TikTok users are the most likely people on social media to overestimate the true extent of crime in London, according to a new study.
The finding comes in research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London (KCL), entitled “London has fallen? Misperceptions of crime, race, religion and life in the UK capital”.
Sixty-eight per cent of TikTok users said total crime rose in the capital between March 2019 and March 2025, when it actually fell by 1.4%.
For Facebook users the figure was 64%, Snapchat 60%, Instagram 59%, YouTube 58%, Pinterest 57%, X 56%, LinkedIn 55% and Reddit 51%.
The figure for people who do not use social media, who are likely to include the elderly, was 66%.
It is not clear if the results were linked to the age of social media users, the content they are seeing, or other factors such as social background.
People taking part in the study were also asked what percentage of Londoners did they think personally experienced a crime in the year to September 2025, excluding fraud, cyber-offences and murder.
TikTok users put the figure at 40%, compared to 35% of people on Snapchat, Pinterest and Facebook, 34% on Instagram, 30% YouTube, LinkedIn and X, and 25% Reddit.
The true figure was 12.2%, according to the analysis, with people who did not use social media saying 30%.
The overall conclusion of the 80-page report was people overestimate the level of crime in London.
However, within hours of it being published, eight people were arrested after a “machete knife fight” in Bromley High Street.
Asked what percentage of Londoners feel unsafe walking in their area after dark, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook users all said 60%, people on X 55%, and YouTube, Reddit, LInkedIn and non-social media users 50%.
The real figure was 37%, according to the study which used a YouGov poll of 2,164 adults in the UK.
The research found 50% of the public think the capital had the highest rate of violent crime of any region in the year to September 2025, and 37% said the same for sexual offences.
However, Home Office statistics show London had the lowest rate of violent crime, at 26.7 violence against the person offences per 1,000 people, and the joint-lowest rate of sexual offences, at 3.1/1000 population.
There were also differing trends on views on crime and the capital’s population depending on whether people voted Reform, Labour, Green or for another party.
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of KCL’s Policy Institute, said: “Each of us tends to see the London that fits the story we already believe, reflecting both our own biases and the messages we’ll see from an increasingly fragmented and polarised media, social media and politics.
“Protecting a shared view of the reality of London is crucial to allow healthy debate about our capital – we’re all entitled to our own opinions on that, but not our own facts.”
