Christchurch

Is Christchurch safe?

Yes. Christchurch is a low-crime city where the risks a visitor is most likely to meet are a broken car window and, far less likely but far more serious, an earthquake. Police counted 3,591 serious assault victimisations in the Canterbury Metro area in 2025, about 860 per 100,000 residents against about 1,100 across New Zealand. Only five people died on the city's roads that year.

We score Christchurch 81, two points below Wellington and Auckland. It loses those points on car crime, which is much higher here than in the capital, and on the earthquake risk that the city learned about the hard way in 2011.

Car crime is the main thing to plan for

Christchurch is the starting point for many South Island road trips, and that makes the car park the place to be careful. Police recorded 8,876 vehicle thefts and thefts from vehicles in the Canterbury Metro area in 2025. That is about 2,100 per 100,000 residents, compared with about 1,200 for the country as a whole. The number has fallen from a peak of 11,793 in 2022, but it is still the city's most common crime.

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns that thieves target hire cars and camper vans and advises against leaving belongings in an unattended vehicle even when they are out of sight. In practice that means:

• Collect a hire car on the day you leave, not the night before.
• Leave nothing in the car overnight, including in the boot.
• Park in a lit, busy place or a staffed car park, and do not leave luggage in the car while you check in.

Pickpocketing is not a big problem. Police recorded 254 thefts from a person in 2025, down from 421 in 2023, and the rate per resident is close to the national figure.

Violent crime: low, but rising since 2021

Serious assaults in the Canterbury Metro area rose from 2,493 in 2021 to 3,591 in 2025, a trend worth noting even though the rate is still below the national one. Robberies were 312 in 2025, slightly above the national rate per resident. New Zealand's homicide rateHomicide rateThe number of people killed on purpose each year for every 100,000 residents. It is the most comparable crime figure between countries.More in the glossary was 1.46 per 100,000 in 2022, according to UNODC data published by the World Bank.

No official travel advice names any part of Christchurch as unsafe, and violence against visitors is not a theme in the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary or Canadian advice. Gallup's 2025 survey found that 64% of New Zealanders feel safe walking alone at night where they live. We place Christchurch at the same level as Auckland and Wellington on that measure.

Christchurch was also the site of the 2019 shootings at two mosques, which Canada's travel advice names as the most recent attack by far-right domestic terrorists in New Zealand. The FCDO says only that attacks in New Zealand "cannot be ruled out".

Earthquakes and the rebuilt city

On 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck within 10 km of the city at a depth of only 5 km, in the middle of a working day. GeoNet records 185 deaths. The shaking caused widespread liquefaction, with cars trapped in silt in suburbs such as Ferrymead, and destroyed buildings in the centre.

GNS Science's 2022 National Seismic Hazard Model gives Christchurch a 10% chance in any 50-year period of shaking above 0.42 g (peak ground acceleration). That is about half of Wellington's 0.82 g, but more than three times Auckland's 0.13 g. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary also notes that floods and landslides can close roads in New Zealand, and the coast has tsunami evacuation zones. In a strong or long earthquake near the beach at New Brighton or Sumner, walk inland or uphill straight away.

Getting around

NZTA's crash data record 49 road deaths in Christchurch City in 2021–2025, about 2.3 per 100,000 residents a year. The trend is down, from 15 deaths in 2021 to 5 in 2025, and 43 of the 49 deaths were on urban roads rather than the open highways around the city.

The city is flat and easy to cycle. Seven deaths in 2021–2025 were in crashes involving a bicycle, so use separated cycle lanes where they exist and watch for turning vehicles at intersections. The bigger road risk for most visitors starts outside the city: the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary notes that New Zealand's highways can be narrow, winding and hilly, so allow more time than the map suggests for the drive to Aoraki/Mount Cook, Kaikōura or Arthur's Pass.

How to stay safe in Christchurch

• Treat your hire car or camper van as the thing most at risk, and empty it every night.
• Know the drill for earthquakes: drop, cover and hold, then move to high ground if you are near the coast.
• Call 111 in an emergency, and Healthline for free 24-hour medical advice.
• Check road conditions before driving the alpine passes west of the city.

How we scored it

Health and environment (90) and traffic safety (87) are Christchurch's strongest factors: clean air, good care and few road deaths for a city of its size. Natural hazards (68) is the weakest, because the 2010–2011 earthquakes showed how exposed the city is. Theft and scams (77) sits below Wellington because vehicle crime runs at about 1.7 times the national rate.