Photo: Robert Lamb · CC BY-SA 2.0Crime per resident in Hackney runs higher than in 89% of UK towns
On crimes police recorded inside Hackney’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026, it grades D for safety: #22 of 33 in London.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Hackney
About the middle for a borough its size
Of 49 UK towns and cities of 181,000 to 349,000 people, Hackney has the 26th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Belfast, Plymouth and Milton Keynes, higher than Barking and Dagenham, Lambeth and Southwark. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
32% of Hackney’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 3% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Hackney grades D for safety
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
A firm grade. Built on 48,153 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Hackney against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
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.
Against the typical town its size, Hackney runs highest on theft from the person (15 per 1,000 against 0.7), bicycle theft (4.5 per 1,000 against 0.9) and robbery (5.5 per 1,000 against 1.4). Criminal damage & arson and other crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 8,747 | 33.8 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 7,660 | 29.6 | 17.5 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 3,885 | 15 | 0.7 |
| Other theft | not graded | 3,045 | 11.8 | 6.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2,644 | 10.2 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 2,190 | 8.5 | 7.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,926 | 7.5 | 3.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 1,847 | 7.1 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1,748 | 6.8 | 3.4 |
| Robbery | Violent | 1,424 | 5.5 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 1,167 | 4.5 | 0.9 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,072 | 4.1 | 7.5 |
| Other crime | not graded | 298 | 1.2 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 272 | 1.1 | 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.
Police in Hackney identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
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. 17,098 crimes.
No suspect was identified for 83% of Hackney’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 48% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (34% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 7% of violent and 4% of household crimes reached court.
32% of Hackney residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
Hackney’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.
3% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 32% 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.
For every 1,000 residents, about 40 violent and sexual offences in the 12 months to August 2026
And about 18 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 42 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
Lowest recorded crime in Stamford Hill West, Cazenove and Springfield; highest in Hoxton East & Shoreditch
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Hackney’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stamford Hill West | 10,346 | 16.1 | 8.5 | |
| Cazenove | 15,335 | 18 | 10.1 | |
| Springfield | 14,916 | 32 | 16.5 | |
| Brownswood | 9,017 | 30.1 | 20 | |
| Shacklewell | 9,124 | 33.8 | 16.5 | |
| Clissold | 12,585 | 32.9 | 18.2 | |
| Haggerston | 14,412 | 33.1 | 19.3 | |
| Lea Bridge | 13,541 | 33.9 | 19.7 | |
| Hackney Downs | 13,000 | 32.3 | 21.4 | |
| Woodberry Down | 12,113 | 41.4 | 15.2 | |
| King's Park | 13,058 | 37.3 | 19.9 | |
| Hoxton West | 13,756 | 38.4 | 21.5 | |
| Stoke Newington | 13,385 | 40.5 | 20.8 | |
| Victoria | 12,154 | 38.8 | 23.8 | |
| De Beauvoir | 9,194 | 36.9 | 28 | |
| Hackney Wick | 12,310 | 48.7 | 28.6 | |
| London Fields | 12,680 | 45.8 | 31.5 | |
| Hackney Central | 12,718 | 55.9 | 29.5 | |
| Homerton | 13,882 | 62.8 | 27.2 | |
| Dalston | 8,878 | 66.1 | 33.9 | |
| Hoxton East & Shoreditch | 11,762 | 74.6 | 31 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 4,226 | 59% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 3,251 | 46% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 2,644 | 40% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,587 | 31% violent |
| Car parks | 1,263 | 37% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 1,122 | 65% violent |
| Conference and exhibition centres | 973 | 45% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 535 | 47% violent |
| College and university buildings | 532 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 467 | 31% shoplifting & theft |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Hoxton East & Shoreditch records 1.9× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Hackney. 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 Hackney. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Violent crime held steady over the year
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +2% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -18% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -1% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour +0% (towns its size -2%).
“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).
Hackney is 26th of 49 UK towns of 181,000 to 349,000
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Hackney, and others in London.
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| 2 | Harrow London | 260,534 | 23.3 | 15.4 | 16 | C+ |
| 3 | Merton London | 214,931 | 24.2 | 14.8 | 16.1 | C+ |
| 4 | Sutton London | 208,858 | 27.1 | 14.6 | 13.3 | C |
| … | ||||||
| 23 | Barking and Dagenham London | 218,236 | 40.5 | 20 | 17.5 | D |
| 24 | Lambeth London | 317,108 | 40.1 | 21.2 | 42.3 | D |
| 25 | Southwark London | 307,076 | 40 | 22.1 | 54.3 | D |
| 26 | Hackney London | 258,464 | 40.5 | 21.9 | 42.2 | D |
| 27 | Cardiff South Glamorgan | 348,511 | 40 | 22.4 | 26.6 | D |
| 28 | Hammersmith and Fulham London | 182,187 | 39.2 | 23.5 | 36.9 | D |
| 29 | Haringey London | 264,069 | 38.4 | 24.6 | 29 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 49 | 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.
13 people died in collisions on Hackney’s roads in 2021–2025
Collisions police recorded inside Hackney’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Police recorded 3,707 collisions with injuries inside Hackney in five years, in which 13 people died (6 were pedestrians and 3 were cyclists). 630 people were killed or seriously injured: 199 on foot and 264 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, Hackney had 48.8 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). 32% 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.
Crime in the places around Hackney
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hackney | 258,464 | 40.5 | 21.9 | D |
| Islington | 216,309 | 44.1 | 24.3 | D |
| City of London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | D− |
| Tower Hamlets | 311,072 | 43.3 | 23 | D |
| Haringey | 264,069 | 38.4 | 24.6 | D |
| Waltham Forest | 278,129 | 28.5 | 21 | C− |
| Camden | 209,342 | 48.8 | 30.5 | D− |
| Newham | 351,065 | 38.9 | 23 | D |
Hackney records more graded crime per resident than 2 of its 7 neighbours. Waltham Forest, 3.5 miles away, records 28.5 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Hackney’s 40.5.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 1,122 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Hackney’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 Hackney 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 Hackney
Is Hackney safe?
Police recorded 40.5 violent and sexual offences and 21.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Hackney’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 11% of UK towns. Among 49 UK towns of 181,000 to 349,000 people, Hackney is 26th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Hackney?
By council ward, Stamford Hill West, Cazenove and Springfield record the least violent and household crime per resident: 16.1, 18 and 32 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 74.6 in Hoxton East & Shoreditch.
Is crime going up in Hackney?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 18%, shoplifting and theft held steady and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Hackney town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 2,644 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 27% of them violent, and Hoxton East & Shoreditch ward records 74.6 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 Hackney?
Violence & sexual offences: 8,747 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came theft from the person (3,885) and other theft (3,045), with 7,660 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Hackney 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 Hackney’s 40.5 and 21.9, 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.