Ranking
Safest Cities in Australia and New Zealand 2026
Every Australian and New Zealand city we cover, from Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland to Queenstown, Cairns and Rotorua. Fiji's Nadi and Suva are not on this list, because Fiji is a separate Pacific country. Each score is built for visitors and combines violent crime, theft, walking at night, traffic, health and natural hazards. Open any city for the police figures and the risks to plan for.
Updated · Scores update with each page
The ranking
Sydney
Sydney is one of the safest big cities we cover, with fewer than 1 murder per 100,000 people and street theft at a fraction of its 2016 level. The risks a visitor should plan for are the ocean, the sun and summer bushfire smoke, plus a terrorism threat that the December 2025 Bondi attack made real.
Sydney safety score: 85 out of 100, grade A (Excellent)Adelaide
Adelaide is one of the safest big cities in Australia for visitors, with few murders, a low robbery rate and clean air. Late nights in the CBD bring most of the assaults. The real risks are natural ones, extreme summer heat and bushfires in the Adelaide Hills.
Adelaide safety score: 84 out of 100, grade B (Good)Auckland
Auckland is a low-risk city for visitors, with a homicide rate around 1.5 per 100,000 nationally, clean air and about 2 road deaths per 100,000 people. Theft from hire cars, late-night trouble in the city centre and heavy rain that can flood whole suburbs are the things to plan for.
Auckland safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Brisbane
Brisbane is a safe city for visitors, with a very low murder rate, good public transport and clean air. Car theft and late-night assaults in Fortitude Valley are the crime risks worth knowing about. The bigger danger is the weather, from river floods and summer storms to the 2025 remains of Cyclone Alfred.
Brisbane safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Gold Coast
The Gold Coast is a safe place for a holiday, with very few murders, clean air and some of the best-patrolled beaches in Australia. Rip currents are the biggest danger to visitors. Car break-ins, late nights in Surfers Paradise and storms like Cyclone Alfred in 2025 are the other risks to plan for.
Gold Coast safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Melbourne
Melbourne is a safe city for visitors, with a low homicide rate, good trams and clean air. Car theft and youth robberies and burglaries drove a loud crime debate in 2024–25, though they are now falling. Summer heat, bushfire smoke and spring thunderstorm asthma are the natural risks.
Melbourne safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Perth
Perth is a safe city for visitors, with low violent crime, clean air and patrolled beaches. Car break-ins and late-night assaults in Northbridge are the crime risks to know. Metro road deaths rose sharply in 2025, and summer brings heat and bushfires in the hills.
Perth safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Wellington
Wellington is a safe, walkable capital with fewer serious assaults per resident than New Zealand as a whole and only two road deaths in 2025. Its weak spot is the ground beneath it, with the highest modelled earthquake shaking of any big New Zealand city, plus drunken violence around Courtenay Place after midnight.
Wellington safety score: 83 out of 100, grade B (Good)Christchurch
Christchurch is a safe, flat and easy city for visitors, with fewer serious assaults per resident than New Zealand as a whole and five road deaths in 2025. Car theft and break-ins are its most common crime, and the 2011 earthquake, which killed 185 people, is a reminder of the ground it sits on.
Christchurch safety score: 81 out of 100, grade B (Good)Queenstown
Queenstown is a low-crime resort town where robbery is almost unknown and assaults run at less than half the national rate per resident. The risks are the mountain roads, a 75% chance of a major Alpine Fault earthquake in the next 50 years, heavy rain that sets off landslides, and weekend drinking in the town centre.
Queenstown safety score: 81 out of 100, grade B (Good)Cairns
Cairns is safe for a reef holiday if you respect the tropics. Murders are rare, but assaults and break-ins run at several times Brisbane's rate. Crocodiles, box jellyfish and Irukandji, wet-season cyclones and floods like those after Cyclone Jasper in 2023 are risks you will not meet further south.
Cairns safety score: 77 out of 100, grade B (Good)Rotorua
Rotorua is safe for a visit if you respect the ground and the roads. Police record about twice New Zealand's rate of serious assaults and theft from the person, the district's road death rate is high, and hydrogen sulphide gas at unfenced hot pools has killed people as recently as 2020.
Rotorua safety score: 72 out of 100, grade B (Good)
Which cities are on the list
The rule is the country: every city page in Australia or New Zealand. We leave out Fiji's Nadi and Suva. Fiji is often part of the same trip, but it is a separate Pacific country with very different crime, roads and health care, and our Oceania countries ranking compares it with its neighbours. Resort areas such as the Gold Coast and Queenstown count as one destination each.
How the order is built
Each city has six scored factors: violent crime 25%, theft and scams 20%, walking at night, traffic safety, and health and environment 15% each, and natural hazards 10%. The list sorts those scores from the highest down and changes whenever we update a city page. A city's score also can never be more than 35 points above its country's conflict and terrorism score, which changes nothing in either country. The details are on how we score cities.
What the top cities have in common
Most cities on this list are within a few points of each other. Murder is rare: Greater Sydney's rate was 0.9 per 100,000 in the year to June 2026, and metropolitan Adelaide recorded 7 murders in 2025–26. The air is among the cleanest of any cities we score, with average PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary around 4.5 µg/m³ in both countries, and road deaths in the big cities run at about 2 to 3 per 100,000. Hospitals are good everywhere.
The weakest of the six factors is walking at night. About two thirds of Australians and New Zealanders say they feel safe walking alone after dark, against 90% or more in the Gulf states, and late-night assaults cluster in nightlife districts such as Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Northbridge in Perth and Courtenay Place in Wellington.
Why some cities are lower
Nature decides most of the gaps. Wellington has the highest modelled earthquake shaking of any big New Zealand city, more than six times Auckland's, and Christchurch lost 185 people in the 2011 earthquake. Queenstown faces a 75% chance of a major Alpine Fault quake in the next 50 years.
Cairns is lower for crime as well as nature: assaults run at about 2,100 per 100,000 a year, and crocodiles, marine stingers and cyclones add risks found nowhere else on this list. Rotorua is at the bottom, with about twice New Zealand's rate of serious assaults, a high road death rate for the district and toxic geothermal gas.
What the score does not tell you
The scores cover cities, not the outback, the bush or the open sea, where many of the serious risks for visitors lie. Swim between the red and yellow flags on patrolled beaches, as rip currents are the biggest danger to visitors on the Gold Coast. Before a long drive or a hike, check fire, flood and weather warnings.
Questions
What is the safest city in Australia?
Sydney and Adelaide are at the top, with Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and the Gold Coast very close behind, so treat them as one group. All have very low murder rates and clean air. What separates them is mostly late-night assaults, car crime and natural hazards such as heat, bushfires and floods.
What is the safest city in New Zealand?
Auckland and Wellington are at the top for New Zealand, with Christchurch and Queenstown close behind. Crime is low in all four. Wellington has fewer serious assaults per resident than the country as a whole and very few road deaths, but it has the highest modelled earthquake shaking of any big New Zealand city.
Is Sydney safe at night?
Yes, for most visitors. Greater Sydney's murder rate was 0.9 per 100,000 in the year to June 2026, and theft from the person is a fraction of its 2016 level. The risks a visitor should plan for are the ocean, the sun and summer bushfire smoke, plus a terrorism threat that the December 2025 Bondi attack made real.
Is Cairns safe for tourists?
Cairns is safe for a reef holiday if you respect the tropics. Murders are rare, but assaults and break-ins run at several times Brisbane's rate. Crocodiles, box jellyfish and Irukandji, and wet-season cyclones and floods are risks you will not meet further south.
Is Rotorua safe to visit?
Yes, if you respect the ground and the roads. Police record about twice New Zealand's rate of serious assaults, the district's road death rate is high, and hydrogen sulphide gas at unfenced hot pools has killed people as recently as 2020. Stay on marked paths in geothermal areas.
Why are Nadi and Suva not on this list?
They are in Fiji, a separate country, and this list covers Australia and New Zealand only. Both have their own pages. Nadi and the Denarau resorts are safe for most visitors by day, while Suva has more street crime than the resort areas, and Canada advises against walking after dark in both.