
The Best London Boroughs To Raise A Family
The Best London Boroughs To Raise A Family
The Best London Boroughs To Raise A Family
Moving house is a difficult decision at the best of times, but it’s made all the more difficult when you’ve got children to think about too.
Thankfully, London is such a huge and varied place, that you’re sure to find an area which suits the needs of you and your family.
We’ve taken a look at each London Borough, and ranked them on a number of family friendly factors, such as number of schools, safety and average academic performance to act as a bit of a guide.

Borough | Crime Rate (Pts) | GCSE (Pts) | Schools (Pts) | Greenspace (Pts) | Child Obesity (Pts) | Overall (Pts) |
Richmond upon Thames | 29 | 32* | 28 | 30 | 32* | 151 |
Kingston upon Thames | 28 | 29 | 17 | 23 | 31 | 128 |
Sutton | 31 | 26 | 14 | 18 | 30 | 119 |
Barnet | 25 | 25 | 30 | 27 | 5 | 112 |
Bromley | 26 | 28 | 18 | 31 | 8 | 111 |
Merton | 27 | 27 | 16 | 22 | 18 | 110 |
Hillingdon | 21 | 19 | 21 | 29 | 12 | 102 |
Havering | 23 | 12 | 16 | 32* | 16 | 99 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 2 | 31 | 32* | 2 | 30 | 97 |
Wandsworth | 21 | 21 | 20 | 14 | 21 | 97 |
Redbridge | 24 | 31 | 7 | 26 | 9 | 97 |
Harrow | 32* | 24 | 1 | 22 | 16 | 95 |
Croydon | 18 | 4 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 94 |
Hounslow | 14 | 22 | 11 | 25 | 20 | 92 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 5 | 16 | 31 | 5 | 26 | 83 |
Ealing | 17 | 18 | 12 | 15 | 20 | 82 |
Southwark | 8 | 17 | 24 | 12 | 18 | 79 |
Enfield | 22 | 10 | 7 | 28 | 12 | 79 |
Haringey | 10 | 9 | 22 | 13 | 24 | 78 |
Bexley | 30 | 14 | 13 | 17 | 3 | 77 |
Waltham Forest | 19 | 6 | 5 | 16 | 30 | 76 |
City of Westminster | 1 | 23 | 23 | 6 | 22 | 75 |
Hackney | 6 | 16 | 29 | 9 | 14 | 74 |
Tower Hamlets | 9 | 8 | 27 | 3 | 26 | 73 |
Lewisham | 16 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 65 |
Camden | 3 | 20 | 26 | 11 | 4 | 64 |
Greenwich | 12 | 7 | 19 | 20 | 6 | 64 |
Newham | 11 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 43 |
Brent | 15 | 13 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 41 |
Barking and Dagenham | 13 | 5 | 2 | 19 | 1 | 40 |
Islington | 4 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 39 |
Lambeth | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 24 |
* We've starred the top result in each category!
We've also broken down by each of the individual factors to give an overview on the bigger picture:
Crime Rate
Knowing the crime rate of a particular borough is important; if only to understand how safe it is to let children play out with their friends! We took official data to outline the crime rate and assigned points based upon their ranking.
Borough | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Pts |
Harrow | 13630 | 1.30 | 32 |
Sutton | 11011 | 1.31 | 31 |
Bexley | 13590 | 1.34 | 30 |
Richmond upon Thames | 11771 | 1.43 | 29 |
Kingston upon Thames | 10599 | 1.46 | 28 |
Merton | 13202 | 1.53 | 27 |
Bromley | 21282 | 1.56 | 26 |
Barnet | 25987 | 1.63 | 25 |
Redbridge | 20620 | 1.65 | 24 |
Havering | 17657 | 1.69 | 23 |
Enfield | 23478 | 1.70 | 22 |
Hillingdon | 23375 | 1.87 | 21 |
Wandsworth | 24777 | 1.87 | 21 |
Waltham Forest | 21683 | 1.9 | 19 |
Croydon | 30784 | 1.93 | 18 |
Ealing | 28312 | 1.95 | 17 |
Lewisham | 24905 | 2.00 | 16 |
Brent | 27902 | 2.05 | 15 |
Hounslow | 23295 | 2.06 | 14 |
Barking and Dagenham | 17667 | 2.08 | 13 |
Greenwich | 24203 | 2.11 | 12 |
Newham | 31904 | 2.3 | 11 |
Haringey | 28590 | 2.52 | 10 |
Tower Hamlets | 30947 | 2.53 | 9 |
Southwark | 32919 | 2.56 | 8 |
Lambeth | 35025 | 2.59 | 7 |
Hackney | 30446 | 2.71 | 6 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 20955 | 2.78 | 5 |
Islington | 28409 | 3.01 | 4 |
Camden | 31003 | 3.08 | 3 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 20363 | 3.10 | 2 |
City of Westminster | 51103 | 5.12 | 1 |
GCSE Grades
We all want our children to achieve fantastic GCSE grades, and the schools in the area play a large part in ensuring that this happens. Here, we've taken a look at the percentage of children in each borough achieving 5 or more A* - C grades at GCSE.
Borough | 5 or More A*-C Grades at GCSE | Pts |
Richmond upon Thames | 70.6% | 32 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 68.7% | 31 |
Redbridge | 68.7% | 31 |
Kingston upon Thames | 68.5% | 29 |
Bromley | 68% | 28 |
Merton | 67.9% | 27 |
Sutton | 67.4% | 26 |
Barnet | 67.3% | 25 |
Harrow | 66.4% | 24 |
City of Westminster | 66% | 23 |
Hounslow | 63.2% | 22 |
Wandsworth | 63.1% | 21 |
Camden | 62.7% | 20 |
Hillingdon | 62.1% | 19 |
Ealing | 62.1% | 18 |
Southwark | 61.4% | 17 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 60.6% | 16 |
Hackney | 60.6% | 16 |
Bexley | 60.4% | 14 |
Brent | 60.1% | 13 |
Havering | 59.9% | 12 |
Islington | 59.9% | 12 |
Enfield | 59.8% | 10 |
Haringey | 59.7% | 9 |
Tower Hamlets | 59.3% | 8 |
Greenwich | 58.8% | 7 |
Waltham Forest | 58.3% | 6 |
Barking and Dagenham | 58% | 5 |
Croydon | 57.6% | 4 |
Lambeth | 57.1% | 3 |
Lewisham | 56.6% | 2 |
Newham | 55.7% | 1 |
Schools
Similarly, it's important to know that schools aren't over subscribed to ensure a great education for your child. As such, here we've looked at the number of schools per 10,000 of the population.
Borough | # Of Schools | Population | Schools Per 10k | Pts |
Kensington and Chelsea | 83 | 157700 | 5.263157895 | 32 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 82 | 179400 | 4.570791527 | 31 |
Barnet | 161 | 379700 | 4.240189623 | 30 |
Hackney | 111 | 269000 | 4.126394052 | 29 |
Richmond upon Thames | 80 | 194700 | 4.108885465 | 28 |
Tower Hamlets | 121 | 295200 | 4.098915989 | 27 |
Camden | 96 | 241100 | 3.981750311 | 26 |
Croydon | 148 | 379000 | 3.905013193 | 25 |
Southwark | 119 | 308900 | 3.852379411 | 24 |
City of Westminster | 90 | 242300 | 3.714403632 | 23 |
Haringey | 101 | 272900 | 3.700989373 | 22 |
Hillingdon | 110 | 297700 | 3.694994961 | 21 |
Wandsworth | 116 | 314500 | 3.688394277 | 20 |
Greenwich | 101 | 274800 | 3.675400291 | 19 |
Bromley | 119 | 324900 | 3.662665436 | 18 |
Kingston upon Thames | 63 | 173500 | 3.631123919 | 17 |
Merton | 73 | 204600 | 3.567937439 | 16 |
Havering | 89 | 249100 | 3.572862304 | 16 |
Sutton | 70 | 200100 | 3.498250875 | 14 |
Bexley | 84 | 242100 | 3.469640644 | 13 |
Ealing | 116 | 343100 | 3.380938502 | 12 |
Hounslow | 89 | 268800 | 3.311011905 | 11 |
Islington | 75 | 227700 | 3.293807642 | 10 |
Lewisham | 97 | 297300 | 3.262697612 | 9 |
Newham | 108 | 332800 | 3.245192308 | 8 |
Redbridge | 96 | 296800 | 3.234501348 | 7 |
Enfield | 106 | 328400 | 3.227771011 | 7 |
Waltham Forest | 87 | 271200 | 3.207964602 | 5 |
Brent | 101 | 324000 | 3.117283951 | 4 |
Lambeth | 101 | 324400 | 3.113440197 | 3 |
Barking and Dagenham | 62 | 202000 | 3.069306931 | 2 |
Harrow | 72 | 247100 | 2.913800081 | 1 |
Green Space Areas
As a child, there's nothing more fun than playing in the local park so we've taken a look at the green space areas in each borough!
Borough | % of Area That Is Green Space | Pts |
Havering | 59.3 | 32 |
Bromley | 57.8 | 31 |
Richmond upon Thames | 50.8 | 30 |
Hillingdon | 49.2 | 29 |
Enfield | 45.6 | 28 |
Barnet | 41.3 | 27 |
Redbridge | 40.6 | 26 |
Hounslow | 39.6 | 25 |
Croydon | 37.1 | 24 |
Kingston upon Thames | 36.4 | 23 |
Merton | 34.6 | 22 |
Harrow | 34.6 | 22 |
Greenwich | 34.4 | 20 |
Barking and Dagenham | 33.6 | 19 |
Sutton | 32 | 18 |
Bexley | 31.7 | 17 |
Waltham Forest | 31.4 | 16 |
Ealing | 30.9 | 15 |
Wandsworth | 26.9 | 14 |
Haringey | 25.5 | 13 |
Southwark | 24.9 | 12 |
Camden | 24.8 | 11 |
Newham | 23.9 | 10 |
Hackney | 23.2 | 9 |
Lewisham | 22.5 | 8 |
Brent | 21.9 | 7 |
City of Westminster | 21.5 | 6 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 19.1 | 5 |
Lambeth | 17.3 | 4 |
Tower Hamlets | 15.2 | 3 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 15.1 | 2 |
Islington | 12.4 | 1 |
Childhood Obesity
We also thought it was important to take a look at childhood obesity rates in each borough and we've outlined the individual rankings for each below:
Borough | % of Childhood Obesity | Pts |
Richmond upon Thames | 12.3% | 32 |
Kingston upon Thames | 13.0% | 31 |
Sutton | 13.7% | 30 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 13.7% | 30 |
Waltham Forest | 13.7% | 30 |
Lewisham | 13.7% | 30 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 13.8% | 26 |
Tower Hamlets | 13.8% | 26 |
Haringey | 14.1% | 24 |
Croydon | 14.4% | 23 |
City of Westminster | 14.5% | 22 |
Wandsworth | 14.6% | 21 |
Hounslow | 15.0% | 20 |
Ealing | 15.0% | 20 |
Merton | 15.1% | 18 |
Southwark | 15.1% | 18 |
Havering | 15.4% | 16 |
Harrow | 15.4% | 16 |
Hackney | 15.5% | 14 |
Newham | 15.7% | 13 |
Hillingdon | 15.8% | 12 |
Enfield | 15.8% | 12 |
Islington | 15.8% | 12 |
Redbridge | 15.9% | 9 |
Bromley | 16.0% | 8 |
Lambeth | 16.1% | 7 |
Greenwich | 16.2% | 6 |
Barnet | 20.7% | 5 |
Camden | 21.3% | 4 |
Bexley | 22.7% | 3 |
Brent | 24.3% | 2 |
Barking and Dagenham | 28.5% | 1 |
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_boroughs
https://beta.met.police.uk/stats-and-data/crime-data-dashboard/
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/schools-and-pupils-type-school-borough/resource/29c0ae07-8f57-49dd-8b35-621734938e80#
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/land-use-ward/resource/65301e5a-c593-414b-998f-a805a1366ecf
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/prevalence-childhood-obesity-borough/resource/5bc12c32-3764-499a-84c9-391fc8b916fd#