Hounslow is less safe than the borough named after it. Crime runs a bit higher here than in the rest of Hounslow. Violence makes up a smaller share of it than the national average. Shoplifting and nuisance make up a bigger share. It's the crime record of a busy shopping town, with more trouble in the shops and on the streets than in people's homes.
The Metropolitan Police published a rate of about 135 crimes per 1,000 residents for Hounslow in the year from June 2025 to May 2026, with 9,121 crimes recorded over those twelve months. That's roughly 15% above the average for the London Borough of Hounslow. Few places manage to look worse than the borough that shares their name, and Hounslow is one of them.
The borough-wide rate for the same year was about 117 per 1,000. Set the two side by side and Hounslow sits about 18 crimes per 1,000 above the borough average. That's enough to notice on the police map, but it doesn't make the town a different kind of place from its neighbours.
Hounslow is crowded. The average density across its neighbourhoods is about 13,000 people per square kilometre, about 20% of households are overcrowded, and unemployment was about 5% at the 2021 census. That describes what the streets are like. It doesn't explain the crime figures, and nobody should read one as the cause of the other.
The mix is more reassuring than the headline. Violence and sexual offences make up about 26% of Hounslow's recorded crime, against about 35% across England and Wales. That category covers everything from common assault without injury upwards, and here it's a smaller share than average. Anti-social behaviour makes up about 20%, against 16% nationally, and shoplifting about 13%, against 8%. Public order offences, at about 6%, and other theft, at about 6%, are both close to the national shares of about 7%. Drugs offences are about 5%, against 4%. Most of what sets Hounslow apart happens in shops or out on the street, and the town's metropolitan-sized retail centre gives shoplifters plenty to work with.
What happens after a crime is reported depends on the whole force. The Metropolitan Police Service charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, and ranks 33rd of the 42 forces on that measure. About 53% of cases across the force are closed with no suspect identified. Those are force-wide figures covering all of London, so they tell you about the Met and nothing in particular about Hounslow's streets. A victim of crime anywhere in London has roughly a coin-toss chance that anyone is ever named for it.
Crime is spread unevenly across a town this size. If you're looking at a specific home, check the street-level map on police.uk for the roads around it, and compare a home a few streets from the high street with one right next to it.
Safety is where Hounslow falls below average. Crime is higher than the rest of the borough and the force behind it charges less often than most, but much of that crime is in shops and on the street, and less of it is violence than the national average.