How to use the Local Government Area Ranking Tool

There are two steps to complete before your information is displayed:

Step 1 – Select Local Government Area

Local Government Areas (LGAs) are also known as ‘Local Council’ areas. To find out the ranking of an LGA for a particular offence type, you can either type in the LGA’s name, or search by postcode or suburb.

Click on the to the right of the box containing the words “Select region by…”. This shows a list of options.

Select by LGA Name

If you know the name of the LGA that interests you, choose “LGA name”. The box on the right will now show the words “Enter LGA Name to continue…”. Click into the box, then type in the LGA’s name and click on “Find”.
You can either type the name in full, or just the first few letters. For example, if you type in “coo” you will be offered a choice of Coolah, Coolamon, Cooma-Monaro, Coonabarabran, Coonamble and Cootamundra. Click on the small circle next to the name of the LGA you are interested in.
The button on the right of the screen marked “Go to Step 2>” should now be active. Click on this, and your chosen LGA will be displayed e.g. “Selected Local Government Area is: Coolamon”

Select by Postcode

Click on the to the right of the box containing the words “Select region by…” then click on “Postcode”. The box on the right will now show the words “Enter Postcode to continue…”. Click into the box, then type in the postcode and click on “Find”.

The ranking tool will list all suburbs with that postcode, and show the LGA the postcode falls into. Click on the small circle next to the name of the LGA.

Occasionally a postcode falls into more than one Local Government Area. In that case, more than one LGA name will be listed. Click on the small circle next to the name of the LGA you decide to find out about.
The button on the right of the screen marked “Go to Step 2>” should now be active. Click on this, and your chosen LGA will be displayed e.g. “Selected Local Government Area is: Rockdale”

Select by Suburb

Click on the to the right of the box containing the words “Select region by…” then click on “Suburb”. The box on the right will now show the words “Enter Suburb to continue…”. Click into the box, then type in the suburb name and click on “Find”.
You can either type the name in full, or just the first few letters. For example, if you type in “castle” you will be offered a choice of the following suburbs: Castle Hill, Castle Cove, Castlecrag or Castlereagh. Click on the small circle next to the name of the LGA you are interested in.
The button on the right of the screen marked “Go to Step 2>” should now be active. Click on this, and your chosen LGA will be displayed e.g. “Selected Local Government Area is: Hornsby”

Step 2 – Select Type of Offence

Click on the to the right of the box containing the words “Select offence…” then choose an offence from the list which appears.

The button on the right of the screen marked “Show Ranking” should now be active. Click on this, and five years’ data for the LGA and offence that you have chosen will be displayed.

In addition to the number of incidents, population, rate per 100,000 population and rank within NSW for your selected offence and LGA, the table also shows the same information for other LGAs within the same Statistical Subdivision.

Near the bottom of the page, the rate per 100,000 population for all of NSW and for the Sydney Statistical Division are shown. This will assist you in comparing your LGA with the rest of NSW.

At the bottom of the page you will find a link to the “Top 50 Local Government Areas for Selected Offences”. If you click on this link, you can then select an offence, and find out which LGAs had the highest incidence per 100,000 population.



What does the ranking mean?

In New South Wales there are over 150 Local Government Areas (LGAs). For each offence type, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research sorts all NSW LGAs into a list, based on how often the offence is reported to NSW Police and how this number of reported incidents relates to the population of the LGA (rate per 100,000 population). LGAs with larger populations will tend to experience a higher number of offences than less populous LGAs but they may not necessarily experience a higher rate of offending.

For example, in 2004, 999 incidents of motor vehicle theft were reported to NSW Police as occurring in Newcastle LGA. By dividing this number of offences by the population of Newcastle that year (144,375), and multiplying the result by 100,000, we calculate a rate of 691.9 incidents of motor vehicle theft per 100,000 residents in Newcastle LGA in 2004. This rate of 691.9 incidents per 100,000 population can now be compared with the rate of motor vehicle theft in all other LGAs in New South Wales in 2004.

By sorting on this ranking, we find that Newcastle LGA had the 18th highest rate of motor vehicle theft in 2004, of all LGAs in NSW. That is, 17 LGAs had a higher rate of motor vehicle theft recorded by NSW Police, and around 140 LGAs had a lower rate of motor vehicle theft.

Please note that LGAs with a population of fewer than 3,000 people are excluded from the ranking. This is because recorded crime rates in Local Government Areas with small populations are not always a good indicator of the rate of offending. For example, if one person or a small group of persons commit a relatively large number of offences, and these offences are recorded in an LGA with a relatively small population, their activity will tend to distort the rate of that offence in the area, making it seem as if it has a more widespread crime problem than is actually the case. For example, seven recorded incidents of sexual assault in an LGA with 2000 residents will yield a rate of 350.0 per 100,000 population. To achieve the same rate in Newcastle LGA with its population of 144,375 in 2004, there would have to be 505 recorded incidents.

Lastly, it should be noted that Sydney Local Government Area is omitted from the ranked list. This LGA has high recorded crime rates because its resident population is small, compared with other regions, but a large number of people visit the area each day.



How is the “rate per 100,000 population” calculated?

This is the formula used to calculate the rate per 100,000 population:

Number of criminal incidents
--------------------------------------- X 100,000
Resident population of LGA

For example, in 2004 there were 119 incidents of robbery reported to NSW Police in Hurstville LGA. The population of Hurstville at that time was 75,230. The rate is calculated as:

119
--------- X 100,000 = 158.2
75230

The population data used to calculate rates were sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics publication, Regional Population Growth, Australia and New Zealand (Catalogue No. 3218.0).



Local Government Areas with populations less than 3,000 in the year 2004
Merriwa (Hunter SD)
Murrurundi (Hunter SD)

Lord Howe Island (Mid North Coast SD)

Barraba (Northern SD)
Bingara (Northern SD)
Nundle (Northern SD)
Severn (Northern SD)

Brewarrina (North Western SD)

Bombala (South Eastern SD)
Boorowa (South Eastern SD)
Gunning (South Eastern SD)
Tallaganda (Central West SD)

Murrumbidgee (Murrumbidgee SD)

Balranald (Murray SD)
Conargo (Murray SD)
Holbrook (Murray SD)
Jerilderie (Murray SD)
Urana (Murray SD)

Central Darling (Far West SD)
Unincorporated Far West (Far West SD)