The Best London Boroughs To Raise A Family

8th June 2017 in Travel Tips by Francis Buchanan

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