Is Barking and Dagenham a good place to live?
Barking and Dagenham scores 52 out of 100 on our Liveability index, 28th of London's 33 boroughs. It does best on environment (83) and schools (59), and least well on area prosperity (22). The highest-scoring wards are Abbey, Longbridge and Northbury.
Each part compares Barking and Dagenham with the rest of London, where 100 is the best. The score uses our default weights; on the map you can set your own.
Is Barking and Dagenham safe?
Police recorded about 2,061 crimes a month in Barking and Dagenham from June to August 2026, about 58 per square kilometre, close to the London borough median of 63. The most common were violence and sexual offences (37%), anti-social behaviour (21%) and vehicle crime (9%).
Recorded crime follows footfall: busy town centres and transport hubs record more, which says little about quiet residential streets. Check the exact street with an area report.
Does Barking and Dagenham flood?
About 25% of Barking and Dagenham's land is in Flood Zone 2 or 3, the Environment Agency's zones for flooding from rivers or the sea, against 13% across London. About 23% sits in Flood Zone 3, the highest risk band. The zones ignore flood defences and do not cover surface water flooding.
Are there good schools in Barking and Dagenham?
Barking and Dagenham has 44 state primary and 13 state secondary schools, plus 1 independent schools. Of the state schools with a current single Ofsted grade, 98% are good or outstanding and 19% are outstanding, against a London borough median of 24% outstanding. Outstanding schools include Grafton Primary School, Warren Junior School and Barking Abbey School, A Specialist Sports and Humanities College.
Ofsted stopped giving a single overall grade in September 2024, so recently inspected schools have none. Always check admissions and catchment rules with the school or council.
How good is public transport in Barking and Dagenham?
Barking and Dagenham has 8 Underground, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR or tram stations on the District, Hammersmith & City, Suffragette (Overground) and National Rail, in fare zones 4 and 5. About 5% of the borough has good or better access (TfL PTAL 4 to 6b), against 15% of London.
How much does it cost to live in Barking and Dagenham?
The average home in Barking and Dagenham cost £360,679 in March 2026 (HM Land Registry), up 13.7% over five years. The average private rent was £1,688 a month (ONS, May 2026 release), a gross yield of about 5.6%. Homes cost 10.2 times average local earnings.
What is the air quality like in Barking and Dagenham?
Nitrogen dioxide averaged 18 µg/m³ across Barking and Dagenham in 2022 (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory), against a London median of 20 and a World Health Organization guideline of 10. Fine particles (PM2.5) averaged 9 µg/m³ against a guideline of 5. Air is usually worst beside main roads.
What are the shops, parks and GPs like in Barking and Dagenham?
OpenStreetMap lists 22 supermarkets, 21 GP surgeries and 26 pharmacies in Barking and Dagenham, and 40 public parks covering about 388 hectares.
How deprived is Barking and Dagenham?
The typical neighbourhood in Barking and Dagenham is in decile 3 of 10 on the English Indices of Deprivation 2025, where 1 is the most deprived tenth of England and 10 the least. About 25% of the borough is in the most deprived fifth.
Which parts of Barking and Dagenham score best?
The highest Liveability scores in Barking and Dagenham are in Abbey, Longbridge and Northbury, and the lowest in Chadwell Heath and Beam. Every ward is below, with its scores for safety, transport, shops, green space and schools out of 100.
| Ward | Liveability | Safety | Transport | Shops | Green | Schools |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey | 60 | 4 | 98 | 94 | 60 | 72 |
| Longbridge | 60 | 27 | 68 | 56 | 75 | 82 |
| Northbury | 60 | 5 | 97 | 78 | 64 | 67 |
| Heath | 59 | 32 | 60 | 66 | 86 | 77 |
| Village | 58 | 38 | 49 | 53 | 84 | 62 |
| Gascoigne | 57 | 12 | 79 | 84 | 62 | 81 |
| Goresbrook | 55 | 22 | 61 | 60 | 64 | 78 |
| Whalebone | 55 | 28 | 66 | 75 | 27 | 59 |
| Mayesbrook | 54 | 30 | 40 | 49 | 66 | 65 |
| Valence | 54 | 28 | 59 | 61 | 52 | 73 |
| Alibon | 53 | 31 | 61 | 56 | 51 | 56 |
| Eastbury | 52 | 31 | 66 | 70 | 51 | 60 |
| Parsloes | 52 | 33 | 66 | 45 | 30 | 57 |
| Becontree | 51 | 28 | 57 | 46 | 56 | 81 |
| Eastbrook & Rush Green | 51 | 54 | 32 | 29 | 86 | 24 |
| Barking Riverside | 45 | 58 | 40 | 36 | 33 | 48 |
| Thames View | 45 | 41 | 49 | 54 | 45 | 50 |
| Chadwell Heath | 44 | 49 | 41 | 38 | 19 | 40 |
| Beam | 35 | 69 | 10 | 29 | 19 | 21 |
Nearby areas
Where these numbers come from
- Crime: police.uk street-level crime, June to August 2026, averaged per month.
- Flood zones and conservation areas: Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning and local authority conservation areas, via planning.data.gov.uk.
- Schools: Department for Education Get Information About Schools, with Ofsted grades.
- Transport: TfL stations and PTAL 2023. Air quality: London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2022.
- Prices: HM Land Registry UK House Price Index (March 2026) and ONS private rents (May 2026 release) and affordability ratios.
- Shops, GPs and parks: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Deprivation: English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (MHCLG).
- Liveability: our score for each ~500 m square of London, built from the sources above; borough and ward figures are medians of their squares.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. © OpenStreetMap contributors. Powered by TfL Open Data.