Photo: Robin Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0Gravesend sees more crime per resident than nine in ten UK towns
Violence recorded locally dropped 13% in a year. Still, the Safety Grade comes out at D, drawn from crimes police recorded inside Gravesend’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #76 of 87 in Kent. Annual rates stand at 45.1 violent and sexual offences and 23.1 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every thousand residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Gravesend
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 13% less violent crime per resident in Gravesend 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 15% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 118 UK towns and cities of 41,000 to 78,000 people, Gravesend has the 85th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Cwmbrân, Tipton and Smethwick, higher than Folkestone, Batley and Wellingborough. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
53% of Gravesend’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 0% 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 sits behind Gravesend’s D
A firm grade. Built on 11,828 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Gravesend against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
53% of Gravesend residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
0% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 53% 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.
Gravesend’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.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Gravesend runs highest on anti-social behaviour (25 per 1,000 against 17.5), other theft (8.8 per 1,000 against 6.6) and criminal damage & arson (9.6 per 1,000 against 7.5). Public order and shoplifting sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,151 | 37 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,452 | 25 | 17.5 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 555 | 9.6 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 511 | 8.8 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 325 | 5.6 | 4.9 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 303 | 5.2 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 218 | 3.8 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 199 | 3.4 | 3.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 185 | 3.2 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 149 | 2.6 | 2.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 99 | 1.7 | 1.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 71 | 1.2 | 1.1 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 39 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 36 | 0.6 | 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.
How crime in Gravesend 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 -13% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -15% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -10% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +22% (towns its size -2%).
Crime in Gravesend 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 15 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Of 118 towns its size, Gravesend is 85th 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− |
| … | ||||||
| 24 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 66 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 72 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 78 | Dartford Kent | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | 17.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 82 | Folkestone Kent | 51,987 | 49.7 | 17.2 | 22 | D |
| 83 | Batley West Yorkshire | 44,494 | 48.3 | 19.3 | 15.1 | D |
| 84 | Wellingborough Northamptonshire | 54,421 | 48.9 | 19.1 | 21.7 | D |
| 85 | Gravesend Kent | 58,105 | 45.1 | 23.1 | 17.7 | D |
| 86 | Boston Lincolnshire | 45,347 | 50.7 | 17.6 | 26.7 | D |
| 87 | Wallsend Tyne and Wear | 45,351 | 47.6 | 21.7 | 23 | D |
| 88 | Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria | 55,260 | 54.1 | 15.9 | 13.3 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 118 | 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.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Gravesend, and others in Kent.
Lowest recorded crime in Shorne, Cobham and Luddesdown, Riverview and Chalk; highest in Pelham
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shorne, Cobham and Luddesdown | 900 | 7 | 13 | |
| Riverview | 4,331 | 18.1 | 12.8 | |
| Chalk | 2,208 | 17.4 | 14.9 | |
| Whitehill | 4,538 | 33.1 | 18.7 | |
| Woodlands | 7,307 | 33.1 | 20.5 | |
| Westcourt | 7,276 | 40.8 | 20.2 | |
| Singlewell | 8,308 | 42.4 | 20.7 | |
| Central | 6,858 | 50.9 | 25 | |
| Riverside | 9,772 | 53.3 | 26.9 | |
| Pelham | 6,607 | 85.4 | 36.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 738 | 28% violent |
| Supermarkets | 709 | 64% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 614 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 525 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 108 | 55% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 103 | 32% violent |
| Ferry terminals | 48 | 29% violent |
| College and university buildings | 27 | 37% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Pelham records 2.2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Gravesend. 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 Gravesend. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Gravesend’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 67% of Gravesend’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 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. 4,521 crimes.
One person died in collisions on Gravesend’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 446 collisions with injuries inside Gravesend in five years, in which one person died. 75 people were killed or seriously injured: 28 on foot and 7 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 Gravesend’s size would see about 3 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Gravesend’s own rate (0.3) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Gravesend had 25.8 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). 37% 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 Gravesend’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Gravesend
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravesend | 58,105 | 45.1 | 23.1 | D |
| Northfleet | 29,892 | 45 | 20.6 | D |
| Istead Rise | 3,398 | 9.7 | 7.6 | A |
| Tilbury | 14,187 | 55.6 | 35.9 | D− |
| Shorne | 1,038 | 11.2 | 15.7 | B |
| Ebbsfleet Valley | 2,989 | 50.5 | 27.3 | D− |
| Higham | 2,642 | 19.3 | 12.5 | B− |
| Meopham | 4,349 | 17.1 | 12.3 | B |
Gravesend records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Tilbury and Ebbsfleet Valley record more. Northfleet, 1.6 miles away, records 45 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Gravesend’s 45.1.
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 Gravesend 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 Gravesend
Is Gravesend safe?
Police recorded 45.1 violent and sexual offences and 23.1 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Gravesend’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 8% of UK towns. Among 118 UK towns of 41,000 to 78,000 people, Gravesend is 85th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Gravesend?
By council ward, Shorne, Cobham and Luddesdown, Riverview and Chalk record the least violent and household crime per resident: 7, 18.1 and 17.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 85.4 in Pelham.
Is crime going up in Gravesend?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 13%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 15%, shoplifting and theft fell 10% and anti-social behaviour rose 22%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Gravesend town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 108 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 55% of them violent, and Pelham ward records 85.4 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 Gravesend?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,151 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (555) and other theft (511), with 1,452 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.