Photo: Unknown author · CC BY 2.0Folkestone records more crime per resident than 92% of UK towns
Counting crimes police recorded inside Folkestone’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #76 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 Folkestone
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% less violent crime per resident in Folkestone 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 rose 7% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 127 UK towns and cities of 36,000 to 70,000 people, Folkestone has the 94th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Boston, Wallsend and Barrow-in-Furness, higher than Chorley, King's Lynn and Hatfield. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
37% of Folkestone’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 6% 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.
Folkestone grades D for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 10,398 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Folkestone against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Police in Folkestone identify a suspect more often than 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. 3,668 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 55% of Folkestone’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” (61% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 9% of household crimes reached court.
37% of Folkestone residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
Folkestone’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 37% 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 46 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 24 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.
Folkestone is 94th of 127 UK towns of 36,000 to 70,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Folkestone, and others in Kent.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 30 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| 31 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 17.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 75 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 82 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 91 | Chorley Lancashire | 39,539 | 48.7 | 16.2 | 15 | D |
| 92 | King's Lynn Norfolk | 47,604 | 51.4 | 14.7 | 23.1 | D |
| 93 | Hatfield Hertfordshire | 41,561 | 47.2 | 19.4 | 20.7 | D |
| 94 | Folkestone Kent | 51,987 | 49.7 | 17.2 | 22 | D |
| 95 | Batley West Yorkshire | 44,494 | 48.3 | 19.3 | 15.1 | D |
| 96 | Wellingborough Northamptonshire | 54,421 | 48.9 | 19.1 | 21.7 | D |
| 97 | Gravesend Kent | 58,105 | 45.1 | 23.1 | 17.7 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 127 | 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.
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 and cities of 50,000 or more.
Against the typical town its size, Folkestone runs highest on other crime (3.5 per 1,000 against 2.1), possession of weapons (1.7 per 1,000 against 1.1) and drugs (6 per 1,000 against 3.8). Public order and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,234 | 43 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,323 | 25.4 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 751 | 14.4 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 605 | 11.6 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 409 | 7.9 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 311 | 6 | 3.8 |
| Public order | not graded | 294 | 5.7 | 7.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 183 | 3.5 | 2.1 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 166 | 3.2 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 145 | 2.8 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 90 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 66 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 51 | 1 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 25 | 0.5 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Sandgate & West Folkestone, Cheriton and East Folkestone; highest in Folkestone Central
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Folkestone’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandgate & West Folkestone | 5,775 | 25.9 | 9.1 | |
| Cheriton | 13,516 | 30.3 | 9.2 | |
| East Folkestone | 11,550 | 39.4 | 12.5 | |
| Folkestone Harbour | 6,636 | 56 | 15.7 | |
| Broadmead | 4,198 | 49.1 | 22.8 | |
| Folkestone Central | 10,312 | 94.3 | 34.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,368 | 33% violent |
| Supermarkets | 983 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 626 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 452 | 43% drugs, public order & other |
| Petrol stations | 343 | 77% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 193 | 48% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 103 | 32% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 52 | 71% anti-social behaviour |
| Hospitals | 51 | 31% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Folkestone Central records 2.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Folkestone. 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 Folkestone. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Violent crime down 7% in a year, while towns its size held steady
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent -7% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles +7% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +6% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +46% (towns its size -2%).
“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).
Three people died in collisions on Folkestone’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Folkestone’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 408 collisions with injuries inside Folkestone in five years, in which three people died (3 were pedestrians). 79 people were killed or seriously injured: 27 on foot and 12 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 Folkestone’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Folkestone’s own rate (1.2) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Folkestone had 30.4 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as 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.
Crime in the places around Folkestone
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
Folkestone records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Dover records more. Hawkinge, 2 miles away, records 24.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Folkestone’s 49.7.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 51 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Folkestone’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 Folkestone 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 Folkestone
Is Folkestone safe?
Police recorded 49.7 violent and sexual offences and 17.2 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Folkestone’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 8% of UK towns. Among 127 UK towns of 36,000 to 70,000 people, Folkestone is 94th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Folkestone?
By council ward, Sandgate & West Folkestone, Cheriton and East Folkestone record the least violent and household crime per resident: 25.9, 30.3 and 39.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 94.3 in Folkestone Central.
Is crime going up in Folkestone?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 7%, shoplifting and theft rose 6% and anti-social behaviour rose 46%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Folkestone town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 193 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 48% of them violent, and Folkestone Central ward records 94.3 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 September.
What is the most common crime in Folkestone?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,234 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (751) and criminal damage & arson (605), with 1,323 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.