Photo: Des Blenkinsopp · CC BY-SA 2.0Faversham has more crime per resident than 83% of UK towns
On crimes police recorded inside Faversham’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades C− for safety: #59 of 87 in Kent.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Faversham
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 15% less violent crime per resident in Faversham 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 held steady (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 252 UK towns of 15,000 to 28,000 people, Faversham has the 178th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Litherland, Coseley and Seaham, higher than South Ockendon, Gorleston-on-Sea and Prestatyn. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Faversham grades C− for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 3,326 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Faversham against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
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.
Against the typical town its size, Faversham runs highest on vehicle crime (5.4 per 1,000 against 2.8), anti-social behaviour (23.2 per 1,000 against 12.4) and other crime (3.2 per 1,000 against 1.8). Public order sits below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 650 | 31 | 30.4 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 485 | 23.2 | 12.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 210 | 10 | 6.1 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 179 | 8.5 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 119 | 5.7 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 114 | 5.4 | 2.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 90 | 4.3 | 5.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 67 | 3.2 | 1.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 49 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 43 | 2.1 | 1.9 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 18 | 0.9 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 18 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 18 | 0.9 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 6 | 0.3 | 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.
Violent crime down 15% in a year, while towns its size held steady
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 -15% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles -1% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -15% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +1% (towns its size -4%).
“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).
How Faversham’s neighbourhoods rank in England
Faversham’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.
6% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 17% 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.
Faversham is 178th of 252 UK towns of 15,000 to 28,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Faversham, and others in Kent.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Streetly West Midlands | 16,790 | 11.2 | 9 | 5.3 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 34 | Longfield, New Ash Green and Hartley Kent | 16,077 | 17.1 | 13.4 | 10.8 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 57 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 19.1 | 14.8 | 17.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 92 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | 9.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 114 | Minster (Swale) Kent | 16,735 | 29 | 13 | 6.1 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 175 | South Ockendon Essex | 22,441 | 36.8 | 16.5 | 10.1 | C− |
| 176 | Gorleston-on-Sea Norfolk | 24,474 | 39.2 | 14.2 | 12.5 | C− |
| 177 | Prestatyn Clwyd | 16,678 | 41.3 | 12.2 | 18.7 | C− |
| 178 | Faversham Kent | 20,941 | 36 | 17.6 | 17.6 | C− |
| 179 | Newton-le-Willows Merseyside | 24,651 | 40.6 | 13.5 | 12.4 | C− |
| 180 | Somercotes and Swanwick Derbyshire | 15,105 | 41.4 | 12.8 | 11.2 | C− |
| 181 | Herne Bay Kent | 24,873 | 40.1 | 15 | 19.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 252 | Rhyl Clwyd | 26,982 | 89.1 | 22.9 | 29 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
For every 1,000 residents, about 33 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 17 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
Lowest recorded crime in Teynham and Lynsted, St Ann's and Watling; highest in Abbey
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Faversham’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teynham and Lynsted | 505 | 16.5 | 9.2 | |
| St Ann's | 5,496 | 22.7 | 13.2 | |
| Watling | 6,767 | 26.2 | 14.4 | |
| Priory | 2,902 | 55.8 | 19.1 | |
| Abbey | 5,271 | 51.5 | 25.4 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 647 | 65% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 77 | 43% violent |
| Car parks | 45 | 36% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 33 | 42% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Priory records 1.7× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Faversham. 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 Faversham. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
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. 1,148 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 71% of Faversham’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” (69% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 3% of household crimes reached court.
Two people died in collisions on Faversham’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Faversham’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 119 collisions with injuries inside Faversham in five years, in which two people died. 37 people were killed or seriously injured: 10 on foot and 7 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 Faversham’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Faversham’s own rate (1.9) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Faversham had 35.3 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). 27% 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.
Crime in the places around Faversham
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faversham | 20,941 | 36 | 17.6 | C− |
| Boughton under Blean | 2,274 | 22.3 | 8.1 | B |
| Teynham | 3,128 | 38.7 | 17.1 | C− |
| Eastchurch | 3,381 | 132 | 13.9 | D− |
| Warden | 1,817 | 33.9 | 12.3 | C |
| Challock | 1,089 | 5.2 | 3.1 | A+ |
| Sittingbourne | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | D |
| Blean | 1,327 | 9 | 6 | A |
Faversham records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Boughton under Blean, 3.4 miles away, records 22.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Faversham’s 36.
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 Faversham 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 Faversham
Is Faversham safe?
Police recorded 36 violent and sexual offences and 17.6 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Faversham’s built-up area). That earns a C− for safety: less crime per resident than 17% of UK towns. Among 252 UK towns of 15,000 to 28,000 people, Faversham is 178th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Faversham?
By council ward, Teynham and Lynsted, St Ann's and Watling record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.5, 22.7 and 26.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 51.5 in Abbey.
Is crime going up in Faversham?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 15%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage held steady, shoplifting and theft fell 15% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Faversham?
Violence & sexual offences: 650 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (210) and criminal damage & arson (179), with 485 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Faversham compare with Canterbury?
Canterbury records 61.9 violent and sexual offences and 23.2 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Faversham’s 36 and 17.6, 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.