Photo: Stephen McKay · CC BY-SA 2.0On violent crime, Deal has a higher rate per resident than 76% of UK towns
Compared with the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, it records less crime per resident than 46%. In a usual year, 34.0 violent and sexual offences and 12.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants. Measured on crimes police recorded inside Deal’s built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026, it earns a Safety Grade of C: #48 of 87 in Kent. Violence recorded locally dropped 17% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Deal
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 17% less violent crime per resident in Deal than in the year before; across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 23% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a town its size
Of 222 UK towns of 20,000 to 39,000 people, Deal has the 103rd lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Loughton, Ossett and Antrim, higher than Coleraine, Canvey Island and Dunstable. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Deal’s grade
A fairly firm grade. Built on 4,034 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Deal against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Public order and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 774 | 26.7 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 356 | 12.3 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 176 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 119 | 4.1 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 70 | 2.4 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 60 | 2.1 | 5.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 51 | 1.8 | 1.8 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 50 | 1.7 | 6.1 |
| Drugs | not graded | 44 | 1.5 | 1.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 36 | 1.2 | 2.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 14 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 12 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 9 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 1 | 0 | 0.3 |
“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 of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
How crime in Deal has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling six-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year (longer windows for smaller places, where a few crimes swing a month). In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -17% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -23% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -30% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour -8% (towns its size -4%).
How Deal’s neighbourhoods rank in England
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 14% 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.
Deal’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.
Police in Deal identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 61% of Deal’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 14% 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 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. 1,617 crimes.
Crime in Deal 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 10 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 6 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 Mill Hill, Walmer and Middle Deal
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mill Hill | 7,868 | 29.7 | 9.3 | |
| Walmer | 6,447 | 27.9 | 11.8 | |
| Middle Deal | 7,716 | 37.1 | 12.1 | |
| North Deal | 6,594 | 40.9 | 18.6 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 471 | 30% violent |
| Shopping areas | 117 | 36% anti-social behaviour |
| Supermarkets | 89 | 69% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 62 | 60% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 44 | 61% violent |
| Petrol stations | 25 | 28% violent |
| Hospitals | 22 | 45% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live. 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 Deal. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Deal’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Among 222 towns its size, Deal ranks 103rd for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 41 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 19.1 | 14.8 | 17.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 69 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | 9.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 82 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | 19.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 94 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 17.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 100 | Coleraine Causeway Coast and Glens | 24,483 | 33.6 | 12.4 | 13.2 | C |
| 101 | Canvey Island Essex | 38,004 | 33.6 | 12.6 | 9.7 | C |
| 102 | Dunstable Bedfordshire | 34,498 | 31.3 | 14.9 | 12.6 | C |
| 103 | Deal Kent | 28,992 | 34 | 12.8 | 8.1 | C |
| 104 | Ashford Surrey | 22,823 | 31.5 | 15.4 | 16.7 | C |
| 105 | Potters Bar Hertfordshire | 23,394 | 30.9 | 16.3 | 21 | C |
| 106 | Consett County Durham | 29,874 | 33.8 | 13.4 | 14.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 222 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Deal, and others in Kent.
One person died in collisions on Deal’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 172 collisions with injuries inside Deal in five years, in which one person died. 47 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 on foot and 6 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 Deal’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Deal’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Deal had 32.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people (23.8). 21% of them were on foot, against 30% across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
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 Deal’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Deal
Deal records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Sandwich and Whitfield record more. Kingsdown, 2.2 miles away, records 18.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Deal’s 34.
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 Deal 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 Deal
Is Deal safe?
Police recorded 34 violent and sexual offences and 12.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Deal’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 25% of UK towns. Among 222 UK towns of 20,000 to 39,000 people, Deal is 103rd from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Deal?
By council ward, Mill Hill, Walmer and Middle Deal record the least violent and household crime per resident: 29.7, 27.9 and 37.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 40.9 in North Deal.
Is crime going up in Deal?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 17%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 23%, shoplifting and theft fell 30% and anti-social behaviour fell 8%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
Is Deal town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 62 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 60% of them violent, and North Deal ward records 40.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in August and was lowest in June.
What is the most common crime in Deal?
Violence & sexual offences: 774 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (176) and other theft (119), with 356 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Deal compare with Margate?
Margate records 56.1 violent and sexual offences and 17.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Deal’s 34 and 12.8, 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.