Yes, Higham is a safe place to live, and it has the numbers to back that up. Crime runs about a third below the Gravesham average. Unemployment is close to zero. Overcrowding barely registers. The worst thing on most streets is somebody's hedge.
Police records for the twelve months from June 2025 to May 2026 put Higham's rate at 67 crimes per 1,000 residents, about a third below the Gravesham average. That's 440 recorded crimes across the year. Both are published figures, and the rate uses its own statistical population base, so it doesn't line up exactly with the village headcount. Anyone checking the sums on a calculator will get a different answer and a fresh reason to distrust statistics.
Put both numbers side by side. Higham sits at 67 crimes per 1,000 residents, and Gravesham as a whole sits at about 98. The gap is the difference between a village and the town it sits next to, and it's the number buyers moving out of Gravesend are paying for.
The neighbourhood itself explains why. The average density across its statistical areas is about 2,218 people per square kilometre, and that figure includes the built-up streets, not the fields. Unemployment is about 2%, and about 2% of households are overcrowded. That describes a settled, owner-occupied village where people have jobs and space. It describes the setting, not the cause, and it's not a guarantee for any single street.
The mix of recorded crime needs a health warning. The totals are small enough that a handful of incidents shifts any share by several points, so none of this should be read as a fixed trait of the village. With that in mind, anti-social behaviour made up about 26% of recorded crime, against about 16% nationally. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal category that includes common assault without injury, came to about 25% here against about 35% nationally, well under the usual share. Other theft was about 10% against 7% nationally, criminal damage and arson about 9% against 7%, vehicle crime about 8% against 5%, and burglary about 6% against 4%. In a place where so little happens, a few car break-ins and one noisy summer go a long way in the percentages. Keep the car locked and the tools out of sight on the driveway, and the rest largely looks after itself.
What happens after a report is a separate question from how much crime there is. Across the whole force area, Kent Police charges a suspect in about 16% of cases, against about 12% nationally, putting it sixth of 42 forces. That's a force-wide figure over the same twelve months, not a Higham statistic. About 36% of cases were closed with no suspect identified, which is the honest answer to whether the person who took your bike will be caught.
Higham's safety is one of its real strengths: crime sits well below the borough around it, and what does get recorded is mostly nuisance rather than danger. Anyone who arrives expecting trouble is going to be disappointed.