Croydon vs Redbridge

Redbridge records less crime for its size than Croydon: 95.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 104.3. That is about 9% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

Croydon 104.3 crimes per 1,000 residents, Greater London
Redbridge 95.8 crimes per 1,000 residents, Greater London

The England and Wales average is 91.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents. Croydon is about 14% above it. Redbridge is about 5% above it.

Side by side

Recorded crime in Croydon and Redbridge
  Croydon Redbridge
Crimes per 1,000 residents 104.3 95.8
Offences in the year to June 2026 42,702 30,775
Residents 409,342 321,231
Change on the previous 12 months -2.6% +3.4%
Rank in England and Wales 90 of 314 111 of 314

Rank 1 is the highest recorded rate. Both areas are local authority areas, so the two populations are counted the same way and the rates are directly comparable.

Offence by offence

The mix differs more than the totals do. Croydon records about 1.4 times as much drugs and 1.4 times as much criminal damage and arson per resident. Redbridge records about 1.9 times as much theft from the person per resident.

Rate per 1,000 residents by offence
Offence, per 1,000 residents Croydon Redbridge
Violence and sexual offences 31.3 29.1
Anti-social behaviour 21.7 19.3
Vehicle crime 9.0 8.4
Shoplifting 8.3 7.8
Other theft 6.5 6.4
Public order 5.9 5.2
Criminal damage and arson 5.3 3.9
Drugs 5.2 3.7
Burglary 4.2 3.6
Theft from the person 2.0 3.7
Robbery 2.5 2.4
Other crime 1.3 1.2
Possession of weapons 0.8 0.5
Bicycle theft 0.5 0.5
All recorded crime 104.3 95.8

Both places since 2011

Each line is a rolling twelve-month rate per 1,000 residents, so seasonality is taken out and the two areas are on the same scale despite their different sizes.

Croydon Redbridge
40801201600Covid lockdown104 Croydon96 Redbridge20122014201620182020202220242026
A line breaks wherever the twelve months behind it include a return the force never filed, because a twelve-month total missing three of its months is not a total.

Questions

Is Croydon safer than Redbridge?

Redbridge records less crime for its size than Croydon: 95.8 offences per 1,000 residents in the 12 months to June 2026, against 104.3. That is about 9% more. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority, and neither area is uniform: the gap between neighbourhoods inside one of these places is usually wider than the gap between the two of them.

What does this comparison not tell you?

Recorded crime counts what the police wrote down, so a place where people report more looks worse than a place where they report less, whatever actually happened. Both figures are averages across a whole local authority: a town with one busy centre and quiet suburbs carries a rate that describes neither. And the denominator is residents, so somewhere that fills up with commuters, students or shoppers by day records crime against a population it is not credited with. How the figures work sets all of this out.

Where else can I compare?

Pick any other two areas, or start from Croydon or Redbridge and use the neighbouring areas listed on each. The ranked lists of the safest places and the highest crime rates cover all of them at once.

Figures cover the 12 months to June 2026. Police data is published roughly two months in arrears.