Photo: Bryn Holmes · CC BY-SA 2.0Camden has more crime per resident than 96% of UK towns
The Safety Grade comes out at D−, drawn from crimes police recorded inside Camden’s built-up area through September 2023 to August 2026: #31 of 33 in London. Theft from the person runs at 31.8 per 1,000 residents locally, against 0.7 in a typical town its size: police recorded 6,660 in the 12 months to August 2026. Violence recorded locally climbed 6% in a year. Year on year, 48.8 violent and sexual offences and 30.5 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage occur per 1,000 residents.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Camden
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 6% more violent crime per resident in Camden 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 20% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
More crime than many places its size
Of 43 UK towns and cities of 147,000 to 283,000 people, Camden has the 38th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Blackpool, Middlesbrough and Westminster, higher than Derby, Peterborough and Stoke-on-Trent. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
What’s behind Camden’s grade
A firm grade. Built on 48,907 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Camden 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, Camden runs highest on theft from the person (31.8 per 1,000 against 0.7), robbery (7 per 1,000 against 1.4) and other theft (33.5 per 1,000 against 6.6). Other crime and criminal damage & arson sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 9,098 | 43.5 | 17.5 |
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 8,581 | 41 | 38.6 |
| Other theft | not graded | 7,005 | 33.5 | 6.6 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 6,660 | 31.8 | 0.7 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 4,360 | 20.8 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 2,539 | 12.1 | 7.4 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 2,130 | 10.2 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 2,105 | 10.1 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,624 | 7.8 | 3.8 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1,470 | 7 | 1.4 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,096 | 5.2 | 7.5 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 853 | 4.1 | 0.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 316 | 1.5 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 187 | 0.9 | 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.
Lowest recorded crime in Frognal, South Hampstead and Fortune Green; highest in Bloomsbury
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frognal | 7,724 | 9.3 | 22.1 | |
| South Hampstead | 12,159 | 17.1 | 19.3 | |
| Fortune Green | 11,150 | 22.2 | 22.5 | |
| Kentish Town North | 7,154 | 29.3 | 22.1 | |
| Belsize | 12,301 | 22.9 | 28.6 | |
| Highgate | 10,226 | 27 | 27.5 | |
| Kentish Town South | 10,421 | 35.9 | 21.4 | |
| Primrose Hill | 12,542 | 31.9 | 25.4 | |
| Hampstead Town | 7,489 | 23.5 | 35.2 | |
| Haverstock | 12,041 | 34.9 | 24.5 | |
| Camden Square | 7,554 | 34.7 | 27.8 | |
| Kilburn | 12,051 | 36.4 | 29.2 | |
| West Hampstead | 11,163 | 35.3 | 30.4 | |
| Gospel Oak | 11,622 | 41.1 | 25.6 | |
| Regent's Park | 11,926 | 59.4 | 24.1 | |
| St Pancras & Somers Town | 12,506 | 57 | 27.8 | |
| King's Cross | 11,467 | 66.8 | 33.6 | |
| Holborn & Covent Garden | 10,366 | 93 | 56.2 | |
| Camden Town | 6,389 | 136.3 | 35.6 | |
| Bloomsbury | 11,091 | 125.1 | 56.2 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 6,980 | 58% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 4,415 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 4,158 | 49% shoplifting & theft |
| College and university buildings | 3,629 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 3,579 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 3,241 | 67% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 2,591 | 36% violent |
| Petrol stations | 1,294 | 53% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 1,099 | 50% shoplifting & theft |
| Racecourses | 218 | 61% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Camden Town records 3.2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Camden. 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 Camden. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Camden’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Among 43 towns its size, Camden ranks 38th for the least graded crime
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| 2 | Kingston upon Thames London | 166,333 | 24.7 | 14 | 20.6 | C+ |
| 3 | Harrow London | 260,534 | 23.3 | 15.4 | 16 | C+ |
| 4 | Merton London | 214,931 | 24.2 | 14.8 | 16.1 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 35 | Derby Derbyshire | 275,561 | 57 | 17.8 | 20.5 | D |
| 36 | Peterborough Cambridgeshire | 190,592 | 54.2 | 21.1 | 21.6 | D |
| 37 | Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire | 260,560 | 55.1 | 23.4 | 19.4 | D− |
| 38 | Camden London | 209,342 | 48.8 | 30.5 | 103.5 | D− |
| 39 | Southampton Hampshire | 249,633 | 58.3 | 22.2 | 25.5 | D− |
| 40 | Kingston upon Hull East Riding of Yorkshire | 270,816 | 60.7 | 24 | 25.6 | D− |
| 41 | Blackpool Lancashire | 149,087 | 79.1 | 26.3 | 24.8 | D− |
| … | ||||||
| 43 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | 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 Camden, and others in London.
Police in Camden identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 82% of Camden’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 50% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (31% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 6% of violent and 4% 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. 17,062 crimes.
Crime in Camden 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 25 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 90 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How Camden’s neighbourhoods rank in England
12% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 17% 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.
Camden’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.
How crime in Camden 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 +6% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -20% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -16% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -4% (towns its size -2%).
12 people died in collisions on Camden’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 3,487 collisions with injuries inside Camden in five years, in which 12 people died (2 were pedestrians and 5 were cyclists). 566 people were killed or seriously injured: 201 on foot and 208 on a bicycle.
That is 1.2 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, Camden had 54.1 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 36% 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 Camden’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Camden
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camden | 209,342 | 48.8 | 30.5 | D− |
| Westminster | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | D− |
| Islington | 216,309 | 44.1 | 24.3 | D |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 143,348 | 39.4 | 32 | D |
| City of London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | D− |
| Hackney | 258,464 | 40.5 | 21.9 | D |
| Haringey | 264,069 | 38.4 | 24.6 | D |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 182,187 | 39.2 | 23.5 | D |
Camden records more graded crime per resident than 5 of its 7 neighbours; only Westminster and City of London record more. Islington, 2.1 miles away, records 44.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Camden’s 48.8.
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 2,591 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Camden’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 Camden 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 Camden
Is Camden safe?
Police recorded 48.8 violent and sexual offences and 30.5 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Camden’s built-up area). That earns a D− for safety: less crime per resident than 4% of UK towns. Among 43 UK towns of 147,000 to 283,000 people, Camden is 38th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Camden?
By council ward, Frognal, South Hampstead and Fortune Green record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9.3, 17.1 and 22.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 125.1 in Bloomsbury.
Is crime going up in Camden?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 6%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 20%, shoplifting and theft fell 16% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Camden town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 4,415 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 18% of them violent, and Camden Town ward records 136.3 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Camden?
Violence & sexual offences: 8,581 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came other theft (7,005) and theft from the person (6,660), with 9,098 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Camden compare with Barnet?
Barnet records 25.3 violent and sexual offences and 21 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Camden’s 48.8 and 30.5, over the same three years.
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.