Photo: Stevekeiretsu · CC BY-SA 3.0Wandsworth stands out for theft from the person: 5.3 times the rate of a typical town its size
It has more violent crime than 63% of UK towns, and more burglary, vehicle crime and damage than 90%. Taking everything together, Wandsworth scores C (#9 of 33 in London): more crime per resident than 75% of UK towns, measured on crimes police recorded inside its built-up area between September 2023 and August 2026. Violence recorded locally climbed 7% in a year. Out of every 1,000 residents, 27.7 violent and sexual offences and 18.9 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are reported annually.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Wandsworth
Violent crime rose over the year
In the 12 months to August 2026 police recorded 7% more violent crime per resident in Wandsworth 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 7% (towns its size: held steady). Trend ↓
Less crime than most places its size
Of 39 UK towns and cities of 229,000 to 441,000 people, Wandsworth has the 5th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Luton, Ealing and Brighton and Hove, higher than Bexley, Barnet and Bromley. Towns its size ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
Inside Wandsworth’s C for safety
A firm grade. Built on 45,377 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Wandsworth 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, Wandsworth runs highest on theft from the person (3.5 per 1,000 against 0.7), bicycle theft (2.2 per 1,000 against 0.9) and vehicle crime (9 per 1,000 against 4.9). 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 | 8,459 | 25.9 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 7,170 | 21.9 | 17.5 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 2,951 | 9 | 4.9 |
| Other theft | not graded | 2,814 | 8.6 | 6.6 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2,529 | 7.7 | 10.3 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,828 | 5.6 | 7.4 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 1,587 | 4.9 | 3.4 |
| Drugs | not graded | 1,254 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 1,140 | 3.5 | 0.7 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,028 | 3.1 | 7.5 |
| Robbery | Violent | 730 | 2.2 | 1.4 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 716 | 2.2 | 0.9 |
| Other crime | not graded | 370 | 1.1 | 2.1 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 197 | 0.6 | 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.
Police in Wandsworth identify a suspect less often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 86% of Wandsworth’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 3% 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. 15,706 crimes.
Wandsworth is 5th of 39 UK towns of 229,000 to 441,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrow London | 260,534 | 23.3 | 15.4 | 16 | C+ |
| 2 | Bexley London | 246,074 | 26.1 | 17.5 | 14.3 | C |
| 3 | Barnet London | 388,572 | 25.3 | 21 | 18.8 | C |
| 4 | Bromley London | 325,469 | 25.7 | 20.8 | 17.4 | C |
| 5 | Wandsworth London | 326,725 | 27.7 | 18.9 | 23 | C |
| 6 | Havering London | 259,401 | 29 | 18.1 | 17.7 | C |
| 7 | Redbridge London | 309,509 | 31.1 | 17.7 | 18.7 | C− |
| 8 | Waltham Forest London | 278,129 | 28.5 | 21 | 23.4 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 10 | Ealing London | 367,271 | 33.6 | 22.2 | 20.8 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 12 | Hillingdon London | 307,089 | 33.4 | 23 | 23.6 | C− |
| 13 | Enfield London | 329,822 | 32.6 | 24 | 20.6 | C− |
| … | ||||||
| 39 | 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 Wandsworth, and others in London.
How Wandsworth’s neighbourhoods rank in England
24% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 8% 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.
Wandsworth’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 Southfields, Northcote and Wandle; highest in Nine Elms
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southfields | 12,657 | 9.6 | 14.5 | |
| Northcote | 12,859 | 9.9 | 21.9 | |
| Wandle | 10,581 | 16.4 | 15.8 | |
| West Putney | 16,268 | 18.8 | 14 | |
| West Hill | 16,811 | 20.4 | 12.7 | |
| East Putney | 16,916 | 17.9 | 16.1 | |
| Tooting Bec | 17,029 | 21.2 | 13.5 | |
| South Balham | 9,829 | 17.5 | 19.8 | |
| Shaftesbury & Queenstown | 15,178 | 22.6 | 17.2 | |
| Furzedown | 18,060 | 24.7 | 17.1 | |
| Wandsworth Common | 16,590 | 27.9 | 14.1 | |
| Battersea Park | 19,184 | 26.5 | 19.5 | |
| Roehampton | 18,495 | 33 | 13.1 | |
| Balham | 17,709 | 24.3 | 23 | |
| Thamesfield | 16,720 | 23.5 | 24.4 | |
| Falconbrook | 11,983 | 34.2 | 16.7 | |
| Wandsworth Town | 18,212 | 32.9 | 23.4 | |
| St Mary's | 14,186 | 30.9 | 26.5 | |
| Lavender | 13,450 | 41.8 | 28.1 | |
| Trinity | 11,184 | 52.8 | 20.4 | |
| Tooting Broadway | 17,223 | 52.1 | 21.2 | |
| Nine Elms | 5,395 | 54.1 | 24.9 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 6,769 | 54% shoplifting & theft |
| Shopping areas | 2,945 | 48% shoplifting & theft |
| Hospitals | 1,780 | 64% violent |
| Petrol stations | 1,648 | 43% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 1,241 | 32% shoplifting & theft |
| Police stations | 884 | 32% violent |
| College and university buildings | 747 | 36% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 605 | 34% violent |
| Prisons | 591 | 74% violent |
| Ferry terminals | 224 | 26% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Nine Elms records 2× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Wandsworth. 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 Wandsworth. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Wandsworth’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
Crime in Wandsworth 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 17 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 22 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
How crime in Wandsworth 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 +7% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -7% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -6% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -4% (towns its size -2%).
13 people died in collisions on Wandsworth’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 4,545 collisions with injuries inside Wandsworth in five years, in which 13 people died (4 were pedestrians and 2 were cyclists). 816 people were killed or seriously injured: 188 on foot and 344 on a bicycle.
That is 0.8 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, below the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Wandsworth had 50.0 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). 23% 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 Wandsworth’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Wandsworth
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wandsworth | 326,725 | 27.7 | 18.9 | C |
| Lambeth | 317,108 | 40.1 | 21.2 | D |
| Merton | 214,931 | 24.2 | 14.8 | C+ |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 182,187 | 39.2 | 23.5 | D |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 143,348 | 39.4 | 32 | D |
| Westminster | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | D− |
| Southwark | 307,076 | 40 | 22.1 | D |
| City of London | 7,820 | 252.8 | 111.5 | D− |
Wandsworth records more graded crime per resident than 1 of its 7 neighbours. Merton, 3 miles away, records 24.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Wandsworth’s 27.7.
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
- A prison inside the boundary. police.uk counted 591 at or near a prison (74% violent) and 1,780 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Wandsworth’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 Wandsworth 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 Wandsworth
Is Wandsworth safe?
Police recorded 27.7 violent and sexual offences and 18.9 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Wandsworth’s built-up area). That earns a C for safety: less crime per resident than 25% of UK towns. Among 39 UK towns of 229,000 to 441,000 people, Wandsworth is 5th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Wandsworth?
By council ward, Southfields, Northcote and Wandle record the least violent and household crime per resident: 9.6, 9.9 and 16.4 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 54.1 in Nine Elms.
Is crime going up in Wandsworth?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime rose 7%, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 7%, shoplifting and theft fell 6% and anti-social behaviour held steady. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Wandsworth town centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 605 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 34% of them violent, and Nine Elms ward records 54.1 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 Wandsworth?
Violence & sexual offences: 8,459 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came vehicle crime (2,951) and other theft (2,814), with 7,170 reports of anti-social behaviour.
How does Wandsworth compare with Croydon?
Croydon records 36.3 violent and sexual offences and 20.5 crimes against homes and vehicles per 1,000 residents a year, against Wandsworth’s 27.7 and 18.9, 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.