Highgate is about as safe as the rest of its borough, and slightly less safe than it looks. Its crime rate runs a little above the Haringey average. Violence makes up a smaller share of crime here than it does nationally. Car crime and anti-social behaviour make up a bigger one. The danger here is mostly to property and peace and quiet.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 4,708 crimes in Highgate in the year to May 2026, a published rate of about 147 per 1,000 residents. That is roughly 9% above the average for Haringey as a whole. The published rate uses its own population base, so the rate is the figure to compare.
Haringey's rate across the same twelve months was about 135 per 1,000, against Highgate's 147. The difference is real but modest. A buyer moving here from elsewhere in the borough is getting broadly the same level of crime.
Highgate is a dense place, with about 8,900 people per square kilometre, which counts as normal for inner London. Unemployment stands at about 3% and about 4% of households are overcrowded. That makes it a built-up, busy and largely comfortable area, the kind where a lot of people, cars and shops share a small hilltop.
The shape of the crime here matters more than the rate. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal category that includes common assault without injury, make up about 23% of Highgate's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. Anti-social behaviour makes up about 22% against 16% nationally, shoplifting about 13% against 8% and vehicle crime about 11% against 5%. Burglary is about 5% against 4%, and other theft is level at about 7% on both counts. A hilltop with a Victorian cemetery, Waterlow Park and a school founded under Elizabeth I sounds like the last place anyone would need to lock the car, and the vehicle-crime figures say lock it anyway. Buyers who plan to park on the street should look up the roads around the house on the Metropolitan Police's own crime map, since a car on a busy road and a car on a back street are not facing the same odds.
What happens after a crime is reported is a separate question. The answer comes from the police force as a whole, and Highgate has no figure of its own. The Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which puts it 33rd of 42 forces. About 53% of its cases close with no suspect identified. That figure tells a buyer how likely it is that anyone gets caught. It does not measure how safe the streets are.
On safety, Highgate is middling. Violence is lower than average, but cars, shops and late-night nuisance account for more of its crime than they do in most places.