Do you lose sleep at night, worrying that someone might break into your house or steal your car? Are you on your computer, looking up the local crime statistics by suburb and the armed robbery statistics in Australia before you leave home?

Of course, these are reasonable fears to have, but are they entirely justified?

To put your mind at ease, we’ve compiled some crime statistics to help you find out the country’s exact crime rates.

Let’s investigate!

Arresting Stats on the Crime Rate in Australia for 2022

  • Between 2020 and 2021, the number of offenders in Australia dropped by 4%.
  • In 2020-2021, the Oz offender rate was 1,599 per 100,000 people.
  • The number of sexual assault victims in Australia in 2021 was 31,118.
  • 29,218 Aussie offenders were involved in Covid-related crimes in 2020/21.
  • The median age of Aussie offenders is 31 years.
  • In 2020-21, 44,496 youth offenders were prosecuted in Oz.
  • In Australia, 22% of offences in 2020-21 intended to cause injury.
  • The 2020 homicide victim rate in Australia was 2 in 100,000 persons.
  • In 2020, Aussies reported around 160 cybercrimes daily.
  • From 30 June 2020 to 30 June 2021, there were 42,970 prisoners in Australia.

General Crime Statistics in Australia

1. Between 2020-21, the number of offenders in Australia dropped by 4%.

(Australian Bureau of Statistics)

Based on the most recent ABS crime statistics, Australia is slowly but surely becoming a safer place to live. There was a significant decrease in the number of offenders prosecuted by police in Australia to 359,975 in 2020-21, down to 14,670 offenders from the previous year.

2. In 2020-2021, the Oz offender rate was 1,599 offenders per 100,000 persons. 

From 2020-21, the offender rate decreased by 78 offenders per 100,000 population. This was the lowest number on record since 2008-09.

3. From 2019-20 to 2020-21, the number of public order offences decreased by 59%.

According to official crime statistics in Australia, the number of public order offenders decreased across all jurisdictions by 2,824 between 2019-20 and 2020-21, from 40,975 to 38,151. The decline was most evident in Queensland with 14% or 12,170, Tasmania—26% or 2,392, and South Australia—59% or 163 offenders. 

4. The number of sexual assault victims in Australia in 2021 was 31,118.

Sexual assault statistics in Australia suggest the number of victims in this category is the highest in 2021 since 1993. Specifically, the rate of such victims was 121 per 100,000 individuals in 2021.

5. Among Aboriginal offenders, the most common crime in 2020–21 was acts intended to cause injury.

The incomplete crime statistics in Australia by race for 2019-2020 indicate that by state/territory, the tally of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders who were prosecuted by police was as follows:

  • In Queensland—17,564
  • In New South Wales—15,052
  • In the Northern Territory—4,990
  • In South Australia—4,036
  • In The Australian Capital Territory—372

What are the key factors in crime trends? Sometimes, it’s a global pandemic. Namely, there were 12,856 offenders whose unlawful acts were related to Covid-19 in 2020-21. According to the coronavirus latest figures, Victoria was home to more than half of these offenders (79%), or 23,120.

In other regions, there were far fewer offenders who committed at least one pandemic-related crime:

  • 694 in Queensland
  • 2,357  in New South Wales
  • 2,077 in South Australia
  • 114 in Tasmania
  • 746 in West Australia
  • 100 in the Northern Territory
  • 18 in the Australian Capital Territory

Surprisingly, there weren’t any pandemic-related offences in the Australian Capital Territory that financial year.

Crime Statistics by Region

7. In 2020-2021, 110,499  offenders were prosecuted by police in New South Wales.

According to Australian crime statistics by state, New South Wales has the highest crime rates in Australia. However, compared to 2019-2020, when the authorities prosecuted 116,924 NSW offenders, there was a 6% downtick the following year. There was also an increase in the offender rate per 100,000 people from 1,642 to 2,077.

8. The number of offenders in Victoria increased by 6% since 2019-20.

(Australian Bureau of Statistics) (Numbeo)

According to the latest 2022 data, the Melbourne crime index is 44.41 out of 100 (moderate), while the level of crime in Victoria’s capital is 45.62.

In 2020-21, 78.554 Victorian offenders were proceeded against by police, an increase of 6% from 2019-20. In 2019-20, the offender rate was 1,272 per 100,000, while in 2020-21—1,343 per 100,000. 

The most common principal criminal acts in Vic in 2020-21 were miscellaneous offences  (25%), with 19,692 offenders, and of these, 16, 526 were non-court actions due to fines being issued for COVID-19 related offences.

The number of youth offenders in 2020-21 was 6,531, taking over 8% of all offenders in Victoria. Within the same period, miscellaneous offences went up by 53%, 183 offenders, mainly because of the many fines related to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

9. There were 14,589 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alleged offender incidents in Vic in 2021.

(Crime Statistics Agency)

If we explore the Victorian crime statistics by race, the number of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander alleged offender incidents in this state nearly doubled over the ten years between 2013 and 2022. In 2013, the number was 8,201, whereas by March 2022, it’d increased by 5,172. 

10. In Queensland, 84,389 offenders were prosecuted by police in 2020-21.

According to Queensland crime statistics, the offender rate per 100,000 individuals also decreased from 1,975 in 2019-20 to 1,857 in 2020-21 (118 fewer).

Another significant decrease is evident in the same period in public prostitution offenders of 8,7% to just 6 offenders, the lowest on record. However, liquor  and breach offences rose by 18,4% to hit 544 offenders and 17,1% or 5,836, and miscellaneous violations decreased more than tenfold, reaching 68 offenders.

The most common crimes in the Australia state of Qld in 2020/21 were illicit drug-related (12%), with 10,314 people getting caught committing them.

11. There were 1,995 offenders per 100,000 people in South Australia in 2020-21.

According to the detailed Australian crime statistics by state, in 2020-21, there were 31,272 lawbreakers proceeded against by the SA police, 15% fewer than the previous year.  

9,426 offenders were involved in illicit narcotics-related principal offences in 2020-21, which was the most common type of prosecuted crime in this state that year, accounting for 30% of all cases.

Year-over-year, between 2019-20 and 2020-21, Miscellaneous offences increased by 59% primarily because of fines issued during the pandemic, whereas fare evasion-related crimes dwindled by 87%. 

Furthermore, in SA’s capital Adelaide, the crime rate is really low as of 2022. The level of crime is just 27.24 out of 100, while the safety index is 81.75.

12. Western Australia had the lowest-ever rate of 1,526 offenders per 100,000 people in 2020-21.

In 2020-21, 35,468 Western Australian offenders were prosecuted by the police, 6% less than in 2019-20. Furthermore, the offender rate dropped by 112 from 1,526 offenders per 100,000 people in 2020-21.

According to the same crime statistics, in WA in 2020-21, 20% of offenders or 7,251 were involved in illicit drug crimes, with 5,103 being accused of possession or use—the most common type of offence in this state. In addition, fraud/deception decreased by 29% from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Miscellaneous offenders increased to 1,023 offenders. 

13. Tasmania’s number of offenders reduced by 4% between 2019-20 and 2020-21.

In 2020-21, the number of prosecuted offenders in Tas was 8,389. In 2019-20, the offender rate per 100,000 people there was 1,826 before decreasing the following year to 1,744, we learn from the official crime statistics in Australia.

In 2020-21, 24% of offenders got into trouble with the law because of principal acts intending to cause injury, while 18% due to principal offence of unlawful entry.

14. In 2020–21, 9,181 prosecuted offenders called the Northern Territory home.

According to the crime map of Australia, there were 3% fewer offenders in the NT in 2020-21 than the year before. In this territory, the most common principal crimes were acts aiming to cause injury—34% or 3,160 offenders, whereas 2,392 people committed public order offences 26%, a 19% increase in acts aiming to cause injury from the prior year.

15. 2,222 offenders were proceeded against by the ACT police in 2020-21.

(Australian Bureau of Statistics) (Police News)

Of all Australian crime statistics by state in 2020-2021, the crime rate recorded in the Australian Capital Territory was the lowest, at 593 offenders per 100,000 people. The 23% year-over-year decrease in the number of illicit drug offenders that same year is further proof that crime rates in the ACT are low and have been declining over time.

However, despite the improvements, there are still some crimes in this jurisdiction. The most common principal one was assault, committed by 30% of all offenders or 662 individuals.

Furthermore, according to the latest Canberra police news, in the first half of 2021, within a total of 18,409 offences and infringements, there were 1,388 assaults, 947 burglaries, seven murders, 1,948 instances of property damage, 4,105 thefts, and 5,103 other offences committed in the nation’s capital.

Crime Demographics in Australia

16. The median age of Aussie offenders is 31 years.

According to the latest crime demographics, between 2020-21, there was a decline in youth crime in Australia, as well as across all age groups. Namely, in 2020-21, the offender rate per 100,000 people among 20-24-year-olds was 14,2%. Among 15-19-year-olds and 25-29 year-olds, the rate was 14,1%.

17. In 2020-21, 44,496 youth offenders were prosecuted in Oz.

In 2020-2021, the number of offenders between the ages of 10 and 17 proceeded against by police in Australia approached 44,496. Fortunately, youth crime in Australia isn’t as widespread as it was in the past. It’s been gradually declining over the past ten years, shedding roughly a third by 2020-21, for a youth offender rate of 1,785 per 100,000 population.

18. 22% of youth offenders’ crimes in 2020-21 intended to cause injury.

In 2020-2021, the most common principal youth crime in Australia was acts with the intention of causing injury with 9,856 10-17-year-old offenders (22%). 96% of these were assaults.

Theft was in second place, with 12% (5,212 offenders), while 9% of the total crimes were illicit drug-related, committed by 4,088 offenders.Furthermore, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, principal robbery and extortion offences among juveniles decreased by 20% year-over-year in 2020-21.

19. In 2020-21, 70% of youth offenders aged 10-17 were males.

According to ABS crime statistics, 31,018 of the offenders between the ages of 10 and 17 in 2020-21 in Australia were boys. Consequently, the male youth offender rate was more than double the female one. There were 2,424 male offenders and only 1,104 female ones for every 100,000 people.

Crime Statistics by Category

20. In Australia, 23% of offences in 2020-21 intended to cause injury.

In first place among the most common crimes in Australia were acts intended to cause injury, with 82,942 people nailed by the police for this reason in 2020-2021 alone. A close second were illicit drug offences, with 17% of all or 62,698 offenders that year. Third were public order offences with 11% or 38,151 prosecuted offenders.

21. The assault victim rate in the NT in 2021 was the highest at 3,682 per 100,000 people.

The victimisation rate for assault has risen drastically in some parts of Australia, based on recent ABS crime statistics. Let’s check out the victim rates in some other states and territories in 2021:

  • In Western Australia—1,986 assault victims per 100,000 residents.
  • New South Wales had 790 attacked victims per 100,000 individuals.
  • In Tasmania, there were 658 assault victims per 100,000 citizens.
  • In South Australia, the number of such victims was 973 per 100,000 persons.
  • In the ACT, there were 536 victims of assault per 100,000 population.

22. There were 9,140 robbery victims in Australia in 2021.

In addition, the most recent crime statistics in Australia tell us that the number of victims of unlawful entry with intent in 2021 was 139,094, a drastic decline compared to the figures over the past few decades, but nonetheless an increase from 2020’s all-time low of 133,871. 

Furthermore, with the increase of car purchases, there were 49,742 stolen motor vehicles in Oz in 2021, car burglary statistics show, which was almost half the 1993 number. The worst-ever year on record for such victimisation was 2001, with 139,895 affected Aussies.

23. 1,195 people died in car accidents on Australia’s roads in 2019.

(Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication)

This was an increase of 5.3% compared to the previous year but a decrease from the 2011-2020 baseline of 1,427 road crash deaths. In the decade between 2010 and 2019, the annual fatality rate dropped from 6.1 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000, or by 23.3%.

Homicide Statistics

24. The 2021 homicide victim rate in Australia was 1.4 in 100,000 persons.

Crime shows would have you believe that people are getting murdered all over the place, but what are the actual real-world stats? Oz crime statistics indicate that the number of murder victims in the 27 years between 1993 and 2020 decreased by 40%, or even 50%, from around 4 in 100,000 people, if we factor in population changes.

25. The homicide rate in 2019-20 was 1.02 per 100,000 Aussies.

(Australian Institute of Criminology)

The all-time lowest recorded murder rate in Australia was in 2017-18 when it was 0.78 incidents per 100,000 people nationwide. However, between then and 2018-20 year, it went up slightly by 0.14.

26. Most murder victims in Oz are killed by someone they know.

In 2019-20, the overwhelming majority of homicides in Australia were committed by an acquaintance of the victim and domestic murders occurred at a rate of 0.32 per 100,000, and in over half of these, as usual, the victim was the killer’s intimate partner. 

In the total homicide rate, such acts were committed by strangers only in 0.18 per 100,000 cases.

27. There were 26 fewer homicide victims in AU in 2021 than in 2020.

Specifically, in 2021 there were 370 homicide victims, and in 2020—396. 63% of 2021 incidents occurred at a residential location, totalling 232 victims, whereas 61% involved a knife or some other weapon, resulting in 225 deaths. 70% of the victims were male, while 28% of the incidents were FDV-related.

Domestic Violence Statistics

28. In 2020-21, the AU police prosecuted 80,496 offenders for family and domestic violence.

According to police crime statistics, the rate of offenders proceeded against for family and domestic violence in 2019-20 per 100,000 people was 358, which was 22% of all offenders nationwide. It seems telling how divorce rates caused by physical and emotional abuse are already at 7.4%.

29. In 2020-21, 81% of family and domestic violence perpetrators were male.

We find from ABS crime statistics that just over four in five domestic violence offenders in 2020-21 were men. The male FDV offender rate in Australia was four times higher than females. On the other hand, the female one was 136 per 100,000 women.

Looking at the specifics of the murder rate in Australia, we see that concerningly, in the year between 2020 and 2021, family and domestic violence-related homicides decreased by 9%. The number of victims in 2020 was 145, whereas in 2021—105.

31. In 2020-21, New South Wales recorded a decrease in the number of FDV assault victims.

According to assault statistics in Australia, the number of family and domestic violence-related assault victims lowered between 2020 and 2021 in all Australian jurisdictions except the Northern Territory, almost two thirds were FDV related with 63% or 5733 victims.

  • In NSW, the number of such victims is 32%.
  • Western Australia saw a 25% in FDV-related assault victims.
  • There was a 40% in FDV-related assault victims in SA as well.
  • In Tasmania, there were up to 45%  FDV-related assault victims.
  • In the ACT there were 42% FDV-related assault victims.

Cyber Security Statistics

32. In 2020, Aussies reported around 160 cybercrimes daily.

(Information Age)

Australian citizens made approximately 60,000 crime reports to the Australian Cyber Security Centre in 2020, of which 40% were about fraud. These were related to romance, investment and shopping. This is no surprise as eCommerce is continuously growing and projected to further increase. 

According to online crime statistics, a year earlier, Aussies lost $634 million to these kinds of internet scams. However, this is a rough estimate since many of these crimes go unreported.

33. In 2020, the card fraud rate Down Under was 58.3 cents per 1,000 AUD.

(Statista)

Has the crime rate decreased in Australia when it comes to card fraud?

In the nine years between 2012 and 2020, the Oz fraud rate had its ups and downs. It was the lowest in 2012 at 43.6 cents per 1,000 AU dollars. It gradually increased over the following years, reaching its peak in 2017 at 75 cents per $1,000, and then started declining, plummeting to less than 59 cents per $1,000 in 2020.

According to credit card usage statistics, in 2021, there were 4.2 million card frauds in Australia, most of them made through bank cards.

34. The economic impact of identity crime in Australia is over $2 billion a year.

(Department of Home Affairs) (Australian Institute of Criminology)

According to a survey by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), 25% of Aussies have been victims of identity theft at some point in their lives. These online crime statistics tell us that 12% of them experienced misuse of their personal information in 2018-2019. Identity theft is one of the primary enablers of organised crime and costs the state approximately $36 billion a year.

The latest scam statistics show that Australians reported great losses (more than $178 million) as a result of investment scams in 2021.

35. Cybercrime costs Australian businesses an estimated $29 billion a year.

(Infrastructure)

According to 2020 cyber crime statistics in Australia, the average business can lose up to $276,323 per breach, with 53% of that sum being spent on detection and recovery. Furthermore, it usually takes as many as 51 days to resolve a ransomware attack.

Criminal Court Statistics

36. In 2020-2021, 508,748 defendants were finalised in Australia’s criminal courts.

The number of finalised defendants in 2020-21 was 8% higher than the previous year when it’d been 469,204. Namely, 449,387 or 97% of the defendants were found guilty, 38,718 or 8% had their charges dropped, 17,213 or 4% were transferred to other court levels, while only 14,048 or 3% were acquitted in 2020-21, we learn from ABS crime statistics.

37. 178,585 defendants were involved in traffic and vehicle regulatory offences in 2020-21.

Crime statistics in Australia from 2020-21 suggest that 75% of the principal offences of defendants finalised in court belonged to just five categories.

In first place were traffic and vehicle regulatory offences with 35% of the total. Next were acts intended to cause injury (including assault) with 70,256 defendants or 14% of all defendants. 55,973 defendants (11%) were involved in illegal drug offences, whereas 49,742 (12%) in theft. Last were offences against justice, with 36,664 defendants or 8% of the total.

38. For 56% of those found guilty in 2020-21, the primary sentence were fines.

According to the relevant crime statistics, the most common sentence applied to 178,585  with a guilty outcome in 2020-21 were traffic and vehicle regulatory offences. The median fine they had to pay was $400.

39. There were 15,894 defendants finalised in Higher Courts in 2020-21.

11,436 of these were found guilty, 1,922 had their cases dropped by the prosecution, 937 were acquitted, while 196 were transferred to other court levels.

Compared to the 2019-20 ABS crime statistics, there was a 8% increase in the number of defendants finalised in Higher Courts in 2020-21.

40. 468,349 defendants were finalised in Magistrates’ Courts in 2020-21.

Recording a 9% increase from 2019-20, in 2020-21 that number increased by 24,572. 449,387 defendants had a guilty outcome, 43,717 had their matters dropped by the prosecutor, while 14,048 were acquitted. 

41. In 2020-21, 24,506 defendants were finalised in Children’s Courts.

According to the stats on the prosecution of youth crime in Australia, in 2018-19, 30,178 defendants were finalised in Children’s Courts. The subsequent year, that number decreased by 16%. Of the total, 19,082 were found or pleaded guilty, 3,171 had their matters withdrawn by the prosecution, 1,050 got transferred to other court levels, whereas 991 were acquitted.

Correctional Facility Statistics

42. From 30 June 2020 to 30 June 2021, there were 42,970 prisoners in Australia.

Compared to the one-year period from 30 June 2019 to 30 June 2020, when the number of prisoners Down Under was 5% lower at 41,060, the following year, 1,910 more people ended up in the hands of the prison services.

Furthermore, the 2020/21 national imprisonment rate was 214 prisoners per 100,000 adults, up by 5% compared to the year prior, when it had been 202 per 100,000.

43. The number of female prisoners in AU increased by 5% from 2020 to 2021.

The number of male prisoners also increased by 5%. The most common crimes in Australia for which fewer female prisoners did time were acts intended to cause injury with 22% and among males, the increase was also acts intended to cause injury at 24%.

44. In 2020-21, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners increased by 8%.

When we delve into the crime statistics in Australia by race, we see that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners in 2021 was 13,039, which was an uptick from the year before. In 2020 the only two categories where the number of such prisoners reduced in this one-year period were theft by 21.3% and breaking and entering by 5.9%.

45. 387 people per 100,000 adults were imprisoned in community-based corrections in Q1 2021.

In the first quarter of 2021, there were 77,529 people serving time in CBC. This was a significant year-over-year increase of 7% since, in the same quarter a year prior, the number had been 83,377.

Now That We Have This in the Can

We might not know what crimes will increase in the future, but what we do know is that the crime rates for most types of offences have declined in recent years. Therefore, you can relax—we’ve got all the relevant crime statistics to prove to you that, on the whole, Australia is a safe place to live. (Well, aside from that pesky wildlife, but everyone’s used to it by now, right?)

  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Australian Institute of Criminology
  • Australian Institute of Criminology
  • Crime Statistics Agency
  • Department of Home Affairs
  • Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication
  • Information Age
  • Infrastructure
  • Numbeo
  • Numbeo
  • Police News
  • Statista