: 24.1 per 1,000 residents in 2023, 22.2 in 2025. The grade uses the three-year average, so one unusual year moves it less.
What is the most common recorded offense in Challans?
Criminal damage: 203 in 2025. Then theft without violence (143), fraud (132) and family violence (72).
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.