Photo: Paste at English Wikipedia · Public domainWhitstable stands out for shoplifting: 2.5 times the rate of a typical town its size
Its Safety Grade, C (#33 of 87 in Kent), rests on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: more crime per resident than 66% of UK towns. It has more violent crime than 61% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 74%. Recorded violence held steady in a year. Each year brought 27.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.3 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage for every 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Whitstable
Less crime than many places its size
Of 191 UK towns of 23,000 to 43,000 people, Whitstable has the 65th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Falmouth, Hertford and Waterlooville, higher than Bicester, Witney and Egham. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Whitstable’s C
A fairly firm grade. Built on 3,879 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Whitstable against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Whitstable runs highest on shoplifting (15.2 per 1,000 against 6.1), vehicle crime (4.6 per 1,000 against 2.8) and anti-social behaviour (14.3 per 1,000 against 12.4). Drugs and public order sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 828 | 25.7 | 30.4 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 489 | 15.2 | 6.1 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 459 | 14.3 | 12.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 227 | 7.1 | 6.2 |
| Other theft | not graded | 159 | 4.9 | 4.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 149 | 4.6 | 2.8 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 82 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 56 | 1.7 | 5.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 52 | 1.6 | 1.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 51 | 1.6 | 1.8 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 18 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| Robbery | Violent | 18 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 9 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 8 | 0.2 | 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 of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Whitstable is 65th of 191 UK towns of 23,000 to 43,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heswall Merseyside | 29,082 | 14.3 | 5.5 | 3.8 | A− |
| … | ||||||
| 31 | Sevenoaks Kent | 26,474 | 19.1 | 14.8 | 17.1 | B− |
| … | ||||||
| 56 | Larkfield Kent | 26,147 | 25.2 | 13.9 | 9.5 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 62 | Bicester Oxfordshire | 37,748 | 30.5 | 9.6 | 30.4 | C+ |
| 63 | Witney Oxfordshire | 30,167 | 31.9 | 8.2 | 11.9 | C+ |
| 64 | Egham Surrey | 28,003 | 28.5 | 11.7 | 17.6 | C+ |
| 65 | Whitstable Kent | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | 19.4 | C |
| 66 | St Neots Cambridgeshire | 33,262 | 26.8 | 13.8 | 10.7 | C |
| 67 | Walton-on-Thames Surrey | 27,016 | 28.5 | 12.9 | 13.7 | C |
| 68 | Bromsgrove Worcestershire | 34,759 | 30.9 | 10.8 | 12.9 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 77 | Tonbridge Kent | 36,136 | 30.1 | 13.8 | 17.4 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 81 | Broadstairs Kent | 25,780 | 31.6 | 13.5 | 15.1 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 191 | Great Yarmouth Norfolk | 28,979 | 105 | 32.9 | 33.7 | 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 Whitstable, and others in Kent.
How Whitstable’s neighbourhoods rank in England
30% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 20% 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.
Whitstable’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 Whitstable 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 21 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
Lowest recorded crime in Tankerton, Swalecliffe and Seasalter; highest in Gorrell
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tankerton | 3,527 | 14.6 | 8.2 | |
| Swalecliffe | 3,957 | 19.3 | 7.2 | |
| Seasalter | 7,169 | 25.9 | 10.5 | |
| Chestfield | 6,907 | 26.7 | 11.8 | |
| Gorrell | 10,625 | 34.8 | 19.5 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 1,146 | 84% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 290 | 37% anti-social behaviour |
| Petrol stations | 194 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 39 | 46% anti-social behaviour |
| Shopping areas | 24 | 38% homes & vehicles |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Gorrell records 1.5× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Whitstable. 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 Whitstable. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Whitstable’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
How crime in Whitstable has moved
“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).
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 +3% (towns its size +1%), homes and vehicles +19% (towns its size -2%), shoplifting and theft -14% (towns its size +1%), anti-social behaviour +30% (towns its size -4%).
Police name a suspect about as often as across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 68% of Whitstable’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” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 3% 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. 1,352 crimes.
Two people died in collisions on Whitstable’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 168 collisions with injuries inside Whitstable in five years, in which two people died (1 was a pedestrian and 1 was a cyclist). 66 people were killed or seriously injured: 13 on foot and 8 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 Whitstable’s size would see about 1 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Whitstable’s own rate (1.2) is context, not a ranking.
Counting serious injuries too, Whitstable had 41.0 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). 20% 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.
Collisions police recorded inside Whitstable’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Whitstable
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whitstable | 32,185 | 27.1 | 13.3 | C |
| Blean | 1,327 | 9 | 6 | A |
| Herne | 14,874 | 21.7 | 7.6 | B |
| Rough Common | 1,291 | 14.7 | 5.9 | A− |
| Herne Bay | 24,873 | 40.1 | 15 | C− |
| Sturry | 4,857 | 31.3 | 12.4 | C |
| Canterbury | 55,107 | 61.9 | 23.2 | D− |
| Boughton under Blean | 2,274 | 22.3 | 8.1 | B |
Whitstable records more graded crime per resident than 4 of its 7 neighbours. Blean, 3.1 miles away, records 9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Whitstable’s 27.1.
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 Whitstable 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 Whitstable
Is Whitstable safe?
Police recorded 27.1 violent and sexual offences and 13.3 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Whitstable’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 34% of UK towns. Among 191 UK towns of 23,000 to 43,000 people, Whitstable is 65th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Whitstable?
By council ward, Tankerton, Swalecliffe and Seasalter record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.6, 19.3 and 25.9 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 34.8 in Gorrell.
Is crime going up in Whitstable?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage rose 19%, shoplifting and theft fell 14% and anti-social behaviour rose 30%. Across UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Whitstable?
Violence & sexual offences: 828 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (489) and criminal damage & arson (227), with 459 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Whitstable 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 Whitstable’s 27.1 and 13.3, 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.