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Forfar East and Old Parish ChurchPhoto: Russ Hamer · CC BY-SA 3.0
–Not graded
Safety in Forfar · Scottish Government, SIMD

Recorded crime in the Angus council area is 25% below Scotland’s rate

Police Scotland doesn’t publish crimes street by street, so Forfar has no Safety Grade and no overall grade until the 2026 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation brings neighbourhood crime figures. What Scotland does publish: crime for the whole Angus council area (425 crimes per 10,000 people in 2025-26), and how Forfar’s own neighbourhoods rank for crime.

Crimes, Angus
425
per 10,000 people, 2025-26
Scotland 569
Violence
103
non-sexual violent crimes per 10,000
Scotland 136
Cleared up
58%
of recorded crimes, 2025-26
Scotland 57%
SIMD crimes in Forfar
321
per 10,000 residents, 2017/18
Scotland 276
What stands out · In brief

What stands out about safety in Forfar

Crime up over ten years

Recorded crime across the Angus council area went from 402 to 425 per 10,000 people between 2016-17 and 2025-26; across Scotland it moved +3%. Ten years ↓

A mix of neighbourhoods

25% of Forfar’s residents live in the fifth of Scotland’s small areas with the most crime on SIMD 2020, and 15% in the fifth with the least. Its rate of SIMD crimes, 321 per 10,000 in 2017/18, is 16% above Scotland’s. Neighbourhood ranks ↓

Written from the Scottish Government’s recorded crime and SIMD figures on this page.

By type

What police recorded in the Angus council area in 2025-26

Common assault85
Shoplifting66
Vandalism51
Fraud25
Housebreaking14
Car theft9
Domestic abuse6
Serious assault4
Robbery3
Drug supply3
Violent & sexualHomes, cars & damageOtherScotland

Serious assault and drug supply sit below Scotland’s rate.

Show every crime group as a table
GroupRecordedPer 10,000Scotland
Non-sexual crimes of violence1,184103136
Sexual crimes3052730
Crimes of dishonesty (theft, housebreaking, fraud)1,912167213
Damage and reckless behaviour (vandalism, fire-raising)6715869
Crimes against society (drugs, weapons, justice)81271121
Antisocial offences (disorder, threatening behaviour)6575793

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26: crimes and offences by council area. Groups 1 to 5 are crimes; group 6, antisocial offences, is offences.

Per 10,000 people. The tick on each bar is Scotland’s rate. Every town in the council area shares these figures.

Towns its size

Forfar is 92nd of 110 Scottish towns of 6,898 to 26,220

#TownPeopleSIMD crimes per 10,000In the most crime-deprived fifth
1Westhill Aberdeenshire11,778520%
2Bishopton Renfrewshire10,048690%
…
89Larkhall South Lanarkshire15,31931533%
90Bathgate West Lothian22,22931814%
91Brechin Angus7,18031931%
92Forfar Angus13,77432125%
93Annan Dumfries and Galloway8,69733426%
94Blantyre South Lanarkshire16,53433525%
95Dalkeith Midlothian15,12534043%
…
109Methil Fife10,71250957%
110Stranraer Dumfries and Galloway9,72956545%

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, counting from the fewest: the towns either side of Forfar, and the ends of the list. Described, not graded.

Where in Forfar

Fewest SIMD crimes in Letham and Glamis; most in Forfar Central

AreaResidentsPer 10,000
Letham and Glamis403186
Forfar East4,418195
Forfar West4,594233
Forfar Central4,359555
Below Scotland’s rateAt or above it

1 of Forfar’s 4 areas is at or above Scotland’s rate of 276 (orange bars). SIMD counts crimes where they were recorded, so an area with a town centre, a station or a hospital records more than its own residents suffer.

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, by small area (2011 data zones, grouped by the names the Scottish Government gives them), fewest first.

Ten years · yearly

Recorded crime up 6% since 2016-17

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2016-17 to the newest year. Since April 2019 violence includes the new crime of domestic abuse under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

Per 10,000 people each year, the Angus council area against Scotland. 2016-17 to 2025-26: all crimes +6% (Scotland +3%), violence -18%.

Neighbourhoods · Scotland-wide rank

How Forfar’s neighbourhoods rank in Scotland

20%1
5%2
16%3
9%4
0%5
16%6
15%7
4%8
6%9
9%10
Higher crimeLower crime

19% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of Scotland’s neighbourhoods, and 25% in the highest-crime 20%. Forfar counted 321 SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, 16% above Scotland’s 276; three years before, 331 (-3%, Scotland -9%).

Scottish Government, SIMD 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (crimes of violence, sexual crimes, domestic housebreaking, vandalism, drugs offences and common assault, 2014/15 and 2017/18). Residents from Scotland’s Census 2022 output areas.

Forfar’s residents by the crime decile of their small area (2011 data zone, about 800 people) in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of Scotland’s 6,976 data zones and 10 the lowest.

Cleared up

Police in the Angus council area clear up crime about as often as across Scotland

All crimes58%
Violence72%
Sexual crimes71%
Dishonesty45%
Damage31%
Against society88%
Violent & sexualHomes, cars & damageOtherScotland

Violence and drugs crimes are cleared up most often, because they are usually recorded with a suspect in view; housebreaking, theft and vandalism least.

Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland 2025-26: crime clear-up rates by council area.

Share of crimes recorded in 2025-26 that were cleared up: a suspect identified and enough evidence to report them to the procurator fiscal. The tick is Scotland.

1,000 people · one year

For every 1,000 people in the Angus council area, about 13 violent or sexual crimes in 2025-26

Violent & sexualHousebreaking, car theft & damageOther theft & fraud
1,489
violent and sexual crimes, Angus, 2025-26
930
housebreaking, car theft & damage
1,653
other theft & fraud
35
of the three, per 1,000

A crime isn’t a victim: one person can suffer several, and crimes in a city centre often involve visitors rather than residents.

And about 8 housebreakings, car thefts or acts of vandalism and fire-raising, plus 14 other thefts and frauds. Each dot is one person; each coloured dot is one recorded crime. These are council-wide figures: every town in the Angus council area shares them.

On the roads

One person died in collisions on Forfar’s roads in 2021–2025

Police recorded 17 collisions with injuries inside Forfar in five years, in which one person died. 11 people were killed or seriously injured: 6 on foot and 1 on a bicycle.

That is about what is typical for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: at their median rate (0.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Forfar’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Forfar’s own rate (1.5) is context, not a ranking.

Counting serious injuries too, Forfar had 16.0 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8).

1
people killed, 2021–2025
11
killed or seriously injured
6
of them on foot
1
of them on a bicycle

Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries; the towns its size are England and Wales’s. There’s no national rate here: more than two thirds of Scotland’s road deaths (70%) happen outside every town’s locality boundary. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.

Collisions police recorded inside Forfar’s locality, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.

Neighbours

Crime in the places around Forfar

Fewest quarterSecondThirdMost SIMD crime
TownPeopleSIMD crimes per 10,000Most crime-deprived fifth
Forfar13,77432125%
Kirriemuir6,00027827%
Brechin7,18031931%
Monifieth9,356710%
Carnoustie11,3731020%
Dundee147,36537234%

Forfar counted more SIMD crime per resident than 4 of its 5 neighbours; only Dundee counted more. Kirriemuir, 5 miles away, counted 278 per 10,000, against Forfar’s 321.

SIMD crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18. The map colours each town by the quarter of Scotland’s towns it falls in; they are not grades. Tap a town for its safety page.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Council areas, not towns. Recorded crime and clear-up rates are published for each of Scotland’s 32 council areas, so every town in the Angus council area shares them. A city centre and a quiet village in the same council show the same figures.
  • SIMD crime is town-level, but old. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation counts selected crimes (violence, sexual crimes, domestic housebreaking, vandalism, drugs offences and common assault) in each small area. SIMD 2020 uses crimes from 2017/18; SIMD 2026, due at the end of 2026, will bring newer figures; we plan to grade Scottish safety on them.
  • Not a grade. Nothing on this page is graded. The towns-its-size ranking and the neighbours’ colours describe SIMD crime rates; they aren’t a Safety Grade and don’t feed one.
  • Recorded, not experienced. Recorded crime is what the police record. It moves with reporting and policing as well as with crime; the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey asks people directly, for Scotland as a whole.

Questions about safety in Forfar

Is Forfar safe?

Police Scotland recorded 425 crimes per 10,000 people across the Angus council area in 2025-26, 25% below Scotland’s 569. Within Forfar, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation counted 321 of its selected crimes per 10,000 residents in 2017/18, against 276 across Scotland; 25% of residents live in the fifth of Scotland’s neighbourhoods with the most crime. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Forfar has no Safety Grade.

How many crimes are solved in the Angus council area?

58% of crimes recorded in 2025-26 were cleared up (someone was identified and there was enough evidence to report them to the procurator fiscal), against 57% across Scotland.

Why doesn’t Forfar have a Safety Grade?

Our Safety Grade counts crimes inside each town’s boundary. Police Scotland doesn’t publish crimes by location for reuse, so Scottish towns can’t be measured the same way. The 2026 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation will bring newer neighbourhood crime figures.

Sources: Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (crimes, offences and clear-up rates by council area, 2016-17 to 2025-26); Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (2014/15, 2017/18), 2011 data zones with Census 2022 residents · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the NRS 2022 locality boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.