Crime and Safety in Covent Garden, Westminster
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The most common crime in Covent Garden is other theft, with 1,050 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 64. This is 9% lower than 2025's figure of 1,158 offences and a difference of 6.85 from 2025's crime rate of 71. Covent Garden's least common crime is other crime, with 13 offences recorded in 2026, a decrease of 48% from 2025's figure of 25 crimes.
Covent Garden 2026 Crime Scorecard
97% higher, borough crime rate
London
243% higher, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in Westminster is 97% higher than London and 243% higher than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
Westminster Crime Rate Over Time
| Covent Garden | |
| Westminster | |
| London |
Covent Garden Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Covent Garden represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
Introduction to Covent Garden's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Covent Garden up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Covent Garden's 58 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Covent Garden • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Covent Garden has a crime risk score of 862. This is based on analysis of 58 nearby areas within Covent Garden, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Covent Garden's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Covent Garden, crime risk scores are typically around 862, while in Westminster they are average 690.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 902 (761 for Westminster), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 903 (Westminster 804).
Trends in Crime Risk
Covent Garden
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates an increase of 14% in Covent Garden's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Covent Garden's crime risk score is up by 33%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Covent Garden's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 8%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Covent Garden
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Covent Garden • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Theft From the Person offences have a crime rate of 51 reports per 1,000 people in Covent Garden, which is 33 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 849 crime reports logged by Metropolitan Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, Metropolitan Police recorded 750 reports of Shoplifting in Covent Garden, resulting in a crime rate of 45 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 6.37.
The crime rate for Robbery is 4.99 times the national average at 5.89 reports per 1,000. This is from 97 crime reports reported to Metropolitan Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Covent Garden
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.43 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 1.18 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 21% over this timeframe.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 7.36 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 4.68 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 57% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Covent Garden
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 24 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 48 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 50% over this timeframe.
Vehicle Crime offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Vehicle Crime CrimeRate Index was 0.41 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Robbery offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 4.80 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 8.89 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 46% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Covent Garden • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Covent Garden | Westminster | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 522 | 31.62 | 2.24 | 13,374 | 22.23 | 1.57 | 235,985 | 21.68 | 1.53 |
| Bicycle Theft | 40 | 2.40 | 3.29 | 935 | 1.56 | 2.14 | 13,695 | 1.26 | 1.73 |
| Burglary | 109 | 6.63 | 2.12 | 2,618 | 4.36 | 1.39 | 47,359 | 4.34 | 1.39 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 99 | 6.01 | 0.96 | 2,216 | 3.68 | 0.59 | 54,098 | 4.99 | 0.79 |
| Drugs | 120 | 7.28 | 2.36 | 2,933 | 4.90 | 1.59 | 53,167 | 4.87 | 1.58 |
| Other Crime | 13 | 0.78 | 0.64 | 487 | 0.79 | 0.43 | 13,008 | 1.19 | 0.64 |
| Other Theft | 1,050 | 63.66 | 11 | 15,647 | 26.00 | 4.57 | 97,452 | 8.97 | 1.58 |
| Possession of Weapons | 14 | 0.84 | 1.45 | 357 | 0.61 | 0.72 | 6,443 | 0.60 | 0.71 |
| Public Order | 244 | 14.79 | 2.55 | 3,643 | 6.06 | 1.04 | 60,049 | 5.52 | 0.95 |
| Robbery | 97 | 5.89 | 4.99 | 2,960 | 4.93 | 4.18 | 30,804 | 2.83 | 2.40 |
| Shoplifting | 750 | 45.44 | 6.37 | 8,025 | 13.34 | 1.87 | 87,976 | 8.09 | 1.13 |
| Theft From the Person | 849 | 51.47 | 33 | 19,993 | 33.21 | 21 | 77,160 | 7.11 | 4.59 |
| Vehicle Crime | 21 | 1.26 | 0.35 | 2,950 | 4.90 | 1.14 | 81,755 | 7.50 | 1.74 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 667 | 40.42 | 1.33 | 12,434 | 20.68 | 0.68 | 273,434 | 25.12 | 0.83 |
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Total Crime by Year
Covent Garden | Westminster | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 4,073 | 246.87 | 3.51 | 75,198 | 125.02 | 1.74 | 896,400 | 82.39 | 1.14 |
| 2025 | 4,971 | 312.90 | 4.28 | 84,643 | 140.59 | 1.90 | 896,961 | 83.23 | 1.12 |
| 2024 | 5,527 | 344.80 | 4.63 | 88,968 | 147.25 | 1.95 | 900,986 | 84.38 | 1.12 |
| 2023 | 5,629 | 346.27 | 4.45 | 78,518 | 128.70 | 1.63 | 835,471 | 78.98 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 3,795 | 222.40 | 2.92 | 58,005 | 94.08 | 1.22 | 795,646 | 75.77 | 0.99 |
| 2021 | 1,508 | 84.33 | 1.26 | 35,055 | 56.33 | 0.82 | 727,983 | 69.09 | 1.01 |
| 2020 | 3,990 | 213.23 | 2.93 | 65,976 | 104.48 | 1.41 | 819,467 | 77.66 | 1.05 |
| 2019 | 3,954 | 205.67 | 2.73 | 68,821 | 108.65 | 1.42 | 849,310 | 80.70 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 3,161 | 159.00 | 2.26 | 55,337 | 86.22 | 1.21 | 810,063 | 77.08 | 1.08 |
| 2017 | 2,683 | 132.47 | 2.10 | 49,364 | 76.37 | 1.19 | 758,160 | 72.41 | 1.13 |
| 2016 | 932 | 45.96 | 2.43 | 15,072 | 23.30 | 1.22 | 234,565 | 22.42 | 1.18 |
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Covent Garden Compared to Other Westminster Neighbourhoods
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Neighbourhood | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strand | 1,977 | 121.80 | 51% safer |
| Charing Cross | 730 | 347.68 | 41% more dangerous |
| Chinatown | 1,427 | 378.15 | 53% more dangerous |
| Leicester Square | 2,582 | 1184.78 | 380% more dangerous |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in Westminster