Borough safety · Inner London · data through August 2026

How safe is Islington, London?

Islington, London covers 17 neighbourhoods in SafeRoute's Inner London index. Its median safety index is 50/100 — below the Inner London median of 60, so more is reported around a typical neighbourhood here than across Inner London. Highbury scores highest at 59/100; Clerkenwell lowest at 40/100.

These figures describe reported crime around each neighbourhood's centre — they are informational, not a judgment of any community. 0 of 17 neighbourhoods here rate low risk, 9 moderate, 8 elevated and 0 high risk.

Every neighbourhood in Islington, safest first

Neighbourhood	Index	Band	Incidents
1 Highbury	59/100	Moderate	509
2 Canonbury	58/100	Moderate	560
3 Tufnell Park	58/100	Moderate	555
4 Hillrise	56/100	Moderate	550
5 Junction	55/100	Moderate	571
6 Mildmay	55/100	Moderate	581
7 Laycock	53/100	Moderate	639
8 St Mary's & St James'	53/100	Moderate	674
9 Holloway	50/100	Moderate	750
10 Caledonian	49/100	Elevated	798
11 Arsenal	47/100	Elevated	826
12 Tollington	47/100	Elevated	856
13 Barnsbury	46/100	Elevated	930
14 Finsbury Park	45/100	Elevated	903
15 St Peter's & Canalside	45/100	Elevated	1,005
16 Bunhill	44/100	Elevated	1,082
17 Clerkenwell	40/100	Elevated	1,259

How Islington compares across Inner London

Boroughs (safest first)	Median index	Neighbourhoods
Greenwich	80/100	23
Wandsworth	75/100	22
Lewisham	74/100	19
Hammersmith and Fulham	62/100	21
Kensington and Chelsea	60/100	18
Hackney	59/100	21
Lambeth	58/100	25
Southwark	57/100	23
Camden	57/100	20
Tower Hamlets	54/100	20
Islington (this page)	50/100	17
Westminster	48/100	18

Common questions

What is the safest neighbourhood in Islington, London?

Highbury has the highest SafeRoute safety index in Islington, London, at 59/100 (moderate), from 509 reported incidents within 1 km of its centre. Canonbury (58/100) and Tufnell Park (58/100) follow.

Which neighbourhood in Islington, London has the most reported crime?

Clerkenwell has the lowest index in Islington, London, at 40/100, with 1,259 reported incidents within 1 km of its centre. A low score means more is reported around that centre, which busy commercial and transport areas produce simply by having more people in them — it is not a measure of how dangerous a resident's street is.

Is Islington, London safe?

Across its 17 neighbourhoods the median SafeRoute safety index is 50/100, against 60 across Inner London. 0 rate low risk, 9 moderate, 8 elevated and 0 high risk. These describe reported crime only and vary widely within the borough — check the individual neighbourhood rather than reading one number for the whole of it.

How is the SafeRoute safety index calculated?

SafeRoute weights each police-recorded incident by severity (violence weighs more than shoplifting), sums the last available period within 1 km of the neighbourhood centre, and normalises against national crime rates onto a 0–100 scale — higher is safer. It describes reported crime only; it is not a guarantee of safety. The figure shown for Islington, London is the median of its 17 neighbourhoods — the borough is not measured separately.

Methodology

Each incident published by the police (via data.police.uk, Open Government Licence) is weighted by severity — violence counts for more than shoplifting. For every ward we sum weighted incidents within 1 km of its centre (ONS December 2025 ward centroids), and normalise onto a 0–100 index, higher = safer. Incident locations are anonymised by the police to nearby snap points, so the maps show streets rather than exact addresses. Pages regenerate as new data is published.

The index compares neighbourhoods within Inner London. It is not comparable between cities: each police force publishes a different set of offences over a different period — London's figures cannot be read against another city's on the same 0–100 scale.