Hornsey is reasonably safe by north London standards, and a little safer than the borough it belongs to. Crime runs slightly under the Haringey rate. Violence makes up a smaller share than it does nationally. Nuisance and pickpocketing make up more. It is a district where the phone in your back pocket is in more danger than you are.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 6,565 crimes in Hornsey in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, a published rate of about 124 for every 1,000 residents. That is roughly 8% below the average for Haringey as a whole.
Haringey's own rate over the same year was about 135 crimes per 1,000 residents, so the two numbers are close. A gap of that size can narrow in a busy few months, and Hornsey is better described as a little under the borough than as a different world from it.
The setting explains why the numbers are an inner-London shape. Hornsey packs in about 14,300 people per square kilometre on average, about 4% of residents were unemployed at the 2021 census, and about 8% of households were overcrowded. That is a dense, busy, mostly working place, and a lot of people in a small space means a lot of opportunities for a lot of small offences.
The mix is where Hornsey looks most unlike the national pattern. Anti-social behaviour is the largest category, at about 24% of recorded crime against about 16% across England and Wales. Violence and sexual offences, a broad legal grouping that includes common assault without injury, make up about 23%, well below the national share of about 35%. Vehicle crime accounts for about 9% against about 5% nationally, and theft from the person about 6% against about 2%. Shoplifting, at about 9%, and other theft, at about 7%, are close to their national shares. The crime that stands out here is the kind that takes your bike or your wallet and leaves you to walk home annoyed. The police.uk street map shows recorded crime near any address, and on a high street compared with a back road, the difference can be worth a look.
What happens after a report is a separate question. The Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which ranks it 33rd of 42 forces over the same year, and about 53% of its cases close with no suspect identified. Those are figures for the whole of London's force, and they say nothing about how safe Hornsey's streets are. They do say that a stolen bike is more likely to stay stolen.
Hornsey is one of the safer corners of its borough, with less violence than the national mix and more petty nuisance than most buyers would choose. For a district this crowded, that is a good place to end up.