Arun vs Chichester

Chichester records less crime for its size than Arun: 79.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 88.5. That is about 11% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

Arun 88.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, West Sussex
Chichester 79.4 crimes per 1,000 residents, West Sussex

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Arun is close to it. Chichester is about 13% below it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Arun and Chichester
  Arun Chichester
Crimes per 1,000 residents 88.5 79.4
Offences in the year to July 2026 15,051 10,241
Residents 170,064 128,934
Change on the previous 12 months +2.3% +2.6%
Rank in England and Wales 137 of 306 183 of 306

Rank 1 is the highest recorded rate. Both areas are local authority areas, so the two populations are counted the same way and the rates are directly comparable.

Offence by offence

The mix differs more than the totals do. Arun records about 1.7 times as much drugs, 1.6 times as much robbery and 1.5 times as much vehicle crime per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Arun Chichester
Violence and sexual offences 29.1 24.5
Anti-social behaviour 17.8 18.8
Shoplifting 9.8 8.1
Criminal damage and arson 7.3 6.7
Public order 6.1 6.5
Other theft 5.1 4.7
Vehicle crime 3.6 2.5
Burglary 2.5 2.3
Drugs 2.3 1.4
Other crime 1.7 1.2
Possession of weapons 1.1 0.9
Robbery 1.2 0.7
Bicycle theft 0.8 0.9
Theft from the person 0.2 0.3
All recorded crime 88.5 79.4

Both places since 2011

Each line is a rolling twelve-month rate per 1,000 residents, so seasonality is taken out and the two areas are on the same scale despite their different sizes.

Arun Chichester
3060901200Covid lockdown89 Arun79 Chichester2012201420162018202020222024Jul 2026
A line breaks wherever the twelve months behind it include a return the force never filed, because a twelve-month total missing three of its months is not a total.

Questions

Is Arun safer than Chichester?

Chichester records less crime for its size than Arun: 79.4 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to July 2026, against 88.5. That is about 11% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

What does this comparison not tell you?

Recorded crime counts what the police wrote down, so a place where people report more looks worse than a place where they report less, whatever actually happened. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority: a town with one busy centre and quiet suburbs carries a rate that describes neither. And the denominator is residents, so somewhere that fills up with commuters, students or shoppers by day records crime against a population it is not credited with. How the figures work sets all of this out.

Where else can I compare?

Pick any other two areas, or start from Arun or Chichester and use the neighbouring areas listed on each. The ranked lists of the safest places and the highest crime rates cover all of them at once.

Figures cover the 12 months to July 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.