Crime and Safety in Canterbury
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
Canterbury is the third safest major town in Kent, and is the 58th most dangerous overall out of Kent's 331 towns, villages, and cities. The overall crime rate in Canterbury in 2026 is 75 crimes per 1,000 people. This compares poorly to Kent's overall crime rate, coming in 8% higher than the Kent rate of 69 per 1,000 daytime population. For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland as a whole, Canterbury is the 38th safest major town, and the 1,400th most dangerous location out of all towns, cities, and villages.
In February 2026, Canterbury was the worst major town in Kent for shoplifting, with 57 crimes reported and a crime rate of 0.86 per 1,000 daytime population. April 2026 was also a bad month for Canterbury residents, when it was Kent's most dangerous major town for burglary, recording 24 crimes at a rate of 0.36 per 1,000 daytime population.
The most common crimes in Canterbury are violence and sexual offences, with 2,036 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 31. This is 0.89% higher than 2025's figure of 2,018 offences and a difference of 0.10 from 2025's crime rate of 31. Canterbury's least common crime is theft from the person, with 13 offences recorded in 2026, the same as 2025's figure of 13 crimes.
Canterbury 2026 Crime Scorecard
Third Safest
Major Towns, Kent
21% higher, regional crime rate
South East
3.6% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Canterbury is 21% higher than the South East and 3.6% higher than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Canterbury Crime Rate Over Time
| Canterbury | |
| South East | |
| England, Wales & NI |
Canterbury Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Canterbury represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
See How Canterbury Compares
You can compare Canterbury's crime statistics against any other town, village, or city from across the country. Search for a location's name below to see how they stack up.
Introduction to Canterbury's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Canterbury up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Canterbury's 1,726 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
CrimeRate Insights
Looking into a specific address in Canterbury? CrimeRate Insights reports convert raw numbers into practical insight for any location, from single addresses and postcodes, up to major towns and cities.
Crime rates don’t happen by themselves; they follow people and patterns. Where crowds gather - near pubs and late-night venues, around the station, by supermarkets and forecourts - incidents naturally concentrate.
That doesn’t mean an area is "bad"; it usually means footfall is higher.
Your report explores these factors in a calm, non-judgemental way, putting the numbers in context and helping you spot what’s typical for places like this.
Crime Risk Scores
Canterbury • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Canterbury has a crime risk score of 474. This is based on analysis of 1,726 nearby areas within Canterbury, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Canterbury's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Canterbury, crime risk scores are typically around 474, while in Kent they are average 475.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 507 (475 for Kent), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 540 (Kent 489).
Trends in Crime Risk
Canterbury
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 11% in Canterbury's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Canterbury's crime risk score is down by 15%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Canterbury's crime risk score has shown an upward trend of approximately 2.6%, indicating that the risk profile is going up. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Canterbury
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Canterbury • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Shoplifting offences have a crime rate of 15 reports per 1,000 people in Canterbury, which is 2.05 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 954 crime reports logged by Kent Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Kent Police recorded 515 reports of Criminal Damage and Arson in Canterbury, resulting in a crime rate of 7.89 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 1.26.
The crime rate for Violence and Sexual Offences is 1.03 times the national average at 31 reports per 1,000. This is from 2,036 crime reports reported to Kent Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Canterbury
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.43 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 0.36 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 19% over this timeframe.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.90 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 0.89 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 1.1% over this timeframe.
Burglary offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.50 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Burglary CrimeRate Index was 0.53 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 183% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Canterbury
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Public Order offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.50 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 0.59 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 15% over this timeframe.
Possession of Weapons offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.71 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Possession of Weapons CrimeRate Index was 1.29 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 45% over this timeframe.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.42 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 0.23 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 83% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Canterbury • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Canterbury | Kent | South East | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 1,043 | 16.00 | 1.13 | 33,285 | 15.94 | 1.13 | 115,500 | 10.87 | 0.77 |
| Bicycle Theft | 33 | 0.52 | 0.84 | 1,031 | 0.49 | 0.67 | 7,315 | 0.68 | 0.93 |
| Burglary | 184 | 2.82 | 0.90 | 4,454 | 2.13 | 0.68 | 23,535 | 2.23 | 0.71 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 515 | 7.89 | 1.26 | 16,208 | 7.75 | 1.23 | 58,501 | 5.50 | 0.88 |
| Drugs | 186 | 2.86 | 0.93 | 6,414 | 3.08 | 1.00 | 25,203 | 2.37 | 0.77 |
| Other Crime | 131 | 2.02 | 1.09 | 4,961 | 2.39 | 1.29 | 17,151 | 1.61 | 0.87 |
| Other Theft | 315 | 4.82 | 0.85 | 11,589 | 5.56 | 0.98 | 51,336 | 4.84 | 0.85 |
| Possession of Weapons | 46 | 0.72 | 0.91 | 1,853 | 0.87 | 1.02 | 8,736 | 0.81 | 0.95 |
| Public Order | 166 | 2.54 | 0.44 | 7,424 | 3.57 | 0.62 | 54,745 | 5.15 | 0.89 |
| Robbery | 44 | 0.68 | 0.62 | 1,479 | 0.73 | 0.62 | 7,588 | 0.72 | 0.61 |
| Shoplifting | 954 | 14.65 | 2.05 | 16,401 | 7.86 | 1.10 | 72,983 | 6.88 | 0.96 |
| Theft From the Person | 13 | 0.23 | 0.20 | 763 | 0.37 | 0.24 | 4,668 | 0.45 | 0.29 |
| Vehicle Crime | 232 | 3.56 | 0.83 | 7,243 | 3.48 | 0.81 | 34,099 | 3.22 | 0.75 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 2,036 | 31.23 | 1.03 | 64,584 | 30.92 | 1.02 | 286,815 | 26.98 | 0.89 |
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Total Crime by Year
Canterbury | Kent | South East | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 4,855 | 74.54 | 1.05 | 144,404 | 69.20 | 0.96 | 652,675 | 61.44 | 0.85 |
| 2025 | 4,480 | 69.48 | 0.95 | 153,480 | 74.18 | 1.00 | 670,274 | 63.35 | 0.86 |
| 2024 | 4,613 | 72.00 | 0.96 | 162,626 | 79.53 | 1.05 | 690,903 | 65.86 | 0.87 |
| 2023 | 4,768 | 74.70 | 0.95 | 167,520 | 82.95 | 1.05 | 713,547 | 68.83 | 0.87 |
| 2022 | 4,617 | 72.05 | 0.95 | 176,002 | 88.22 | 1.15 | 704,444 | 68.58 | 0.89 |
| 2021 | 4,523 | 70.61 | 1.04 | 161,638 | 81.59 | 1.19 | 625,484 | 61.36 | 0.89 |
| 2020 | 4,649 | 72.54 | 0.98 | 176,505 | 89.63 | 1.21 | 669,219 | 65.97 | 0.89 |
| 2019 | 4,984 | 77.49 | 1.02 | 185,038 | 94.50 | 1.24 | 666,505 | 65.82 | 0.86 |
| 2018 | 5,106 | 78.94 | 1.11 | 180,609 | 92.70 | 1.30 | 644,142 | 63.85 | 0.90 |
| 2017 | 3,739 | 57.75 | 0.91 | 132,537 | 68.41 | 1.07 | 552,696 | 55.04 | 0.86 |
| 2016 | 1,130 | 17.50 | 0.92 | 37,766 | 19.54 | 1.02 | 160,273 | 15.99 | 0.84 |
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Canterbury Compared to Nearby Major Towns
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Major Town | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Margate | 6,239 | 95.42 | 28% more dangerous |
| Chatham | 8,085 | 94.05 | 26% more dangerous |
| Ashford | 4,497 | 87.42 | 17% more dangerous |
| Maidstone | 8,954 | 84.97 | 14% more dangerous |
| Gillingham | 9,177 | 79.21 | 6% more dangerous |
| Canterbury | 4,855 | 74.54 | - |
| Rochester | 2,702 | 66.19 | 11% safer |
| Royal Tunbridge Wells | 3,296 | 55.06 | 26% safer |
Comparing Canterbury to the UK's Major Cities
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| City Name | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Canterbury | 74.54 | - |
| Cardiff | 79.55 | 7% more dangerous |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | 82.69 | 11% more dangerous |
| Sheffield | 84.09 | 13% more dangerous |
| Leicester | 97.87 | 31% more dangerous |
| Bristol | 104.64 | 40% more dangerous |
| Birmingham | 105.05 | 41% more dangerous |
| Liverpool | 106.48 | 43% more dangerous |
| Leeds | 107.10 | 44% more dangerous |
| Nottingham | 107.74 | 45% more dangerous |
| Westminster | 125.00 | 68% more dangerous |
CrimeRate Pro
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You can find out more, or get a CrimeRate Insights report that includes further analysis.
Offences In and Around Canterbury's Parks & Leisure Spaces
Limited to spaces in Canterbury that are named and have had crimes recorded within their boundaries in the 12 months to Apr 2026.
| Name | ASB | Drugs | Public Order | Robbery | VSO | All Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornwallis Circle Recreation Ground | 7 | - | - | - | 17 | 16 |
| The Downs | 19 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 12 |
| Duncan Down | 19 | 1 | 1 | - | 44 | 18 |
| Propsect Field | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| Reculver Country Park | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | 9 | 3 |
| Memorial Park | 31 | 10 | 2 | - | 36 | 27 |
| The Oyster Indoor Bowling Centre | 5 | - | 1 | - | 10 | 15 |
| Lane End Garden | 13 | 3 | - | - | 3 | 0 |
| Tower Gardens | 18 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 43 | 23 |
| Waltrop Gardens | 10 | 2 | 2 | - | 31 | 19 |
| Herne Bay Hockey Club | 2 | 2 | - | - | 7 | 11 |
| Hampton Coastal Park | 5 | 3 | - | - | 6 | 11 |
Recent Crimes in Canterbury
The 20 most recent crime reports in Canterbury.
| Date | Crime Type | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Supermarket | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Greenhill Bridge Road | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Brunswick Square | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Oliver Drive | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Brunswick Square | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Brunswick Square | |
| April 2026 | Anti-social behaviour | On or near Pier Avenue | |
| April 2026 | Burglary | On or near Lang Court | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Sea Street | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Herneville Gardens | |
| April 2026 | Criminal damage and arson | On or near Beacon Walk | |
| April 2026 | Robbery | On or near Terrys Lane | |
| April 2026 | Theft from the person | On or near Terrys Lane | |
| April 2026 | Vehicle crime | On or near Sea Street | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Beacon Walk | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Lang Court | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Kingsley Road | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Brunswick Square | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Brunswick Square | |
| April 2026 | Violence and sexual offences | On or near Beacon Walk |
Methodology & Data Sources
Canterbury Crime Report
Data Sources & Processing
Every month, CrimeRate processes crime reports from data.police.uk, the UK's official provider of open crime report data. Each crime report includes anonymised coordinates, most often "snapped" to the middle of the nearest street, or to the nearest major landmark. The reports also include the month and year the crime was reported, as well as the type of crime.
Data releases on data.police.uk happen once a month, with a two-month delay. This means that, for example, crimes reported in Canterbury during August 2026 will typically become available in October 2026. The latest release is for Apr 2026 and was released in Jun 2026. To provide current and historical crime statistics, CrimeRate processed 61,669,232 crime reports for the latest release.
Canterbury Data Points
For Canterbury, CrimeRate uses the geographic boundaries provided by The Office for National Statistics in the December 2023 release of their Parishes and Non Civil Parished Areas dataset, using the PARNCP23CD column value E43000269.
Due to the 2021 Census being conducted during a UK-wide Coronavirus lockdown, the daytime population figures released so far cannot be relied on for purposes such as comparing crime rates. Instead, CrimeRate uses Canterbury's daytime - or "workday" - population of 117,701 from the ONS 2011 Census for calculations throughout the site.
All geographic boundaries use the full resolution - extent of the realm versions where provided to avoid missing crime reports near coastlines and rivers - the banks of the Thames in particular - that would otherwise not be included when using the clipped to the coastline datasets.
Calculating Crime Rates
CrimeRate locates the UK region, county, and town/city/village locality for each crime report, and calculates the crime rate by taking the sum of all crime reports, dividing it by the locality's daytime / "workday" population, and multiplying the result by 1,000 to get the crime rate per 1,000.
Crime Risk Score Calculations
CrimeRate calculates crime counts for local, nearby, and wider areas for every postcode in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The postcodes locations are deduplicated by a process that ensures distinct points are approximately 50 metres apart. This process removes the bias that would otherwise come from counting the same crimes several times in heavily populated areas.
Using a custom algorithm developed in-house, CrimeRate applies a crime severity weighting to each area's crime counts, based on the type of crime reported. This increases or decreases the crime count, or zeroes it out entirely, depending on the crime type. A separate crime severity rate is then calculated, standardised, and scaled to fit the crime risk score range of 1 to 1,000, with 1 being the lowest score, and 1,000 the highest.
Crime risk scores undergo further analysis per town, city, and village plus other areas including police forces and neighbourhoods. CrimeRate uses percentiles to work out the most common range of crime risk scores in each locality. This includes identifying the high and low bounds where approximately 68% of scores fall, and finding the median (50th percentile) for easy reference.
The crime types with a weight of zero are: Anti-Social Behaviour; Bicycle Theft; Other Crime; Other Theft; and Shoplifting. The highest weights to are assigned to Violence & Sexual Offences, and the lowest to Vehicle Crime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Canterbury