Wellington

Is Wellington safe?

Yes. New Zealand's capital is a compact, walkable city where violent crime against visitors is rare, the air is clean and the roads are among the safest we cover. Police counted 1,580 serious assault victimisations in the Wellington area in 2025, about 750 per 100,000 residents and well under the national rate of roughly 1,100. Only two people died on the city's roads that year.

What sets Wellington apart is the ground. The city straddles the Wellington Fault, close to the boundary where the Pacific plate dives under the North Island, and the national hazard model gives it the strongest expected shaking of any major city in New Zealand. We score Wellington 83, level with Auckland: safer roads, more earthquake risk.

Earthquakes: the real risk

GNS Science's 2022 National Seismic Hazard Model estimates that Wellington has a 10% chance in any 50-year period of shaking above 0.82 g, measured as peak ground acceleration. Christchurch, where an earthquake killed 185 people in 2011, comes out at 0.42 g on the same basis, and Auckland at 0.13 g. The 2022 model more than doubled Wellington's figure from the 2010 version (0.32 g).

The city takes this seriously. Many older buildings have been strengthened or closed, new ones are built to strict codes, and tsunami evacuation zones are painted on the streets. For a short visit the odds of a big quake are small, but you should know the drill: drop, cover and hold, then move to high ground if you are near the shore and the shaking was long or strong. Heavy rain also brings landslides onto hillside roads, and gales on exposed hills and the south coast can make walking hard.

Courtenay Place after midnight

Gallup's 2025 survey found that 64% of New Zealanders feel safe walking alone at night where they live. Central Wellington mostly matches that: the waterfront, Lambton Quay and Cuba Street are busy and well lit in the evening. The exception is Courtenay Place and the streets around it, Wellington's main bar strip, where fights break out after closing time at weekends.

The worst recent case was in October 2024, when 21-year-old Luke Smith was assaulted at about 3:15 am at a bus stop outside the old Reading Cinema on Courtenay Place and later died in hospital. That kind of attack is rare, but it shows where and when the risk sits. Leave the strip before the bars empty, or go straight to a taxi or ride app.

Theft and car crime

Street theft is uncommon and falling. Police recorded 98 thefts from a person in the Wellington area in 2025, about half the 2021 figure. Car crime is the bigger issue: 2,671 vehicle thefts and thefts from vehicles, close to the national rate per resident. 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 hire cars and camper vans are targeted, so if you pick one up for the drive north or the ferry south, empty it every night.

Getting around

NZTA's crash data record 19 road deaths in Wellington City in 2021–2025, about 1.8 per 100,000 people a year and below Auckland's rate. Most visitors walk; the centre is small, and the cable car and buses cover the hills. Watch for buses on the Golden Mile, the run from Lambton Quay to Courtenay Place, where pedestrians and buses share narrow streets, and remember that traffic drives on the left. Hillside suburbs have steep, narrow streets that are hard work for drivers used to wide roads.

How to stay safe in Wellington

• Learn the tsunami route from your hotel, and keep shoes and a torch by the bed.
• Leave Courtenay Place before closing time on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Empty hire cars and camper vans every night, especially before a ferry crossing.
• Check the MetService forecast before walking exposed tracks such as Mount Victoria or the south coast; gales arrive fast.

How we scored it

Traffic safety (92) and health and environment (92) are Wellington's strongest factors: few road deaths, clean air and good hospital care. Natural hazards (60) is the weakest, because the city has the highest modelled earthquake shaking of New Zealand's main cities. Walking at night (74) uses Gallup's national figure and the late-night violence around Courtenay Place.