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.
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.
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
- BBC
- Statista
- Computer Business Review
- Greater London Authority
- House of Commons
- MET Police
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Ask an Expert
which has the higest chime rate Leytonstone or Chingford
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