Photo: Chris Whippet · CC BY-SA 2.0Rochester records more crime per resident than 89% of UK towns
That puts it at D for safety, judged on crimes police recorded inside Rochester’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #72 of 87 in Kent. By contrast, recorded violence fell 6% in a year. The yearly rates were 44.7 violent and sexual offences and 16.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, 46% 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 Rochester
Violent crime fell over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% less violent crime per resident in Rochester 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 16% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 111 UK towns and cities of 47,000 to 91,000 people, Rochester has the 68th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Kettering, Dartford and Crewe, higher than Runcorn, Nuneaton and Tynemouth. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
38% of Rochester’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 5% 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.
Rochester: D for safety, and why
A firm grade. Built on 12,353 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Rochester against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
38% of Rochester residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
5% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 38% 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.
Rochester’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, Rochester runs highest on other crime (3.4 per 1,000 against 2.1). Burglary and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 2,564 | 38.1 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 1,318 | 19.6 | 17.5 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 532 | 7.9 | 7.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 507 | 7.5 | 10.3 |
| Other theft | not graded | 437 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 289 | 4.3 | 4.9 |
| Public order | not graded | 280 | 4.2 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 233 | 3.5 | 3.8 |
| Other crime | not graded | 226 | 3.4 | 2.1 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 147 | 2.2 | 3.4 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 61 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 58 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 44 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 21 | 0.3 | 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.
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.
Crime in Rochester 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 14 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.
Police in Rochester identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 61% of Rochester’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 8% 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. 4,687 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Strood Rural, Rochester South and Horsted and Strood North; highest in River
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strood Rural | 6,813 | 25.3 | 8.9 | |
| Rochester South and Horsted | 6,080 | 29.8 | 15.2 | |
| Strood North | 14,209 | 37.2 | 14.8 | |
| Rochester East | 10,654 | 41.6 | 15.1 | |
| Strood South | 16,566 | 49.8 | 18.7 | |
| Rochester West | 11,008 | 64.1 | 19.7 | |
| River | 1,585 | 85.4 | 42.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Car parks | 1,466 | 33% violent |
| Supermarkets | 1,123 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 587 | 41% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 443 | 54% violent |
| Petrol stations | 377 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 42 | 36% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so River records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Rochester. 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 Rochester. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Rochester’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Rochester 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 -6% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -16% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -21% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +24% (towns its size -2%).
Rochester is 68th of 111 UK towns of 47,000 to 91,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Metropolitan Castlereagh Lisburn and Castlereagh | 58,763 | 14.8 | 6.6 | 7.1 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 21 | Royal Tunbridge Wells Kent | 51,215 | 30.7 | 13.1 | 18.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 50 | Ashford Kent | 82,143 | 40.4 | 14.6 | 20.2 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 61 | Sittingbourne Kent | 54,385 | 41.3 | 17.5 | 20.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 65 | Runcorn Cheshire | 61,641 | 48.6 | 12.6 | 10.2 | D |
| 66 | Nuneaton Warwickshire | 88,818 | 42.7 | 18.5 | 15.9 | D |
| 67 | Tynemouth Tyne and Wear | 60,611 | 40.4 | 20.9 | 23.7 | D |
| 68 | Rochester Kent | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | 17.3 | D |
| 69 | Lancaster Lancashire | 52,646 | 39.3 | 22.6 | 17.2 | D |
| 70 | Yeovil Somerset | 50,170 | 49.2 | 12.8 | 24.4 | D |
| 71 | Banbury Oxfordshire | 52,041 | 47 | 15.4 | 18.8 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 73 | Dartford Kent | 69,131 | 43.5 | 20.8 | 17.4 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 111 | 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 Rochester, and others in Kent.
Six people died in collisions on Rochester’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 601 collisions with injuries inside Rochester in five years, in which six people died (1 was a pedestrian). 134 people were killed or seriously injured: 40 on foot and 9 on a bicycle. One person was killed on a motorway.
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 Rochester’s size would see about 4 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Rochester’s own rate (1.8) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Rochester had 39.8 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 30% 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 Rochester’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Rochester
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester | 67,279 | 44.7 | 16.8 | D |
| Cuxton | 3,039 | 9.7 | 7.4 | A |
| Chatham | 76,956 | 54 | 20.6 | D |
| Higham | 2,642 | 19.3 | 12.5 | B− |
| Chattenden | 2,417 | 40.6 | 19.3 | D |
| Halling | 2,926 | 18.8 | 11.1 | B |
| Shorne | 1,038 | 11.2 | 15.7 | B |
| Cliffe Woods | 2,689 | 11.2 | 6 | A |
Rochester records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Chatham records more. Cuxton, 2 miles away, records 9.7 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Rochester’s 44.7.
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 Rochester 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 Rochester
Is Rochester safe?
Police recorded 44.7 violent and sexual offences and 16.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Rochester’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 11% of UK towns. Among 111 UK towns of 47,000 to 91,000 people, Rochester is 68th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Rochester?
By council ward, Strood Rural, Rochester South and Horsted and Strood North record the least violent and household crime per resident: 25.3, 29.8 and 37.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 85.4 in River.
Is crime going up in Rochester?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime fell 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 16%, shoplifting and theft fell 21% and anti-social behaviour rose 24%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Rochester?
Violence & sexual offences: 2,564 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came criminal damage & arson (532) and shoplifting (507), with 1,318 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Rochester compare with Gillingham?
Gillingham records 42.7 violent and sexual offences and 16.7 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Rochester’s 44.7 and 16.8, 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.