Westminster recorded 125.02 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026, the highest of London’s 32 boroughs, and Merton recorded 53.01, the lowest. London as a whole recorded 82.39 per 1,000 against 67.79 for England. But the ranking measures where crime is logged, not how risky it is to live somewhere, and this page shows why.
Data: police-recorded crime for the 12 months to April 2026, counts and rates from CrimeRate’s analysis of data.police.uk; 2021 Census resident populations from the ONS. Comparisons of rates with resident populations are our own calculation. Updated 29 September 2026.
Which London boroughs have the highest crime rate?
Westminster (125.02 per 1,000), Kensington and Chelsea (119.60), Lambeth (103.24), Newham (100.22) and Camden (97.84) had the highest rates in the 12 months to April 2026, according to CrimeRate. Together those five boroughs logged 215,347 crimes, about 24 per cent of the sum of all borough counts, so the top of the table is where recorded crime is most concentrated.
Which London boroughs have the lowest crime rate?
Merton (53.01), Richmond upon Thames (53.96), Sutton (58.71), Harrow (58.82) and Bexley (60.14) had the lowest borough rates. The City of London is lower still at 21.00, but very few people live in it, so it is not a fair comparison with a residential borough. Ten of the 32 boroughs were below the England figure of 67.79 per 1,000, and 14 were above the London figure of 82.39.
All 33 London areas ranked by recorded crime rate
Recorded crimes per 1,000 people, 12 months to April 2026. Bars are relative to Westminster, the highest rate.
The 32 boroughs’ counts add up to 904,926 crimes, slightly more than CrimeRate’s London total of 896,400; CrimeRate does not explain the gap, and we have not reconciled it. The median borough rate is 80.36 per 1,000.
Why is Westminster’s crime rate so high?
Because the rate divides crimes by a population that does not match the people present. CrimeRate states that it divides crime reports by the area’s daytime, or ‘workday’, population from the 2011 Census. Even so, the ranking is heavily shaped by commuters, tourists and nightlife. Set against the 204,300 people who actually lived in Westminster at the 2021 Census (ONS), the same 75,198 crimes work out at about 368 per 1,000 residents. For the City of London, 9,528 crimes against 8,600 residents is about 1,108 per 1,000. Those are our calculations, not official rates, and they show that a borough with a large daytime population can look very different depending on the denominator.
How much does the choice of population change the picture?
Enough to change the size of the gap. On CrimeRate’s figures Westminster’s rate is about 2.4 times Merton’s (125.02 against 53.01). Using 2021 Census residents, Westminster’s 368 per 1,000 is about six times Merton’s 61 (13,175 crimes across 215,200 residents). Newham falls in between at about 116 per 1,000 residents (40,892 crimes, 351,100 residents). None of these is the risk to a person; they are different ways of dividing the same police records. That is also why this page’s figures differ from the Met Police 2024 borough figures on our London analysis, where Westminster is 349.9 per 1,000 residents.
Is the gap about violence or about theft?
Mostly theft. Violence and sexual offences were recorded at 20.68 per 1,000 in Westminster and 19.61 in Merton, almost the same rate. Theft from the person is where the boroughs split: 33.21 per 1,000 in Westminster (19,993 offences, 27 per cent of everything logged there) against 1.31 in Merton (327 offences, 2.5 per cent), roughly 25 times as much. In Merton violence and sexual offences is the largest category at 4,867 offences, 37 per cent of its total, followed by anti-social behaviour at 3,609 (27 per cent). Violence and sexual offences includes offences with no physical injury, such as harassment and stalking.
| Borough | Violence and sexual offences (per 1,000) | Theft from the person (per 1,000) | Anti-social behaviour (per 1,000) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westminster | 20.68 | 33.21 | 22.23 |
| Lambeth | 29.78 | 13.48 | 26.78 |
| Newham | 29.64 | 9.77 | 24.65 |
| Merton | 19.61 | 1.31 | 14.55 |
Lambeth and Newham have higher violence and sexual offence rates than Westminster on CrimeRate’s denominators, while Westminster leads on theft. So the top of the overall ranking is not one type of place: it is a mix of theft-heavy centres and boroughs where anti-social behaviour and violence are recorded at higher rates.
Do inner boroughs really have more crime than outer ones?
On these figures, yes, but by less than the headline suggests. Pooling the twelve statutory Inner London boroughs (Camden, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Westminster) gives about 93.5 crimes per 1,000, against about 74.6 for the twenty outer boroughs, on the population base implied by CrimeRate’s own counts and rates. That is our calculation. Several inner boroughs sit near the middle of the table (Tower Hamlets at 69.03, Wandsworth at 66.98), and Newham, Haringey and Brent, which are outer boroughs by statute, rank in the top twelve. For a closer look at one inner borough near the top of the table, see is Lewisham safe?
What does this mean if you live in or visit London?
Do not choose or avoid a borough on its rank alone. Crime is unevenly spread inside every borough, and a low borough rate can hide a busy high street. The postcode-level picture is more useful: type a postcode into the postcode checker to see the last 12 months of police-recorded crime near it, or zoom into the UK crime map. For a plain-language answer for the whole city read is London safe?, and for small areas within London see safest areas in London. The counts and their limits are explained in where our crime data comes from.
These figures describe places, not the people who live in them. They cover crimes reported to police, and reporting habits differ between areas.
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London crime rate FAQ
Which London borough has the highest crime rate?
Westminster, at 125.02 recorded crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026, followed by Kensington and Chelsea at 119.60 (CrimeRate). Both are visitor-heavy central boroughs.
Which London borough has the lowest crime rate?
Merton, at 53.01 per 1,000, followed by Richmond upon Thames at 53.96. The City of London is lower at 21.00 but has very few residents.
What is the average crime rate in London?
London as a whole recorded 82.39 crimes per 1,000 people in the 12 months to April 2026, compared with 67.79 for England (CrimeRate). The median of the 32 boroughs was 80.36.
Why do different websites give different rates for the same borough?
They divide by different populations, such as residents, daytime population or an estimate of visitors. Compare boroughs only within one source.
Where does this data come from?
Police-recorded crime published on data.police.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0, analysed by CrimeRate, with 2021 Census populations from the ONS.
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