Photo: Trevor Harris · CC BY-SA 2.0Barnet records theft from the person at 3.9 times the rate of a typical town its size
The yearly rates were 25.3 violent and sexual offences and 21.0 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage per 1,000 residents. Its letter overall is C (#7 of 33 in London): more crime per resident than 74% of UK towns, from crimes police recorded inside its built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026. Violent crime was up 14% in a year.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Barnet
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 14% more violent crime per resident in Barnet than in the year before; across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more violent crime held steady. Burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage fell 10% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than most places its size
Of 29 UK towns and cities of 272,000 to 525,000 people, Barnet has the 1st lowest rate of graded crime. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Barnet’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 53,602 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Barnet against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Barnet runs highest on theft from the person (2.5 per 1,000 against 0.7), vehicle crime (9.9 per 1,000 against 4.9) and burglary (5.7 per 1,000 against 3.4). Other crime and criminal damage & arson sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 9,443 | 24.3 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 8,905 | 22.9 | 17.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 3,849 | 9.9 | 4.9 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 3,463 | 8.9 | 10.3 |
| Other theft | not graded | 2,671 | 6.9 | 6.6 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 2,211 | 5.7 | 3.4 |
| Public order | not graded | 2,065 | 5.3 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,636 | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,277 | 3.3 | 7.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 983 | 2.5 | 0.7 |
| Robbery | Violent | 860 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 437 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 206 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 200 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Set against 29 towns its size, Barnet is 1st
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barnet London | 388,572 | 25.3 | 21 | 18.8 | C |
| 2 | Bromley London | 325,469 | 25.7 | 20.8 | 17.4 | C |
| 3 | Wandsworth London | 326,725 | 27.7 | 18.9 | 23 | C |
| 4 | Redbridge London | 309,509 | 31.1 | 17.7 | 18.7 | C− |
| 5 | Waltham Forest London | 278,129 | 28.5 | 21 | 23.4 | C− |
| 6 | Ealing London | 367,271 | 33.6 | 22.2 | 20.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 8 | Hillingdon London | 307,089 | 33.4 | 23 | 23.6 | C− |
| 9 | Enfield London | 329,822 | 32.6 | 24 | 20.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 29 | Bradford West Yorkshire | 333,968 | 72.2 | 28.3 | 19.3 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Barnet, and others in London.
Police in Barnet identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 87% of Barnet’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 45% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (38% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 2% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 18,391 crimes.
How crime in Barnet has moved
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +14% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -10% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft +5% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +7% (towns its size -2%).
How Barnet’s neighbourhoods rank in England
27% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 7% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Barnet’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Lowest recorded crime in Totteridge & Woodside, Brunswick Park and East Barnet; highest in Cricklewood
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totteridge & Woodside | 14,143 | 10.8 | 13.5 | |
| Brunswick Park | 16,208 | 16.9 | 18.7 | |
| East Barnet | 17,814 | 18.8 | 17.2 | |
| Underhill | 12,374 | 25.3 | 11.6 | |
| Barnet Vale | 16,872 | 19.2 | 18.6 | |
| Finchley Church End | 18,842 | 18.3 | 20 | |
| High Barnet | 11,356 | 21.5 | 17.5 | |
| East Finchley | 16,640 | 19.8 | 19.2 | |
| Golders Green | 14,742 | 18.9 | 20.3 | |
| Woodhouse | 13,914 | 21.8 | 19.5 | |
| Edgware | 19,998 | 23.6 | 17.7 | |
| Edgwarebury | 12,110 | 22.6 | 18.9 | |
| Garden Suburb | 12,205 | 13.4 | 29.2 | |
| Mill Hill | 18,307 | 24.3 | 18.7 | |
| Whetstone | 10,774 | 23.3 | 21.8 | |
| Friern Barnet | 19,452 | 25.1 | 22.5 | |
| Hendon | 21,980 | 26.2 | 22.4 | |
| Burnt Oak | 21,859 | 32.7 | 16.9 | |
| Childs Hill | 19,631 | 26.3 | 23.6 | |
| Colindale North | 12,059 | 34.6 | 15.4 | |
| West Finchley | 19,428 | 26.3 | 24.9 | |
| Colindale South | 19,418 | 33.7 | 23.2 | |
| West Hendon | 17,255 | 34.9 | 26.7 | |
| Cricklewood | 10,719 | 47.4 | 31.7 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 5,675 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 3,464 | 30% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 2,943 | 63% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 2,760 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 1,292 | 48% violent |
| Police stations | 710 | 43% violent |
| College and university buildings | 495 | 35% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 373 | 39% violent |
| Parks and open spaces | 74 | 54% anti-social behaviour |
| Bus and coach stations | 54 | 35% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Cricklewood records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Barnet. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Barnet. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Barnet’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Barnet per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 19 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 19 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
19 people died in collisions on Barnet’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 4,278 collisions with injuries inside Barnet in five years, in which 19 people died (8 were pedestrians). 633 people were killed or seriously injured: 233 on foot and 88 on a bicycle.
That is 1.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Barnet had 32.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 37% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Barnet’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Barnet
Barnet records more graded crime per resident than 2 of its 7 neighbours. Elstree, 4.7 miles away, records 26.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Barnet’s 25.3.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 1,292 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Barnet’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Barnet sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Barnet
Is Barnet safe?
Police recorded 25.3 violent and sexual offences and 21 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Barnet’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 26% of UK towns. Among 29 UK towns of 272,000 to 525,000 people, Barnet is 1st from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Barnet?
By council ward, Totteridge & Woodside, Brunswick Park and East Barnet record the least violent and household crime per resident: 10.8, 16.9 and 18.8 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 47.4 in Cricklewood.
Is crime going up in Barnet?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 14%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 10%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour rose 7%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
What is the most common crime in Barnet?
Violence & sexual offences: 9,443 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came vehicle crime (3,849) and shoplifting (3,463), with 8,905 reports of anti-social behaviour.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.