Photo: Chris Heaton · CC BY-SA 2.0Dartford records more crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns
It has more violent crime than 88% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 93%. What’s more, its letter for safety is D, worked out from crimes police recorded inside Dartford’s built-up area over September 2023 to August 2026: #74 of 87 in Kent. Recorded violence fell 14% in a year. Each year brought 43.5 violent and sexual offences and 20.8 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 Dartford
One ward carries much of the rate
Stone House ward recorded 1,967 of Dartford’s 8,982 violent and sexual offences in three years: 98 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Dartford the figure is 37.3. Where in Dartford ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 14% less violent crime per resident in Dartford 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 14% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 107 UK towns and cities of 48,000 to 93,000 people, Dartford has the 72nd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Gravesend, Hastings and Barrow-in-Furness, higher than Yeovil, Banbury and Kettering. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
33% of Dartford’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 5% 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.
The D for Dartford, and how it is built
A firm grade. Built on 13,278 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Dartford against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
How crime in Dartford 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 -14% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -14% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +14% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +17% (towns its size -2%).
33% of Dartford residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
5% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 33% 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.
Dartford’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.
Lowest recorded crime in Bridge, Heath and West Hill; highest in Stone House
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridge | 4,213 | 11.9 | 8.8 | |
| Heath | 5,771 | 14 | 11.1 | |
| West Hill | 8,219 | 17 | 9.7 | |
| Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley | 3,648 | 19.5 | 7.6 | |
| Newtown | 5,922 | 26.2 | 13.2 | |
| Maypole & Leyton Cross | 3,113 | 39.5 | 18 | |
| Brent | 6,144 | 36.5 | 21.1 | |
| Princes | 6,138 | 43.9 | 19.2 | |
| Temple Hill | 9,335 | 51.7 | 27.5 | |
| Burnham | 3,375 | 52.5 | 31.5 | |
| Town | 5,050 | 88.1 | 37 | |
| Bean & Village Park | 1,050 | 89.8 | 36.5 | |
| Stone House | 6,691 | 98 | 31.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,237 | 30% shoplifting & theft |
| Supermarkets | 862 | 56% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 587 | 53% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 433 | 30% violent |
| Nightclubs | 307 | 43% violent |
| Police stations | 99 | 51% anti-social behaviour |
| Parks and open spaces | 83 | 33% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 66 | 70% anti-social behaviour |
| College and university buildings | 34 | 62% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Stone House records 2.6× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Dartford. 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 Dartford. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Dartford’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Dartford 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 18 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, Dartford runs highest on other crime (2.9 per 1,000 against 2.1), vehicle crime (6.4 per 1,000 against 4.9) and criminal damage & arson (9 per 1,000 against 7.5). Burglary and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,580 | 37.3 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,227 | 17.7 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 689 | 10 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 623 | 9 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 485 | 7 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 440 | 6.4 | 4.9 |
| Public order | not graded | 308 | 4.5 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 274 | 4 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 200 | 2.9 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 153 | 2.2 | 3.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 88 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 70 | 1 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 46 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 31 | 0.4 | 0.9 |
“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.
Set against 107 towns its size, Dartford is 72nd
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 20 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 48 | Ashford Kent | 82,143 | 40.4 | 14.6 | 20.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 60 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 67 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 69 | Yeovil Somerset | 50,170 | 49.2 | 12.8 | 24.4 | D |
| 70 | Banbury Oxfordshire | 52,041 | 47 | 15.4 | 18.8 | D |
| 71 | Kettering Northamptonshire | 63,149 | 49.6 | 14.2 | 16.5 | D |
| 72 | Dartford Kent | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | 17.4 | D |
| 73 | Crewe Cheshire | 74,116 | 51.3 | 14.3 | 17.6 | D |
| 74 | Folkestone Kent | 51,987 | 49.7 | 17.2 | 22 | D |
| 75 | Wellingborough Northamptonshire | 54,421 | 48.9 | 19.1 | 21.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 107 | 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 Dartford, and others in Kent.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 66% of Dartford’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” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 4% 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. 4,746 crimes.
Four people died in collisions on Dartford’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 669 collisions with injuries inside Dartford in five years, in which four people died (1 was a pedestrian). 139 people were killed or seriously injured: 42 on foot and 14 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 Dartford’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Dartford’s own rate (1.2) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Dartford had 40.2 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). 30% 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 Dartford’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Dartford
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dartford | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | D |
| Hawley | 1,386 | 18.5 | 9.1 | B |
| Stone | 6,438 | 54.7 | 28.2 | D− |
| Darenth | 2,588 | 28.6 | 19.3 | C− |
| Joyden's Wood | 4,912 | 12.5 | 11.7 | B+ |
| Hextable | 4,100 | 22.4 | 14.3 | C+ |
| Purfleet-on-Thames | 5,881 | 36.2 | 31.2 | D |
| Bean | 1,633 | 27.6 | 16.5 | C |
Dartford records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Stone and Purfleet-on-Thames record more. Hawley, 1.7 miles away, records 18.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Dartford’s 43.5.
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 Dartford 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 Dartford
Is Dartford safe?
Police recorded 43.5 violent and sexual offences and 20.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Dartford’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 9% of UK towns. Among 107 UK towns of 48,000 to 93,000 people, Dartford is 72nd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Dartford?
By council ward, Bridge, Heath and West Hill record the least violent and household crime per resident: 11.9, 14 and 17 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 98 in Stone House.
Is crime going up in Dartford?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 14%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 14%, shoplifting and theft rose 14% and anti-social behaviour rose 17%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Dartford town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 307 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 43% of them violent, and Stone House ward records 98 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in March and was lowest in November.
What is the most common crime in Dartford?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,580 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (689) and criminal damage & arson (623), with 1,227 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Dartford compare with Bexley?
Bexley records 26.1 violent and sexual offences and 17.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Dartford’s 43.5 and 20.8, 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.