Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Canterbury than in 97% of UK towns
Violent crime here is higher than in 98% of UK towns; burglary, vehicle crime and damage, higher than in 95%. Graded on crimes police recorded inside Canterbury’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it scores D− for safety: #82 of 87 in Kent. Still, recorded violence fell 6% in a year. Police counts work out at 61.9 violent and sexual offences and 23.2 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Canterbury
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Canterbury than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
49% of Canterbury’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 19% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Canterbury: D− for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 13,998 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Canterbury against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
49% of Canterbury residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
19% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 49% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Canterbury’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
How Canterbury compares with UK towns of 39,000 to 74,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 25 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 69 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 81 | Dartford Kent | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | 17.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 108 | Llanelli Dyfed | 42,143 | 60.2 | 21.3 | 18 | D− |
| 109 | Ramsgate Kent | 42,031 | 61.3 | 20.6 | 22.8 | D− |
| 110 | Torquay Devon | 52,034 | 62.6 | 20.2 | 23.6 | D− |
| 111 | Canterbury Kent | 55,107 | 61.9 | 23.2 | 37.8 | D− |
| 112 | Dewsbury West Yorkshire | 63,730 | 63.4 | 22 | 15.7 | D− |
| 113 | Wrexham Clwyd | 44,781 | 62.3 | 23.3 | 33.7 | D− |
| 114 | Rotherham South Yorkshire | 71,535 | 61.7 | 25.5 | 25.7 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 120 | Bridgwater Somerset | 47,846 | 76.8 | 18.9 | 29.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Canterbury, and others in Kent.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Canterbury runs highest on shoplifting (26.3 per 1,000 against 10.3), bicycle theft (2.2 per 1,000 against 0.9) and anti-social behaviour (34.3 per 1,000 against 17.5).
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,014 | 54.7 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,889 | 34.3 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,449 | 26.3 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 809 | 14.7 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 596 | 10.8 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 388 | 7 | 3.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 366 | 6.6 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 266 | 4.8 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 174 | 3.2 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 165 | 3 | 2.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 123 | 2.2 | 0.9 |
| Robbery | Violent | 122 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 76 | 1.4 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 55 | 1 | 0.7 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Police in Canterbury identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 56% of Canterbury’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 17% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (63% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 6% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 4,866 crimes.
Crime in Canterbury per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 23 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 40 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Blean Forest, Wincheap and St Stephen's; highest in Westgate
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blean Forest | 6,412 | 12.5 | 6.6 | |
| Wincheap | 9,427 | 45.3 | 22.7 | |
| St Stephen's | 10,002 | 50 | 21.6 | |
| Barton | 12,751 | 65.2 | 19.5 | |
| Northgate | 7,049 | 86.3 | 32.8 | |
| Westgate | 9,195 | 103.3 | 34 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Shopping areas | 1,743 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 1,679 | 63% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 716 | 38% violent |
| Hospitals | 709 | 72% violent |
| Car parks | 642 | 30% violent |
| Petrol stations | 453 | 66% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 299 | 36% violent |
| Nightclubs | 105 | 53% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Westgate records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Canterbury. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Canterbury. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Canterbury’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Canterbury has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -6% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +1% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +0% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +39% (towns its size -2%).
One person died in collisions on Canterbury’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 535 collisions with injuries inside Canterbury in five years, in which one person died (1 was a pedestrian). 99 people were killed or seriously injured: 34 on foot and 18 on a bicycle.
That is about what is typical for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more: at their median rate (1.1 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Canterbury’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Canterbury’s own rate (0.4) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Canterbury had 35.9 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 34% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
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. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Canterbury’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Canterbury
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canterbury | 55,107 | 61.9 | 23.2 | D− |
| Rough Common | 1,291 | 14.7 | 5.9 | A− |
| Blean | 1,327 | 9 | 6 | A |
| Sturry | 4,857 | 31.3 | 12.4 | C |
| Bridge | 1,539 | 13.9 | 7.2 | A− |
| Chartham | 3,569 | 28.9 | 11.8 | C |
| Littlebourne | 1,596 | 23.8 | 7.9 | B− |
| Hersden | 2,118 | 44.2 | 15.4 | D |
Canterbury records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Rough Common, 1.6 miles away, records 14.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Canterbury’s 61.9.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 709 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Canterbury’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Canterbury sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Canterbury
Is Canterbury safe?
Police recorded 61.9 violent and sexual offences and 23.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Canterbury’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 3% of UK towns. Among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, Canterbury has less crime per resident than 9%.
What are the safest areas of Canterbury?
By council ward, Blean Forest, Wincheap and St Stephen's record the least violent and household crime per resident: 12.5, 45.3 and 50 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 103.3 in Westgate.
Is crime going up in Canterbury?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 39%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Canterbury town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 105 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 27% of them violent, and Westgate ward records 103.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in December.
What is the most common crime in Canterbury?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,014 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,449) and criminal damage & arson (809), with 1,889 reports of anti-social behaviour.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area 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.