South Australia Property Theft Statistics 2025
Recorded victim counts and population-adjusted rates for South Australia, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Population 1,901,652 at 30 June 2025.
Other theft
202542,392
2,229.2 per 100,000 people — 6% above the national rate
-11.1% on 2024
Motor vehicle theft
20253,414
179.5 per 100,000 people — 26% below the national rate
-1.9% on 2024
Unlawful entry with intent
20258,789
462.2 per 100,000 people
-11.2% on 2024
How South Australia compares
Adjusted for population, South Australia records the 5th highest rate of 8 jurisdictions for other theft, at 2,229.2 victims per 100,000 people against a national 2,105.7. For motor vehicle theft it records the 5th highest rate of 8 jurisdictions.
Comparing raw counts between jurisdictions is misleading — the largest states record the most offences largely because more people live in them. Rates per 100,000 are the only fair basis for comparison, and they frequently reverse the ranking that raw counts suggest.
The last decade
Between 2016 and 2025, the other-theft rate in South Australia has held broadly steady, from 2,322 to 2,229.2 per 100,000. The rate peaked in 2019 at 2,806.2 and was at its lowest in 2017 at 2,173.1.
Ten-year trend
Other theft victims per 100,000 people in South Australia. Each year uses its own population, so the trend reflects crime rather than population growth.
| Year | Other theft | per 100k | Vehicle theft | Unlawful entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 39,773 | 2,322 | 3,549 | 14,222 |
| 2017 | 37,566 | 2,173.1 | 3,023 | 12,299 |
| 2018 | 42,812 | 2,451.8 | 3,397 | 12,960 |
| 2019 | 49,596 | 2,806.2 | 4,175 | 14,619 |
| 2020 | 39,201 | 2,189.6 | 3,528 | 10,334 |
| 2021 | 41,905 | 2,324.7 | 3,412 | 10,717 |
| 2022 | 44,228 | 2,423.5 | 3,609 | 9,543 |
| 2023 | 51,250 | 2,758.9 | 3,950 | 10,284 |
| 2024 | 47,693 | 2,533.9 | 3,479 | 9,901 |
| 2025 | 42,392 | 2,229.2 | 3,414 | 8,789 |
Vehicle theft and unlawful entry columns are aligned by year where published; a dash means the ABS did not publish a figure for that offence and year.
More detailed South Australia data
The ABS figures above are annual and national in scope. For finer detail — usually by suburb or local government area, and more often than once a year — South Australia publishes its own statistics through South Australia Police via data.sa.gov.au.
Offences against property by suburb and postcode, downloadable as CSV, TSV, JSON and XML — the most machine-readable crime data of any jurisdiction.
Note that jurisdictions define offences and reference periods differently, so figures from a state agency will not always match the ABS figures on this page. The ABS applies one national classification across all jurisdictions, which is why we use it for comparison.
Compare with other states and territories
Method and sources
Victim counts from Australian Bureau of Statistics, Recorded Crime – Victims, 2025. Rates per 100,000 are our own calculation — the ABS does not publish victimisation rates for property offences — using ABS Estimated Resident Population for the matching year.
ABS randomly adjusts cells to protect confidentiality, so jurisdiction figures do not sum exactly to national totals. Counts include offences against organisations as well as individuals, and reported crime undercounts actual crime.
Full method and the national picture are on the theft statistics hub.
42,392 theft victims in South Australia — be one fewer
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