Is Sydney CBD safe? What the numbers say

The short answer

The Sydney CBD records the highest raw counts on this site, driven by foot traffic as much as offence rates.. The detail below comes from BOCSAR's recorded incident data for July 2025 to June 2026 (stub period), and like all recorded crime data it needs reading with care, the notes at the bottom explain how.

What the data shows

Sydney CBD recorded 12,450 criminal incidents in July 2025 to June 2026 (stub period). The largest categories were stealing, assault, malicious damage. Against the same period last year, recorded incidents were down about three percent.

About Sydney CBD

The Sydney CBD records more incidents than any suburb on this site, and it always will, because more people pass through it in a day than live in entire regions of the city. Raw counts here measure foot traffic as much as anything else. The mix is the useful part: retail theft through the shopping core, licensed-precinct offences concentrated late on weekends, and property offences against premises after hours. Security demand follows the same map, retail guarding and loss prevention at the trading peaks, crowd controllers across the licensed precincts, corporate and concierge coverage through the tower blocks.

What local businesses use security for

Retail security, crowd control, corporate security and concierge security are the common CBD bookings. Use the Sydney CBD suburb hub to compare licensed providers and local pages.

How to read this data

Recorded incidents are those reported to and recorded by police, which understates some offence types. Raw counts run high in suburbs with large daytime or visitor populations without meaning any one person or premises faces unusual risk. Use the mix and the trend, not the headline total.

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