Photo: David Martin · CC BY-SA 2.0Chatham has more crime per resident than 95% of UK towns
The typical town its size sees 1.1 cases of possession of weapons per 1,000 residents; Chatham sees 1.8, or 135 in the 12 months to August 2026. On the record of crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it takes D for safety: #80 of 87 in Kent. Violent crime was down 6% in a year. Each year brought 54.0 violent and sexual offences and 20.6 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Chatham
One ward carries much of the rate
River ward, where 33% of Chatham’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 2,921 of Chatham’s 12,424 violent and sexual offences in three years: 323.5 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Chatham the figure is 41.8. Where in Chatham ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Chatham 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 fell 13% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 90 UK towns and cities of 54,000 to 104,000 people, Chatham has the 71st lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Burnley, West Bromwich and Scunthorpe, higher than Carlisle, Chesterfield and Margate. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
45% of Chatham’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 12% 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.
What’s behind Chatham’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 17,177 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Chatham against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in Aylesford North and Walderslade, Boxley and Lordswood and Capstone; highest in River
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aylesford North and Walderslade | 3,039 | 13.8 | 6 | |
| Boxley | 2,572 | 16.8 | 11.7 | |
| Lordswood and Capstone | 9,044 | 21.5 | 11 | |
| Rochester South and Horsted | 7,525 | 20.8 | 13 | |
| Princes Park | 10,170 | 28.6 | 10.2 | |
| Walderslade | 9,777 | 29.2 | 11.5 | |
| Luton and Wayfield | 14,888 | 63 | 23.4 | |
| Chatham Central | 16,931 | 67.5 | 25 | |
| River | 3,010 | 323.5 | 106 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 2,154 | 34% violent |
| Petrol stations | 1,161 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 599 | 45% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 195 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Bus and coach stations | 137 | 49% violent |
| College and university buildings | 134 | 35% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 80 | 44% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so River records 7.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Chatham. 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 Chatham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Chatham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
45% of Chatham residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
12% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 45% 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.
Chatham’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.
Of 90 towns its size, Chatham is 71st from the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 33 | Ashford Kent | 82,143 | 40.4 | 14.6 | 20.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 46 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 53 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 56 | Dartford Kent | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | 17.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 68 | Carlisle Cumbria | 77,729 | 55.4 | 16.6 | 19.3 | D |
| 69 | Chesterfield Derbyshire | 76,394 | 56.2 | 17.1 | 21.8 | D |
| 70 | Margate Kent | 63,315 | 56.1 | 17.5 | 17.1 | D |
| 71 | Chatham Kent | 76,956 | 54 | 20.6 | 20.8 | D |
| 72 | Weston-super-Mare Somerset | 84,600 | 57.4 | 17.2 | 20.8 | D |
| 73 | Scarborough North Yorkshire | 59,505 | 58.8 | 17.2 | 22.9 | D |
| 74 | Mansfield Nottinghamshire | 63,448 | 56.4 | 22.2 | 33.5 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 90 | Doncaster South Yorkshire | 87,440 | 72.6 | 38.2 | 43.3 | 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 Chatham, and others in Kent.
Crime in Chatham 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 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 22 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Chatham runs highest on other crime (3.5 per 1,000 against 2.1), possession of weapons (1.8 per 1,000 against 1.1) and anti-social behaviour (26.5 per 1,000 against 17.5). Burglary and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 3,613 | 46.9 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2,037 | 26.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 865 | 11.2 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 778 | 10.1 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 710 | 9.2 | 6.6 |
| Public order | not graded | 422 | 5.5 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 380 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Drugs | not graded | 302 | 3.9 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 270 | 3.5 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 218 | 2.8 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 135 | 1.8 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 127 | 1.7 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 57 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 57 | 0.7 | 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 Chatham identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 60% of Chatham’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 15% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (66% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 5% 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. 6,225 crimes.
How crime in Chatham 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 -13% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +9% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +17% (towns its size -2%).
Seven people died in collisions on Chatham’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 611 collisions with injuries inside Chatham in five years, in which seven people died (2 were pedestrians). 152 people were killed or seriously injured: 49 on foot and 13 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 Chatham’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Chatham’s own rate (1.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Chatham had 39.5 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). 32% 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 Chatham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Chatham
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chatham | 76,956 | 54 | 20.6 | D |
| Gillingham | 108,485 | 42.7 | 16.7 | D |
| Rochester | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | D |
| Burham | 1,293 | 18.8 | 12.1 | B− |
| Cuxton | 3,039 | 9.7 | 7.4 | A |
| Eccles | 1,706 | 19.9 | 8.6 | B |
| Halling | 2,926 | 18.8 | 11.1 | B |
| Chattenden | 2,417 | 40.6 | 19.3 | D |
Chatham records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Gillingham, 2.1 miles away, records 42.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Chatham’s 54.
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
- 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 Chatham 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 Chatham
Is Chatham safe?
Police recorded 54 violent and sexual offences and 20.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Chatham’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 5% of UK towns. Among 90 UK towns of 54,000 to 104,000 people, Chatham is 71st from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Chatham?
By council ward, Aylesford North and Walderslade, Boxley and Lordswood and Capstone record the least violent and household crime per resident: 13.8, 16.8 and 21.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 323.5 in River.
Is crime going up in Chatham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 13%, shoplifting and theft rose 9% and anti-social behaviour rose 17%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Chatham?
Violence & sexual offences: 3,613 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (865) and criminal damage & arson (778), with 2,037 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Chatham compare with Maidstone?
Maidstone records 46.4 violent and sexual offences and 17 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Chatham’s 54 and 20.6, over the same three years.
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.