Hampstead is a safe area, safer than most of the borough around it. Crime runs at well under the Camden rate. Violence makes up a much smaller share of it than across the country. Most of what does happen is theft and nuisance. The main risk is to things people carry or park, not to the people themselves.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 9,773 crimes in Hampstead in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a published rate of about 133 per 1,000 residents. That is roughly 41% below the average for Camden as a whole over the same year.
Camden's own rate for that year was about 226 crimes per 1,000 residents, set against Hampstead's 133. The borough includes busy central areas with large night-time crowds, which push its figure up, and Hampstead benefits from sitting next to them in the comparison. Even so, the gap is wide enough that a buyer moving up the hill from elsewhere in Camden is moving somewhere calmer.
Hampstead is a crowded place for somewhere with this reputation, at about 15,650 people per square kilometre on average. Unemployment is about 3% and about 6% of households are overcrowded. Close-packed flats on busy streets bring plenty of people and plenty of passing trade, and the crime rate is low anyway.
By category, anti-social behaviour is the largest at about 22% of recorded crime, against 16% across England and Wales. Violence and sexual offences come next at about 18%, roughly half the national share of 35%, and that category includes common assault without injury. Shoplifting is about 10% against 8% nationally, and other theft about 9% against 7%, both close to the national picture. Vehicle crime is about 10% against 5%, and theft from the person about 8% against 2%. About half of Hampstead's households have no car, and the cars that are here attract more than their share of attention. Police.uk publishes recorded crime on a street-level map, and a month or two of it for the actual street, especially one near a station or the high street, is a better guide than any area average.
What happens after a report is a force-wide matter. The Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 33rd of 42 forces. In about 53% of its cases nobody is identified at all. Those figures describe London's police force, and they apply in Hampstead exactly as they apply in every other borough it covers. Living somewhere with less crime does not mean the police are more likely to catch whoever is responsible when something does happen.
Safety is one of Hampstead's real strengths. Crime is far below the borough rate, and what does happen tends to be theft from people's pockets and cars.