Revealed: the NSW suburbs with the lowest recorded-offence rates — and the highest

Gymea Bay recorded the lowest police-recorded offence rate among NSW suburbs with at least 5,000 residents. In the year to March 2026 police recorded just 64 offences there. Based on its 2021 Census population of 6,983, that equates to 917 per 100,000 residents, about one-eighth the statewide rate of 7,700. An analysis of NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data found many of the lowest rates in the Shire, the Hills and the upper North Shore.

These are rates per resident, not raw counts, so a small suburb and a large one can be compared on the same footing. That matters: the biggest raw totals almost always belong to the biggest, busiest places, which tells you little about the risk to someone living there. Measured per head, Glenhaven, Oyster Bay and West Pennant Hills all recorded fewer than 1,150 offences per 100,000 residents, alongside better-known names such as Cherrybrook and Killara.

The lowest recorded-offence rates in the analysis belong predominantly to established residential suburbs across Sydney.

A low rate does not mean no crime, and it does not measure every crime. BOCSAR counts incidents that were reported to and recorded by police, so a suburb’s figure reflects reported crime, not all crime. Population figures come from the 2021 Census, so rates for suburbs that have grown substantially since then may be overstated. What the ranking does establish is that, using that common population base, far fewer offences are logged in these suburbs than across the state as a whole.

And where it’s highest

The top of the table needs a caveat before a single name. Haymarket and neighbouring Sydney record the highest offence rates in the state — 66,562 and 52,859 per 100,000 — but both are the Sydney CBD, where a small resident population is dwarfed by the millions who commute, shop and go out there each week. In Haymarket the single largest category is ‘Transport regulatory offences’ (2,502 of 5,528 offences), overwhelmingly fare and rail matters logged at Central station, not violence. In Sydney it is theft (3,248 offences). The resident-based rate overstates the risk to the people who actually live there.

Set the CBD aside and the highest rates fall to the state’s established regional and western-Sydney centres. Liverpool recorded 47,751 offences per 100,000 residents, the highest rate after the two CBD localities. It was followed by the central suburbs of Wagga Wagga and Moree and the western-Sydney centres of Campbelltown, Penrith and Mount Druitt. These places serve as shopping, transport and night-time hubs for wider areas — which, as in the CBD, concentrates recorded offences in the suburb that hosts them.

How suburbs have changed

A single year is a snapshot. A separate comparison of recorded-offence totals over the three years to March 2026 shows the largest changes at either end. Among the 431 suburbs included in that comparison, Berkeley Vale recorded the largest fall: down 47%, from 624 recorded offences in the year to March 2023 to 334 in the year to March 2026. Campsie and St Marys were close behind, and western-Sydney suburbs such as Blacktown and Macquarie Fields also recorded substantial falls.

The largest rises have a growth-corridor pattern: four of the five leading suburbs are on Sydney’s south-west or north-west development fringes. Austral recorded the sharpest increase — up 134% (277 to 647 offences). Leppington, Box Hill and Edmondson Park also ranked in the top five. Population growth may account for part of these increases, but this comparison measures offence totals and does not test the relationship between population and recorded crime.

Find your suburb

Every NSW suburb with at least 5,000 residents is in the table below — 513 in all — ranked from the lowest offence rate per resident to the highest. Search for yours, or click any column heading to re-rank the whole state by residents, offences or rate. Tap any suburb to see its full crime, flood, bushfire and school picture.

Journalists and researchers: download the full dataset (CSV) — every matched NSW suburb with its 2021 resident population, its recorded offences for the year to March 2026 and the rate per 100,000. Free to use with attribution to KnowYourBlock and BOCSAR.

The lowest recorded-offence rates belong predominantly to residential suburbs; the highest are concentrated in major commercial, transport and regional centres.

Statewide rankings provide context, but property decisions require a closer local view. Check any NSW address on KnowYourBlock and you’ll see the crime read for that street alongside its flood, bushfire, zoning and school-catchment picture — or open any suburb above to see how it compares.