--- title: "Burglary, Car Theft and Other Theft Since 1993: A Long Fall and a Partial Return" url: https://australianproperty.network/apn-social-capital-index/apn-sentinel/property-crime-risk/burglary-car-theft-and-other-theft-since-1993/ date: 2026-10-16 modified: 2026-10-16 lang: en author: "APN National" description: "Police recorded 66,625 stolen motor vehicles in 2025, the most since 2008 and 39% above the 2020 low, though still 52% below 2001. Other theft reached its highest count since 2003 in 2024. Burglary fell 69% between 2000 and 2020." categories: - "Property Crime Risk" tags: - "24122" - "crime rates" - "Crime Statistics" image: https://australianproperty.network/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Property-crime-October-2026.webp word_count: 1800 --- # Burglary, Car Theft and Other Theft Since 1993: A Long Fall and a Partial Return In 2001 police in Australia recorded 139,895 stolen motor vehicles, 435,752 burglaries and 700,140 other thefts. Over the next two decades all three fell, to lows in 2020: motor vehicle theft by 66%, burglary by 69% from its 2000 peak and other theft by 38%. Part of that has since returned. Motor vehicle theft has risen in each of the five years since and reached 66,625 in 2025, the most since 2008, and other theft reached 595,660 in 2024, the most since 2003. Motor vehicle theft remains well below 2001 and other theft 17% below, and both are further below once population growth is counted. Three-quarters of the net national increase in motor vehicle theft between 2021 and 2025 was recorded in one state. **Data anchors** · Node reading for [Property Crime Risk (24122)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24120/series-24122/): NIL RETURN. This article rests on the source data alone · motor vehicle theft 66,625 victims in 2025, against 139,895 in 2001 and 48,095 in 2020 · other theft 581,209 in 2025, against 700,140 in 2001 and 436,627 in 2020 · burglary 160,979 in 2023, against 436,968 in 2000. Victims of offences recorded by police, by calendar year, from the ABS Recorded Crime – Victims collection for 2025. #### What is counted The figures come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics collection Recorded Crime – Victims for 2025, which compiles the records of the eight state and territory police forces under national counting rules. It counts offences that were reported to police and recorded by them in a calendar year. For these offences the thing counted is not always a person: a motor vehicle theft is counted for each vehicle and a burglary for each premises entered, and a victim of other theft can be a person or an organisation such as a shop. Offences that are not reported are not counted, and the share that is reported differs between offences. Burglary here is unlawful entry of a building with intent to commit an offence. Other theft is theft that involves neither a break-in nor the theft of a motor vehicle, such as theft from a shop, from a person or from a vehicle. #### Three offences against their 2001 level ##### Victims of motor vehicle theft, other theft and burglary recorded by police, Australia, 1995 to 2025 (2001 = 100) - 0204060801001201995200020052010201520202025Motor vehicle theftOther theftBurglary (to 2023)834837 APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025, Table 1. Victims recorded by police in each calendar year, as an index with 2001 equal to 100. The ABS publishes no national burglary figure after 2023. The three series peaked together. Motor vehicle theft and other theft were highest in 2001, and burglary in 2000 at 436,968, almost the same as its 2001 figure. All three then fell for most of twenty years and reached their lowest points in 2020, when each dropped sharply in a single year: burglary by 23%, motor vehicle theft by 17% and other theft by 23% from 2019. They have recovered to different degrees. Other theft was back to 83% of its 2001 level in 2025, motor vehicle theft to 48%, and burglary to 37% in 2023, the last year with a national figure. #### Motor vehicle theft: five consecutive annual increases Police recorded 48,095 stolen vehicles in 2020, about a third of the 2001 number. The count has risen in each year since, by 39% in total, to 66,625 in 2025. That was 1,022 more than in 2024 and more than in any year since 2008. It is still 52% below 2001, and the population is 43% larger than it was then: for every 100,000 residents there were 726 vehicles stolen in 2001, 188 in 2020 and 241 in 2025. ##### Change in motor vehicle theft victims recorded by police, 2021 to 2025, by state and territory −150%−100%−50%0%50%100%150%200%Victoria105% (24,929 in 2025)Northern Territory86% (1,319 in 2025)New South Wales28% (12,689 in 2025)Queensland19% (17,214 in 2025)Tasmania11% (1,336 in 2025)South Australia0% (3,414 in 2025)Western Australia−25% (4,913 in 2025)Australian Capital Territory−36% (821 in 2025) APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025, Table 9. Change in the number of motor vehicle theft victims recorded by police between 2021 and 2025, with the 2025 count in brackets. The increase is concentrated. Between 2021 and 2025 recorded motor vehicle theft in Victoria roughly doubled, from 12,132 to 24,929, and that change is 76% of the national net increase over the period. Victoria recorded more stolen vehicles in 2025 than any other state; in 2021 Queensland did, and in 2001 New South Wales. The count also rose in the Northern Territory, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, was almost unchanged in South Australia, and fell in Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Victoria’s 2025 figure remains below the 39,352 it recorded in 2001. #### Other theft: a count last seen in 2003 and 2004 Other theft is the largest of the three by a wide margin. Police recorded 581,209 victims in 2025, 14,451 fewer than in 2024, when the count of 595,660 was the highest since 2003. The 2025 figure is 33% above the 2020 low and 17% below 2001. Per 100,000 residents it was 3,632 in 2001, 1,702 in 2020 and 2,106 in 2025, 42% lower than in 2001. The ABS reports that 43% of the other thefts recorded in 2025 (247,425) took place at a retail location. ##### Change in other theft victims recorded by police, 2001 to 2025, by state and territory −150%−100%−50%0%50%100%Queensland27% (148,845 in 2025)Victoria18% (177,555 in 2025)Northern Territory−17% (6,593 in 2025)Tasmania−20% (10,635 in 2025)Western Australia−22% (71,525 in 2025)Australian Capital Territory−32% (6,852 in 2025)South Australia−46% (42,392 in 2025)New South Wales−49% (116,808 in 2025) APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025, Table 9. Change in the number of other theft victims recorded by police between 2001 and 2025, with the 2025 count in brackets. Two states recorded more other theft in 2025 than in 2001: Queensland (27% more) and Victoria (18% more). In New South Wales the count roughly halved, from 229,573 to 116,808. Victoria recorded the most in 2025, 177,555, after an increase of 66% since 2021, the largest of any jurisdiction. These are counts, and Queensland and Victoria have both grown in population since 2001; the comparison is of recorded offences, not of rates. #### Burglary: the largest fall, and no national figure after 2023 | State or territory | 2001 | 2021 | 2023 | 2025 | Change, 2001 to 2025 | | ------------------ | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | -------------------- | | New South Wales | 162,040 | 28,200 | 33,974 | 30,706 | −81% | | Victoria | 81,119 | 29,716 | 36,652 | 42,692 | −47% | | Queensland | 73,725 | 38,909 | 49,490 | 40,088 | −46% | | South Australia | 35,045 | 10,717 | 10,284 | 8,789 | −75% | | Western Australia | 62,087 | 22,408 | 18,835 | 13,312 | −79% | | Tasmania | 9,257 | 2,488 | 3,276 | 2,731 | −70% | | Northern Territory | 6,546 | 4,745 | 6,640 | NIL RETURN | NIL RETURN | | Australian Capital Territory | 5,928 | 1,911 | 1,827 | 1,405 | −76% | APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025, Table 9. Victims of burglary recorded by police. The change is APN’s calculation. NIL RETURN marks a year for which the ABS publishes no figure. Recorded burglary fell further than either form of theft: from 436,968 in 2000 to 133,871 in 2020, and 160,979 in 2023, which is 63% below the peak and 20% above the low. The ABS has published no national figure since, because it has none for the Northern Territory for 2024 or 2025. In the seven jurisdictions with figures, the combined count fell from 154,338 in 2023 to 139,723 in 2025, a fall of 9%. Every one of those seven recorded fewer burglaries in 2025 than in 2001. The fall was largest in New South Wales, from 162,040 to 30,706 (81%), and smallest in Queensland (46%) and Victoria (47%). Victoria recorded the most burglaries of any state in 2025, and it is one of four jurisdictions, with New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, where the 2025 count was above that of 2021. #### Per resident | Victims per 100,000 residents | 2001 | 2010 | 2020 | 2023 | 2025 | | ----------------------------- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | ---- | | Burglary | 2,261 | 945 | 522 | 604 | NIL RETURN | | Motor vehicle theft | 726 | 249 | 188 | 229 | 241 | | Other theft | 3,632 | 2,166 | 1,702 | 2,104 | 2,106 | APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025, Table 1, and National, state and territory population, March quarter 2026, Table 1. Victims recorded by police, divided by the estimated resident population at 30 June of each year. NIL RETURN marks a year with no national figure. Because the population grew by 43% between 2001 and 2025, the falls are larger per resident than in the counts. Burglary per 100,000 residents was 74% lower in 2023 than in 2000, motor vehicle theft 67% lower in 2025 than in 2001 and other theft 42% lower. 66,625Motor vehicles recorded stolen in 2025, the most since 2008−67%Motor vehicle theft per resident, 2001 to 202576%Of the net national increase in motor vehicle theft, 2021 to 2025, recorded in Victoria−74%Burglary per resident, 2000 to 2023 #### What this does not show Police records count what is reported and recorded. The share of offences that is reported differs between the three and can change over time, so a change in a recorded count is not necessarily a change of the same size in the offence. The figures do not show the value of what was taken or whether a vehicle was recovered, and they do not explain why the counts moved. They are national and state totals and say nothing about any particular suburb or town. Recorded violence over the same period is covered in [a companion article](https://australianproperty.network/?p=153183). **Methodology note.** Property Crime Risk (24122) is a locality measure of offences recorded by police. It has no national reading, and this article does not use it. The figures are from the ABS collection Recorded Crime – Victims for 2025, released on 3 September 2026: Table 1 for national victims from 1993 (other theft from 1995) and Table 9 for victims by state and territory. The ABS does not publish rates for these offences; rates per 100,000 residents are APN’s calculation, dividing victims by the estimated resident population at 30 June of each year. Years are calendar years. The combined burglary figure for seven jurisdictions is the sum of the state and territory figures other than the Northern Territory and is not an ABS total. The ABS makes small random adjustments to protect confidentiality, so state figures may not add exactly to national figures. **Sources** Australian Bureau of Statistics (Reference period: 2025) *Recorded Crime – Victims* [[https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/latest-release](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/latest-release)], ABS Website, accessed 11 October 2026.- Australian Bureau of Statistics (Reference period: March 2026) *National, state and territory population* [[https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/latest-release)], ABS Website, accessed 11 October 2026. *ABS material is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Calculations, standardisations and index readings are APN’s and are not attributable to the ABS.* ##### Disclaimer The analysis and information contained in this publication are for general informational and strategic purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, legal, or any other form of professional advice. Australian Property Network is not a licensed financial advisor. Property values and market conditions can go up or down. Before making any property or investment decisions, you must conduct your own thorough research and seek independent professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances. Images are for illustrative purposes only. E.&O.E. Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.