Chigwell is a safe area, safer than the district around it. Its crime rate is lower than Epping Forest's. Unemployment is low. Anti-social behaviour is reported here about half as often as the national pattern would suggest. The one crime Chigwell gets more than its share of involves a car parked on a drive.
Police recorded 929 crimes in Chigwell in the year to May 2026, and the published rate for the period is about 67 crimes per 1,000 residents. That is roughly 12% below the Epping Forest average. These are crimes reported to police and published by police.uk, and the rate is calculated on official statistical-area populations, not a simple headcount of the town.
Epping Forest as a whole recorded about 76 crimes per 1,000 residents over the same twelve months, against about 67 in Chigwell. The gap is real, though small, and it goes in the direction a buyer wants.
Chigwell is more built-up than its village label suggests, at an average of about 5,450 people per square kilometre across its neighbourhoods. Unemployment is about 3%, and about 6% of households are overcrowded. Busy suburbs with that profile tend to produce plenty of everyday activity and little real trouble.
Violence and sexual offences make up about 38% of recorded crime here, against about 35% across England and Wales. The category is the largest almost everywhere, and it includes common assault where nobody was hurt. Criminal damage and arson, other theft and public order offences each make up about 6 to 7% of crime here, in line with the national shares. Two categories stand out. Anti-social behaviour accounts for about 8% of crime in Chigwell, against about 16% nationally. Vehicle crime accounts for about 16%, against about 5% nationally. The crime Chigwell has most of needs a key fob, and anyone viewing a house with parking in plain sight of the road should get a car insurance quote for that postcode early on. The premium will reflect the local vehicle-crime rate more accurately than a street map will.
Essex Police, the force that covers Chigwell along with the rest of the county, charges a suspect in about 11% of cases, against about 12% nationally, over the twelve months to May 2026. About 37% of its cases close with no suspect identified. These figures describe how the whole force performs after a crime is reported. They say nothing about how likely a crime is in Chigwell itself. A stolen car on a Chigwell drive goes into the same county-wide statistics as everything else Essex Police deals with.
Chigwell is safer than average. Violence and sexual offences run close to the national share and anti-social behaviour is low, so the main thing a resident needs to watch is the car.