NSW home break-ins have fallen by 79% since 1998, and by most in inner Sydney
NSW Police recorded 83,190 break-ins at homes in 1998 and 17,866 in 2025, a fall of 79%. Robbery and theft from the person fell even further, and car theft by almost three-quarters, though it has risen since 2021. Shoplifting went the other way, to its highest in 30 years. Inner Sydney suburbs such as Paddington, Leichhardt and Marrickville saw break-ins fall by more than 90%; regional cities fell by less, and now record more break-ins than Sydney.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research publishes every criminal incident recorded by NSW Police, by suburb and month, back to 1995. We added up each year to 2025.
Break-ins at homes peaked at 83,190 in 1998. In 2025 there were 17,866, a fall of 79%.
| Offence | Peak year | Recorded then | Recorded in 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Break and enter, home | 1998 | 83,190 | 17,866 | −79% |
| Break and enter, other buildings | 2001 | 51,244 | 7,537 | −85% |
| Motor vehicle theft | 1997 | 54,355 | 14,573 | −73% |
| Theft from a motor vehicle | 2000 | 89,469 | 24,766 | −72% |
| Theft from a person | 2002 | 19,334 | 1,784 | −91% |
| Robbery | 2001 | 13,589 | 1,758 | −87% |
Not everything fell. Car theft hit a low of 10,297 in 2021 and has risen by 42% since. Theft from shops reached 30,742 in 2025, the highest in the 30 years, against 20,900 to 22,800 a year in the late 1990s.
Inner Sydney fell furthest
We compared the average for 1998 to 2000 with the average for 2023 to 2025, in the suburbs that recorded at least 300 home break-ins a year at the start:
| Suburb | A year, 1998–2000 | A year, 2023–2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paddington | 331 | 18 | −94% |
| Leichhardt | 319 | 21 | −93% |
| Marrickville | 482 | 38 | −92% |
| Mosman | 360 | 29 | −92% |
| Greenacre | 359 | 31 | −91% |
| Woy Woy | 317 | 28 | −91% |
| Randwick | 413 | 40 | −90% |
| Newtown | 413 | 41 | −90% |
Regional cities fell by less
| Suburb | A year, 1998–2000 | A year, 2023–2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubbo | 821 | 324 | −60% |
| Orange | 669 | 264 | −61% |
| Port Macquarie | 394 | 133 | −66% |
| Coffs Harbour | 310 | 191 | −38% |
| Armidale | 347 | 262 | −24% |
Across Greater Sydney, home break-ins fell from about 49,400 a year to 7,800 (−84%). In the rest of the state they fell from about 30,300 to 11,000 (−64%). Around 2000, Sydney recorded six in every ten of the state's home break-ins; now it records about four in ten.
How we counted
- Counts are criminal incidents recorded by NSW Police, published by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (CC BY), by calendar year. They count incidents reported to and recorded by police, not every crime committed.
- They are counts, not rates. NSW has grown since the 1990s, so the fall per person is larger than the fall in counts; suburbs that grew a lot can show a rise for that reason alone.
- "Greater Sydney" is the ABS's Sydney urban area.
- Changes in how an offence is reported or recorded, such as shop theft reported by retailers, can move a count without a change in crime.
Every NSW suburb page shows its recorded crime.