Yes, Barkingside is safe, and somewhat safer than the borough around it. Its crime rate comes in about a tenth below the Redbridge average. Violence and sexual offences make up a smaller share of incidents than they do nationally. Nuisance makes up a bigger one. Most of Barkingside's crime record is about noise and nuisance more than danger.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 4,787 crimes in Barkingside in the year from June 2025 to May 2026. The published rate for the same period was about 88 crimes per 1,000 residents, roughly 12% below the Redbridge average. For an outer London suburb with a busy high road, that is a respectable figure.
To compare the two directly, Redbridge as a whole recorded about 100 crimes per 1,000 residents over that year, against Barkingside's 88. The gap is real but small, and Barkingside's figure is better than the borough's without being dramatically lower. The boroughs's higher figure is being driven somewhere else in Redbridge.
As for what kind of area this is, Barkingside is dense, with about 8,200 people per square kilometre on average. About 4% of residents are unemployed, and about 11% of households are overcrowded. In other words, it is a built-up suburb with a lot of people living close together, and most of them are in work.
The mix of crime is where Barkingside differs from the national pattern. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal category that includes common assault without injury, made up about 30% of Barkingside's crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. Anti-social behaviour was about 23%, well above the national 16%. Shoplifting was about 10% against 8% nationally, vehicle crime about 7% against 5%, other theft matched the national 7%, and public order offences were about 6% against 7%. Barkingside sees less violence than the national average and more nuisance and petty crime. To see where incidents cluster, look up the street on the police's online crime map, and check whether reports concentrate near the shops or extend into the residential roads.
When a crime is reported, the Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases across London, against about 12% nationally. That puts it 33rd of the 42 forces in that ranking. About 53% of the Metropolitan Police's cases close without anyone being identified. Those are force-wide figures for all of London, so they show how likely an offender is to be caught, but say nothing about how safe Barkingside is. The odds of being caught are the Metropolitan Police's figure, and the odds of something happening are Barkingside's own.
Barkingside is a safe place to live, a little calmer than its borough and less violent than the national pattern. Its crime is mostly anti-social behaviour, shoplifting and car crime.