How dangerous is your Borough? 20+ London crime statistics 2020
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London crime statistics: Interactive map and crime rate data

Discover the latest crime statistics and crime rate in the UK’s capital city, broken down by borough.

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Matthew Boyle
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If you’re thinking of moving to a new area, checking the local crime rates is one way of getting a feel for the place and figuring out the type of security you should consider. The level of crime will impact your home insurance premium, too. Here, we’ve compared crime rates and types of crime for different London boroughs.

In this guide

Quick overview

  • Over 928,485 crimes were reported across London between June 2019 and June 2020.
  • Westminster has the highest crime count in London, with 73,603 reported crimes during the financial year 2019/2020.
  • After an unusually calm summer due to lockdown, reported crime went up by 11.7% from June 2020 to July 2020.
  • The crime rate (per population of 1,000) is down from 106.20 in 2018/2019 to 103.18 in 2019/2020.
  • 15,590 knife crimes were reported across London in 2019/2020. The borough with the most knife crime was Westminister, with over 1,000 reported cases, closely followed by Haringey, with 986 reported knife crimes.

Westminister

had 1,001 knife crimes in 2019/2020, more than any other borough.

London crime rate

There were 928,485 reported crimes across all the London boroughs this financial year (June 2019 to June 2020). This is a decrease of around 27,216 crimes from the previous year and an increase of 33,873 crimes compared to the number 10 years ago.

This affects the crime rate, which is calculated by crime per population of 1,000. Over the last 10 years, London had the lowest crime rate in 2013/2014 at 84.17 crimes per 1,000 citizens. In 2018/2019, the crime rate had increased to 106.20, but due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown, the crime rate has decreased this year down to 103.18.

Have a look at how London’s crime rate has changed over the last 10 years below:

Year (June-June) Crime rate per 1,000 citizens Number of crimes committed
2019/2020 103.18 928,485
2018/2019 106.20 955,701
2017/2018 100.22 901,900
2016/2017 95.31 857,732
2015/2016 90.21 811,804
2014/2015 86.70 780,185
2013/2014 84.17 757,413
2012/2013 90.55 814,853
2011/2012 97.05 873,338
2010/2011 99.41 894,612

Crime statistics by borough

The level of crime across London varies depending on where you are. The borough with the highest number of crimes is Westminister, with 73,603 crimes, making the crime rate 281.7 crimes per 1,000 citizens. Southwark comes second, where 38,790 crimes took place in 2019/2020, making the crime rate 121.7 per 1,000 citizens.

The calmest areas are Kingston and Richmond, with 13,221 and 13,413 crimes respectively per borough. Richmond also has the lowest crime rate of all boroughs, with only 67.7 crimes per 1,000 citizens. The second-lowest crime rate can be found in Harrow, which had 17,909 reported crimes in 2019/2020 and a crime rate of 71.3 crimes per 1,000 citizens.

Explore the graph below to see where the most crimes were reported. These crimes were reported between June 2019 and June 2020.

Borough Crime count Crime rate
Barking and Dagenham 21,189 99.5 per 1,000
Barnet 31,911 80.6 per 1,000
Bexley 18,323 73.8 per 1,000
Brent 31,725 96.2 per 1,000
Bromley 25,802 77.6 per 1,000
Camden 38,530 142.7 per 1,000
Croydon 36,790 95.1 per 1,000
Ealing 32,841 96.1 per 1,000
Enfield 32,080 96.1 per 1,000
Greenwich 30,019 104.3 per 1,000
Hackney 34,510 122.8 per 1,000
Hammersmith and Fulham 23,360 126.2 per 1,000
Haringey 32,818 122.2 per 1,000
Harrow 17,909 71.3 per 1,000
Havering 19,185 73.9 per 1,000
Hillingdon 28,616 93.3 per 1,000
Hounslow 27,920 102.8 per 1,000
Islington 30,392 125.3 per 1,000
Kensington and Chelsea 24,304 155.7 per 1,000
Kingston upon Thames 13,221 74.5 per 1,000
Lambeth 36,235 111.1 per 1,000
Lewisham 30,534 99.8 per 1,000
Merton 15,181 73.5 per 1,000
Newham 37,107 105.1 per 1,000
Redbridge 25,402 83.2 per 1,000
Richmond upon Thames 13,413 67.7 per 1,000
Southwark 38,790 121.7 per 1,000
Sutton 14,871 72.1 per 1,000
Tower Hamlets 35,475 109.2 per 1,000
Waltham Forest 25,947 93.7 per 1,000
Wandsworth 27,261 82.7 per 1,000
Westminster 73,603 281.7 per 1,000

Crimes and COVID-19

The crime rate in London has definitely seen a drop since the coronavirus crisis and lockdowns began the UK. There were 26,474 fewer crimes in London in April 2020 than in April 2019, a decrease of 35% that resulted in a fine dip in the statistics. As lockdown eases, crime is, unfortunately, picking up again. The increase between June 2020 and July 2020 was no less than 11.7%.

Date Number of crimes
April 2019 74,917
May 2019 77,323
June 2019 76,699
July 2019 81,706
August 2019 76,556
September 2019 76,106
October 2019 81,444
November 2019 78,896
December 2019 74,841
January 2020 76,133
February 2020 73,152
March 2020 65,688
April 2020 48,443
May 2020 56,894
June 2020 61,927
July 2020 69,160

Is crime on the rise?

In some boroughs, the number of crimes has been increasing over the past six years. Westminister is topping that list with an average increase of 8% over the past six years. This has been heavily skewed by the increase 2017/2018 to 2018/2019, when the number of crimes increased by 27%. The borough also has the highest crime rate of all, at 281.7 crimes per 1,000 citizens.

The borough with the second-highest crime rate increase is Bexley, with an average increase of 7% over the last six years. Despite the increase in the number of crimes, Bexley is still has a low number of crimes compared to other boroughs (18,323 in 2019/2020) and the crime rate was only 73.8 crimes per 1,000 citizens in 2019/2020, which is the fifth-best of all the London boroughs.

At the other end of the spectrum, the borough with the smallest increase in crime Lambeth, where the number of crimes has even decreased slightly by 0.05% over the last six years. The borough’s number of crimes decreased by 6% from 2018/2019 to 2019/2020. With an estimated 326,034 citizens, the crime rate is currently 111.1 per 1,000 citizens.

We dived into the latest statistics to see how this year’s crime figures compare to the last six years.

Borough 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017 2017/2018 2018/2019 2019/2020
Barking and Dagenham 17,939 19,343 19,445 20,160 20,862 21,189
Barnet 25,328 27,737 28,398 29,807 32,403 31,911
Bexley 13,343 13,751 15,184 16,440 18,192 18,323
Brent 27,242 29,023 30,699 33,168 33,493 31,725
Bromley 22,521 22,644 23,755 24,725 25,848 25,802
Camden 31,900 32,211 35,875 41,218 40,434 38,530
Croydon 32,148 31,731 33,284 33,251 34,422 36,790
Ealing 28,831 29,874 30,807 30,562 32,560 32,841
Enfield 24,146 25,193 25,895 28,816 31,556 32,080
Greenwich 23,068 24,260 26,855 27,329 29,550 30,019
Hackney 28,795 30,075 34,102 33,191 35,870 34,510
Hammersmith and Fulham 22,047 22,518 22,598 23,867 24,909 23,360
Haringey 26,226 29,063 31,431 33,783 34,669 32,818
Harrow 13,506 14,457 15,031 15,254 17,674 17,909
Havering 16,781 18,937 19,515 20,472 20,527 19,185
Hillingdon 23,909 23,989 25,810 26,833 28,209 28,616
Hounslow 22,794 24,202 25,839 27,451 28,429 27,920
Islington 29,311 30,207 32,512 33,478 31,866 30,392
Kensington and Chelsea 20,561 21,283 22,607 23,653 25,019 24,304
Kingston upon Thames 10,788 11,159 11,622 12,639 14,124 13,221
Lambeth 36,455 38,342 37,987 38,454 38,673 36,235
Lewisham 24,765 27,093 27,186 27,307 29,969 30,534
Merton 13,394 14,082 14,492 14,946 15,240 15,181
Newham 31,511 32,994 35,456 38,524 39,453 37,107
Redbridge 21,695 21,649 23,122 25,969 25,708 25,402
Richmond upon Thames 11,805 11,827 13,321 14,063 14,081 13,413
Southwark 33,490 34,522 35,661 37,684 41,263 38,790
Sutton 12,176 11,976 12,431 12,978 14,185 14,871
Tower Hamlets 30,083 31,827 34,445 35,425 38,061 35,475
Waltham Forest 22,699 23,833 23,953 24,948 26,265 25,947
Wandsworth 25,089 25,471 27,144 28,305 28,036 27,261
Westminster 52,485 52,956 57,643 63,289 80,514 73,603

Changes in types of crime

While some types of crime have risen in number, most types fell. The most notable increases over the last year were robberies (20%) and drug offences (35%). However, this is still a dramatic slowdown compared to previous years when categories of crime such as robbery increased by as much as 39%. Interestingly, categories such as theft and handling, violence against a person and criminal damage have all gone down compared to last year – most notably theft, which has decreased by over 25%.

Over the last six years, the categories of crime that have seen the biggest increases have been robberies (82%), sexual offences (26%) and burglaries (13%).

Feb 2019 - Feb 2020 Feb 2018 - Feb 2019 Feb 2017 - Feb 2018 Feb 2016 - Feb 2017 Feb 2015 - Feb 2016 Feb 2014 - Feb 2015
Theft and handling 273,180 365,615 356,649 323,084 308,223 303,742
Violence against the person 239,906 280,331 269,165 253,307 241,031 206,388
Burglary 86,520 87,042 83,730 74,821 76,224 80,861
Criminal damage 60,577 62,803 68,253 69,447 68,581 64,679
Drugs 52,850 39,207 40,002 42,576 44,499 48,832
Robbery 43,524 36,233 34,831 25,048 23,398 23,866
Sexual offences 21,856 22,097 21,545 19,045 17,343 15,478
Other notifiable 12,211 18,702 18,019 18,275 16,481 14,830
Fraud and forgery N/A 1,366 1,497 1,293 1,135 1,080

6,700+

Reported moped crimes in 2019, compared to under 1,000 just 6 years ago.

Knife crime

Knife crime is defined as an offence involving the use of a knife or sharp instrument. In November 2019, the highest number of knife crimes in London were recorded since 2014 (1,481 knife crimes).

The highest number of knife crimes in 2019/2020 were in Westminister, where 1,001 crimes were committed. Haringey came in close second, with 986 knife crimes in 2019/2020. The third borough with the most knife crimes was Newham, with 763 crimes recorded.

Kingston upon Thames had the lowest number of knife crimes, with 127 instances recorded in 2019/2020. Sutton was second lowest, with 139 knife crimes.

Borough Number of knife crimes in 2019/2020
Barking and Dagenham 418
Barnet 537
Bexley 215
Brent 597
Bromley 275
Camden 582
Croydon 556
Ealing 503
Enfield 756
Greenwich 446
Hackney 703
Hammersmith and Fulham 398
Haringey 986
Harrow 263
Havering 222
Hillingdon 350
Hounslow 376
Islington 529
Kensington and Chelsea 417
Kingston upon Thames 127
Lambeth 588
Lewisham 552
Merton 204
Newham 763
Redbridge 356
Richmond upon Thames 148
Southwark 751
Sutton 139
Tower Hamlets 609
Waltham Forest 354
Wandsworth 399
Westminster 1,001
Total: 15,120

Gun crime

  • There were 1,951 reported gun offences in 2019/2020.
  • That is 817 less than in 2017/2018, when 2,768 gun crimes were reported.
  • This means there’s been a 30% decrease in gun crime over the past two years.
  • Lambeth had the most gun-related crimes in 2019/2020, with 131 reported offences.
  • Guns were most uncommon in Kingston upon Thames, where only 14 offences were reported.
Borough Number of gun crimes in 2017/2018 Number of gun crimes in 2019/2020
Barking and Dagenham 84 51
Barnet 70 69
Bexley 55 39
Brent 145 94
Bromley 88 49
Camden 69 43
Croydon 152 90
Ealing 65 59
Enfield 123 112
Greenwich 103 67
Hackney 102 98
Hammersmith and Fulham 29 22
Haringey 159 122
Harrow 47 47
Havering 50 39
Hillingdon 66 59
Hounslow 42 42
Islington 81 39
Kensington and Chelsea 41 30
Kingston upon Thames 24 14
Lambeth 158 131
Lewisham 125 86
Merton 37 24
Newham 151 82
Redbridge 83 65
Richmond upon Thames 23 20
Southwark 129 84
Sutton 57 34
Tower Hamlets 111 60
Waltham Forest 112 60
Wandsworth 88 41
Westminster 99 79

Sources

Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact:

Matt Mckenna
UK Communications Manager
T: +44 20 8191 8806
matt.mckenna@finder.com@MichHutchison/in/matthewmckenna2

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2 Responses

    Default Gravatar
    RobNovember 9, 2018

    which has the higest chime rate Leytonstone or Chingford

    Reply
      Avatarfinder Customer Care
      JoshuaNovember 20, 2018Staff

      Hi Rob,

      Thanks for getting in touch with finder. I hope all is well with you. :)

      While we don’t have the stats available on our page, a quick search on the Internet would give you the answer. Upon checking, Chingford has a higher crime rate compared to Leytonstone.

      You may also want to get in touch with the local police station to obtain a comprehensive crime rate report.

      I hope this helps. Should you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach us out again.

      Have a wonderful day!

      Cheers,
      Joshua

      Reply
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