10 safest suburbs in Sydney: Did yours make the list?

If you’re deciding where to live in Sydney, one factor that could be worth considering is how safe each area is.

Sydney is considered to be one of the world’s safest cities. Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index named the Harbour City the fourth safest city in the world in terms of overall safety. It was ranked against 60 other major urban areas, including Melbourne, which came in 9th place.

So where are the safest suburbs in Sydney specifically? After analysing data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR), Canstar has identified the top 10 suburbs in Greater Sydney with the lowest crime rates by population.

We considered criminal offences such as as murder, assault, robbery, theft and drug offences for the year ending December 2021. This was weighed against the number of residents in each suburb, according to the recent Census data.

What are the safest suburbs in Sydney?

The 10 Greater Sydney suburbs with the lowest crime rates in 2021 were:

1. Gilead: 0.57 per 100 people
2. Chatswood West: 0.59 per 100 people
3. Oxford Falls: 0.75 per 100 people
4. Gledswood Hills: 0.77 per 100 people
5. Tennyson: 0.79 per 100 people
6. Camden Park: 0.81 per 100 people
7. Orangeville: 0.96 per 100 people
8. Berambing: 0.96 per 100 people
9. Northwood: 0.98 per 100 people
10. Yellow Rock (Blue Mountains): 0.98 per 100 people.

Gilead had the lowest crime rate in Sydney in 2021. Although the name may make you think of the dystopian state in The Handmaid’s Tale, Gilead is also a suburb located in the Macarthur region in the south-west of Sydney. Gilead has a small population of 882 people and the median age of residents is 74, according to the latest Census data.

A few other suburbs in the Macarthur region also made the list, Gledswood Hills, Camden Park and Orangeville. Gledswood Hills is currently being developed into a master planned residential community, which is set to include completed and off-the-plan homes, a village, golf courses and a primary school. It currently has a population of 6,112 people.

Looking closer to the Sydney CBD, the suburbs of Northwood, Chatswood West and Oxford Falls also made the safest suburbs list. Northwood offers water views and is on the lower North Shore of Sydney, just 8 kilometres north-west of the CBD. It has a small population of 916 people, according to the Census.

Chatswood West came second place on the list. It is a mostly residential area located 11 kilometres north-west of the CBD between the suburbs of Chatswood and North Ryde. It has a population of 1,521 people, the Census found.

Oxford Falls is about a 30-minute drive from the Sydney CBD and is part of the Northern Beaches. The name refers to two waterfalls on Middle Creek. It has a small population of just 265 people, with residents aged 73 on average.

The other suburbs that made the list were Tennyson, which is a small semi-rural suburb located 72 kilometres north-west of the CBD in the City of Hawkesbury, and Berambing and Yellow Rock, two suburbs in the Blue Mountains.

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What Sydney suburbs have the highest crime rates?

Canstar has also identified the suburbs in Greater Sydney with the highest number of recorded criminal offences. The 10 suburbs with the highest crime rates were:

1. Sydenham: 119.18 per 100 people
2. Haymarket: 116.76 per 100 people
3. The Rocks: 115.26 per 100 people
4. Barangaroo: 83.18 per 100 people
5. Sydney: 66.05 per 100 people
6. Huntleys Point: 59.86 per 100 people
7. Mount Druitt: 57.72 per 100 people
8. La Perouse: 52.46 per 100 people
9. Eastern Creek: 48.63 per 100 people
10. Windsor: 47.68 per 100 people.

Sydenham was found to have the highest crime rate by population. Located in Sydney’s inner west near both Marrickville and the airport, Sydenham has a recorded population of 1,100 people and had 1,311 reported incidents during the period examined.

High crime rates were also found in the central areas of Sydney City, The Rocks, Haymarket and Barangaroo. This could perhaps be explained by the high amount of foot traffic in these areas.

Other suburbs that made the list included Huntleys Point, a small suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney facing the Parramatta River, and La Perouse, a suburb in south-eastern Sydney which is home to the northern headland of Botany Bay.

Rounding out the list were Greater Western Sydney suburbs Mount Druitt, Eastern Creek and Windsor.

How can a suburb’s ‘safety’ affect the cost of home and contents insurance?

In addition to the potential safety concerns, living in a high-crime neighbourhood could also impact your hip pocket. According to home insurance broker Guild Insurance, if an area is statistically shown to be prone to more crime or house damage, this can affect how much it costs an insurance provider to offer home and contents insurance, which in turn may result in higher premiums for customers in these areas.

However, Guild Insurance told Canstar this is only one aspect of how it calculates premiums. Other factors, including whether your suburb is susceptible to natural disasters such as floods and bushfires, are typically more important in determining cost.

If you live in a high-crime area, one way you may be able to reduce premiums is to install additional security measures. Security features, such as deadlocks and monitored alarms, could reduce the risk of crime-related claims and would generally be reflected in a lower insurance premium, Guild Insurance told Canstar.

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Note: The lists above were prepared on 5 July 2022. Crime data per NSW BOSCAR Offence data, and includes offences such as murder, assault, robbery, theft and drug offences. Greater Sydney suburbs’ population data per ABS 2021 Census. Only includes suburbs with a population of at least 100 people.

Cover image source: Taras Vyshnya/Shutterstock.com