Police recorded fewer victims of theft and robbery across Australia in 2025 for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday, while motor vehicle theft climbed to its highest count in 17 years on the back of an 11 per cent rise in Victoria.
Robbery fell 8 per cent to 10,591 victims, the first decrease since 2021. Theft other than of vehicles fell 2 per cent to 581,209, the first fall in five years. Motor vehicle theft went the other way, up 2 per cent to 66,625, the most since 2008, though still less than half the 139,895 recorded at the series peak in 2001. "Theft and robbery in 2025 dropped for the first time since the declines that coincided with COVID-19 restrictions," the bureau's head of crime and justice statistics, Samantha Hall, said.
The car theft figure is a Victorian story. Police there recorded 24,929 stolen vehicles, 2,425 more than in 2024 and the most since 2002. New South Wales rose 3 per cent to 12,689. Every other state and territory fell, Western Australia by 13 per cent and the Northern Territory by 24 per cent. "The rise in national motor vehicle thefts was driven by an 11 per cent increase in Victoria and a 3 per cent increase in New South Wales, while other jurisdictions saw a fall in motor vehicle theft," Ms Hall said. Victoria was also the only mainland state where other theft rose, up 5 per cent to 177,555, its highest on record.
Victoria Police has said for months that the tool behind the numbers is a handheld device that plugs into a car's diagnostic port and programs a new key. Deputy Commissioner Robert Hill told the ABC in March that such a theft takes "a matter of 10, 15 seconds", that police had seized more than 800 of the devices in a year, and that about 80 per cent of the stolen vehicles are recovered. Insurance Council of Australia claims data released in June put Victorian vehicle theft claims up 25 per cent in 2024-25, at a cost of $243 million.
Retail remains where most theft happens. The bureau counted 247,425 victims at retail locations, 43 per cent of all thefts, rising to 53 per cent in Queensland and 61 per cent in Tasmania. Almost one in three robberies, 3,128, took place on a street or footpath, and 28 per cent of the people robbed were under 18.
Sexual assault recorded by police fell for the first time in 14 years, down by 329 victims to 39,758, and the rate dropped from 147 to 144 per 100,000 people, the first decline since 2011. The national fall masks New South Wales, where recorded sexual assault rose 1 per cent to 16,644 and the rate of 194 per 100,000 stayed at the highest level in the series. Nationally, 80 per cent of victims were female and 54 per cent were under 18 when the offence occurred.
Homicide victims numbered 435, down 13, with family and domestic violence homicides falling from 175 to 133. New South Wales recorded 158 homicide victims, up 27 per cent, while Victoria's count fell 18 per cent to 92.
Queensland's government claimed the figures within hours. A ministerial statement on Thursday afternoon headlined "first full year of Adult Crime, Adult Time" said the state's robbery victims fell 13.4 per cent and other theft 2.3 per cent. "Every victim of crime is one too many, but it is encouraging to see victim numbers moving in the right direction," Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said. Bond University criminologist Terry Goldsworthy told the ABC the decline began under the previous government: "It was happening before the adult crime, adult time laws were even put in place, so I'm confident that they've had little impact." Robbery also fell 11 per cent in New South Wales and 23 per cent in the Northern Territory, neither of which has such laws. Neither the Victorian nor the New South Wales government had responded to the release by Friday morning.
The bureau counts victims by the date police recorded the offence, not when it happened, and a person robbed and assaulted in the same incident appears once in each category. It publishes no national total for assault, because Victoria's recording rules differ from the national standard, and none for burglary, because the Northern Territory's data is not fit to publish. On what it does publish, the one offence moving against the national trend is car theft, and the one state moving it is Victoria.
