Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0Maidstone has more crime per resident than 90% of UK towns
The local count comes to 46.4 violent and sexual offences and 17.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 people each year. Violence recorded locally dropped 8% in a year. Counting crimes police recorded inside Maidstone’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #73 of 87 in Kent. Of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, 40% record more crime per resident.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Maidstone
One ward carries much of the rate
High Street ward, where 33% of Maidstone’s shoplifting and theft is recorded, recorded 4,091 of Maidstone’s 15,229 violent and sexual offences in three years: 114.4 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Maidstone the figure is 37.7. Where in Maidstone ↓
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 8% less violent crime per resident in Maidstone 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 7% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
About the middle for a city its size
Of 57 UK towns and cities of 77,000 to 148,000 people, Maidstone has the 30th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Birkenhead, Gateshead and Colchester, higher than Exeter, Blackburn and Worcester. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
32% of Maidstone’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 19% 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.
Inside Maidstone’s D for safety
A firm grade. Built on 20,773 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Maidstone against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Lowest recorded crime in Detling and Thurnham, Allington and Loose; highest in High Street
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detling and Thurnham | 1,777 | 7.5 | 6.9 | |
| Allington | 7,906 | 14.1 | 7.5 | |
| Loose | 1,153 | 15.3 | 12.4 | |
| Barming and Teston | 1,751 | 19 | 9.7 | |
| Downswood and Otham | 3,366 | 21.1 | 12.1 | |
| South | 9,993 | 26.3 | 12.3 | |
| East | 8,973 | 29.5 | 10.3 | |
| North | 10,067 | 37.1 | 12.3 | |
| Shepway South | 5,900 | 37.6 | 15.5 | |
| Fant | 10,395 | 41 | 15.1 | |
| Shepway North | 8,718 | 39 | 17.3 | |
| Bridge | 6,716 | 41.8 | 16.5 | |
| Boxley | 3,832 | 47.4 | 19.1 | |
| Park Wood | 9,402 | 50.8 | 20.8 | |
| Heath | 7,440 | 80.6 | 20.4 | |
| High Street | 11,918 | 114.4 | 35.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 2,936 | 27% violent |
| Hospitals | 1,314 | 71% violent |
| Supermarkets | 841 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 723 | 52% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 552 | 57% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 429 | 56% violent |
| Police stations | 411 | 36% drugs, public order & other |
| Prisons | 190 | 54% drugs, public order & other |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 175 | 43% violent |
| Bus and coach stations | 70 | 26% homes & vehicles |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so High Street records 3× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Maidstone. 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 Maidstone. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Maidstone’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Police in Maidstone identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 57% of Maidstone’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 13% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (68% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 9% of violent and 7% 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. 7,637 crimes.
32% of Maidstone residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
19% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 32% 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.
Maidstone’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.
Crime in Maidstone 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 16 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 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, Maidstone runs highest on other crime (3.1 per 1,000 against 2.1), criminal damage & arson (9.7 per 1,000 against 7.5) and anti-social behaviour (22.3 per 1,000 against 17.5). Burglary and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 4,436 | 40.5 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 2,437 | 22.3 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 1,092 | 10 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,064 | 9.7 | 7.5 |
| Other theft | not graded | 825 | 7.5 | 6.6 |
| Public order | not graded | 494 | 4.5 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 463 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 410 | 3.7 | 4.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 341 | 3.1 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 231 | 2.1 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 105 | 1 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 72 | 0.7 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 68 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 58 | 0.5 | 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 Maidstone 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 -8% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -7% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -4% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +26% (towns its size -2%).
Set against 57 towns its size, Maidstone is 30th
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Poole Dorset | 141,009 | 26.2 | 14.4 | 12.5 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 16 | Ashford Kent | 82,143 | 40.4 | 14.6 | 20.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 22 | Gillingham Kent | 108,485 | 42.7 | 16.7 | 14.9 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 27 | Exeter Devon | 126,181 | 47.6 | 14.5 | 25.3 | D |
| 28 | Blackburn Lancashire | 124,958 | 44.5 | 18.3 | 15.3 | D |
| 29 | Worcester Worcestershire | 105,439 | 44.8 | 18.2 | 22 | D |
| 30 | Maidstone Kent | 109,503 | 46.4 | 17 | 20.1 | D |
| 31 | Eastbourne East Sussex | 99,171 | 46.2 | 17.5 | 33 | D |
| 32 | Bedford Bedfordshire | 97,226 | 44.5 | 20.3 | 23.9 | D |
| 33 | Harlow Essex | 93,570 | 45.5 | 20.5 | 19.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 57 | 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 Maidstone, and others in Kent.
Four people died in collisions on Maidstone’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 692 collisions with injuries inside Maidstone in five years, in which four people died (1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist). 165 people were killed or seriously injured: 58 on foot and 15 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 Maidstone’s size would see about 6 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Maidstone’s own rate (0.7) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Maidstone had 30.1 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). 35% 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 Maidstone’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Maidstone
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maidstone | 109,503 | 46.4 | 17 | D |
| Bearsted | 8,349 | 14.8 | 7.1 | A− |
| Coxheath | 8,453 | 24.2 | 8.8 | B− |
| Eccles | 1,706 | 19.9 | 8.6 | B |
| Larkfield | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | C+ |
| Wateringbury | 2,248 | 15.1 | 13.3 | B |
| Burham | 1,293 | 18.8 | 12.1 | B− |
| Sutton Valence | 1,457 | 24 | 13.3 | C+ |
Maidstone records more graded crime per resident than every neighbour in the table. Bearsted, 2.1 miles away, records 14.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Maidstone’s 46.4.
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
- A prison inside the boundary. police.uk counted 190 at or near a prison (41% violent) and 1,314 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Maidstone’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 Maidstone 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 Maidstone
Is Maidstone safe?
Police recorded 46.4 violent and sexual offences and 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Maidstone’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 10% of UK towns. Among 57 UK towns of 77,000 to 148,000 people, Maidstone is 30th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Maidstone?
By council ward, Detling and Thurnham, Allington and Loose record the least violent and household crime per resident: 7.5, 14.1 and 15.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 114.4 in High Street.
Is crime going up in Maidstone?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 8%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 7%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 26%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Maidstone city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 429 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 56% of them violent, and High Street ward records 114.4 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 February.
What is the most common crime in Maidstone?
Violence & sexual offences: 4,436 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (1,092) and criminal damage & arson (1,064), with 2,437 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.