Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A borough of 209,342 people, one of London’s 32 boroughs.
Camden’s lowest grade is for safety — 48.8 violent and sexual offences and 30.5 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Only 13% of UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more have more crime per resident. The borough’s overall grade is B−, better than 48% of UK towns. That places it #22 of 33 in London. Buying in is costly: the median home sold for £780,000, 10.2 years of area income. Walking, cycling and public transport work well here: 77% of commuters walk, cycle or take public transport. Schools are another plus — primary results beat 94% of towns in England; secondary results beat 68% of towns in England. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for health and B for jobs & income.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · life expectancy and income, ONS · claimants, DWP.
The 3 things Camden does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Camden is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 1,889 buildings inside Camden’s built-up area, 58 of them Grade I.
49% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Camden. Best known first.
Big drawMuseumBritish Museumin town · 5.8M visitors a year (2023)
MuseumSir John Soane's Museumin town · 108K visitors a year
MuseumFreud Museum Londonin town
AttractionBT Towerin town
MuseumPetrie Museum of Egyptian Archeologyin town
GardenRussell Squarein townPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Camden.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 57% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Short trips to work, under 5 km: 60%, higher than both London’s towns (43%) and England’s towns (45%). The census counted 57% of workers working mainly from home. About just over a third of its commuters stay in Camden for work. 4.8% of 16 to 64s claimed unemployment benefits in 2026.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
GCSE results at the town’s 10 secondary schools: 50% of pupils get a strong pass (grade 5+) in English and maths, and the Attainment 8 average is 48.5. St Luke's Church of England School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. Camden’s 38 primaries and ten secondaries have 19,510 pupils between them. Of its 56 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsgate Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 587 | A+ |
| Acland Burghley SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,252 | A− |
| St Luke's Church of England SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 97 | A+ |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Listed buildings per head: 90 for every 10,000 residents of Camden. Its listed buildings include All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, Grade I. Homes from before 1919 make up 49% of the total, above both London’s towns (27%) and England’s towns (16%).
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Anti-social behaviour, shown but not graded, came to 45.5 reports per 1,000, above London’s towns (24.1) and England’s towns (7.8) alike. Police recorded 38,926 crimes inside Camden’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, plus 9,098 reports of anti-social behaviour. Also worth knowing: for its size, Camden records more crime per resident than 87% of the 207 UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more. Just over a fifth of the crimes fell under violence and sexual offences.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL · The police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Private renters make up 36% of households, higher than both London’s towns (30%) and England’s towns (21%). 5,597 standard sales inside Camden’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 put the median at £780,000. It is the 4th most expensive of 33 towns of 2,500+ in London.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £3,750,000 | 89 |
| Semi-detached | £2,637,500 | 186 |
| Terraced | £1,750,000 | 614 |
| Flat or maisonette | £697,960 | 4,708 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
At the census, 15% of people here had a disability, between London’s towns (13%) and England’s towns (17%). Of the 33 towns in London, Camden has the second-largest share in bad or very bad health: 5.1%. 33 GP practices serve the town; 79% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey.
| Census 2021 | Camden | London | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 85% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.1% | 4.3% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 15% | 13% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Self-reported health favours young towns, since these answers ignore age; the Health Grade leans on age-adjusted measures such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Typical age in Camden: 34.6, the median. 14% are under 15, below both London’s towns (18%) and England’s towns (18%). People aged 15 to 24 are 16% of the population.
53% women, 47% men
About 90 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Camden | London | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 14% | 18% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 16% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 35% | 34% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 23% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 12% | 12% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 1.9% | 3.2% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 14% | 13% | 17% |
| Degree level | 57% | 47% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · London and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
1,889 listed buildings in Camden, 58 of them Grade I.
Kings Cross Station: Photo: George Rex from London, England · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Regent's Park: Photo: Tom Page from London, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Edingboro Castle Public House: Photo: No Swan So Fine · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Temple Bar Memorial in centre of road: Photo: Steve F-E-Cameron · CC BY-SA 3.0
726 notable people were born in Camden.
Mary Shelley: Richard Rothwell, Public domain · Jane Goodall: U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain · Evelyn Waugh: Carl Van Vechten (1880–1964), Public domain · Oliver Heaviside: Original uploader was SuperGirl at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Slash: Kreepin Deth, CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camden | 209,342 | — | B− | C− | D− | C+ |
| Westminster | 203,571 | 1.9 | B− | C− | D− | B− |
| Islington | 216,309 | 2.1 | C+ | C− | D | C− |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 143,348 | 3.2 | B+ | C− | D | B+ |
| City of London | 7,820 | 3.3 | A− | C− | D− | A+ |
| Hackney | 258,464 | 3.9 | C+ | C− | D | C− |
| Haringey | 264,069 | 4.1 | C+ | C− | D | C |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 182,187 | 4.4 | B− | C− | D | C+ |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £780,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £697,960, terraced houses £1,750,000, semi-detached houses £2,637,500 and detached houses £3,750,000.
That is 3.7 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include All Saints Greek Orthodox Church.
Secondary results beat 68%.
London borough in London
Camden is a built-up area of 209,342 people, in the Camden council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · 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.