London

Is London safe?

Yes, and safer than its reputation abroad. The Metropolitan Police recorded 97 homicides in 2025, or 1.1 per 100,000 people, the lowest rate since comparable records began in 1997. That is less than half of New York's rate, according to the Met's own comparison. Knife crime gets headlines, but it mostly involves young people in specific neighbourhoods, not visitors on Oxford Street.

What will happen to a visitor, if anything does, is phone theft. We score London 81, below Tokyo and above Paris.

The phone problem

London recorded 71,391 phone thefts in 2025, according to police figures obtained by Compare the Market. That is down from 81,365 in 2024 but still close to 200 a day. Of those, 61,292 were thefts from the person and 10,207 were robberies, where force or threats were used.

The West End is the centre of it. Westminster accounts for a large share of the city's phone thefts, and Oxford Street, Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue are the streets where a phone is most likely to go. The usual method is quick: a rider on an e-bike or moped comes along the kerb and takes the phone from your hand while you check a map or take a call.

How to make yourself a poor target:

• Step back from the kerb, or into a shop doorway, to use your phone.
• Hold it with both hands or use a strap. Do not leave it on a café or pub table.
• Turn on Stolen Device Protection (iPhone) or Theft Protection (Android) before you travel, so a thief who sees your passcode cannot reset the phone.
• On the Tube, put the phone away before the doors open. Thieves take phones from people standing by the doors and step off.

Classic pickpockets work the crowds at Oxford Circus, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and around the big rail terminals. Bag theft from the back of chairs is common in busy pubs. Scams are low-level: shell games on Westminster Bridge, fake charity collectors with clipboards, and people who "find" a ring and ask for money.

Getting around at night

London does not empty out after dark. Pubs close around 11pm but the West End, Shoreditch and Camden stay busy much later. The Night Tube runs all night on Friday and Saturday on the Victoria, Jubilee, Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines, and night buses cover the rest.

The rule that matters is about cars. Only black cabs can be hailed in the street. Minicabs must be booked, through an app or an office; a driver touting for passengers outside a club is not licensed to take you, and TfL has warned for years that unbooked minicabs are linked to sexual assaults. Uber, Bolt and FREENOW all operate.

Street harassment of women is common enough that the Met and TfL run campaigns against it on the Tube. Lone women generally walk main streets in central London at night, but take a cab or night bus rather than cutting through parks, canal towpaths or quiet estates.

Londoners are less sure of their streets at night than many Europeans. In the European Commission's 2023 survey of city residents, 60% said they feel safe walking alone at night in London and 67% in their own neighbourhood, close to Berlin and below Paris (66%) and Dublin (70%).

Traffic and air

TfL figures show 110 people died on London's roads in 2024, up from 95 in 2023, and 61 of them were pedestrians. That is still low for a city of about 9 million, at roughly 1.2 per 100,000. The risk for visitors is looking the wrong way. Traffic drives on the left, and many central crossings have "look right" painted on the road for that reason. If you hire a bike, stay off fast multi-lane roads; the Cycleways are separated from traffic.

Air quality has improved since the Ultra Low Emission Zone expanded, but PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary is still above the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³, especially along busy roads. Tap water is safe. Emergency treatment at an NHS A&E department is free to everyone, though non-urgent waits can run for hours.

Where to stay

All of central London is fine for visitors. For quieter nights and good transport, look at Bloomsbury, South Kensington, Marylebone, the South Bank or the City (which is near-empty at weekends). Soho and Covent Garden put you close to the West End but also close to the worst of the phone theft. Areas with higher violent crime, such as parts of outer east and south London, are well away from where most visitors stay.

The UK's terrorism threat level is "substantial", meaning an attack is likely. Attacks are rare, and the most practical step is to follow police instructions if you are in a crowd. Our United Kingdom page covers travel elsewhere in the country.

How we scored it

Violent crime (88), traffic (88) and natural hazards (90) are all strong. Theft and scams (68) is London's weakest factor because of the scale of phone theft in the West End. Night safety (71) follows the EU's 2023 survey of residents, which we use for every European city; harassment and unbooked minicabs are the specific risks.