The Burrow
May 9, 2025
No matter where you live, it’s always important to make sure your home isn’t at risk of a break-in. Having strong home security can help give you peace of mind when moving to a new area, and it’s essential to know whether you and your valuables are at risk.
If your city is a hotspot for break-ins, you can take steps to prevent becoming a victim of burglaries in the future. As home and contents insurance experts, we’ve ranked the most common areas around the world for burglary incidents, so you can be aware of your region’s safety. After all, the higher the crime rate, the higher the risk, and this can increase insurance costs.
With 657.2 incidents per 100,000 people every year, Sweden tops our list as the most common country in Europe for break-ins. It has the third lowest safety score of any European country on our list, scoring a 52, but this has risen by 0.3 since last year, indicating that the region is becoming safer. Its position on our list is surprising, as Sweden typically tops more positive lists as a progressive, clean, and happy country.
France is the second most likely country for break-ins, with a rate of 458.4 burglaries per 100,000 residents each year. It’s also the lowest country for safety on our rankings, scoring 44.6 out of 100. This rating has dropped by 0.1 since last year, so France could become an even bigger hotspot for burglary in the future if this stat continues to drop. The suburbs of densely populated cities such as Paris are especially high-risk for break-ins.
For every 100,000 people in Belgium, there are roughly 408.9 annual burglaries, making it the European country at the third greatest risk. Its safety score of 50.6 is also below the continent’s average, but an increase of 0.3 points since last year suggests its conditions may improve further.
The UK’s 382.4 burglaries reported per 100,000 Brits earns it a place in our top 5 least safe areas for break-ins in Europe. With a safety score of 51.7, which has dropped 0.5 points in the last year, it finishes closely behind Belgium in our overall rankings, but on current trends it may overtake Belgium.
Despite scoring a higher safety rating than the rest of our top 5, with 70.5 points out of 100, Austria rounds out the overall worst offenders in our data – with a burglary rate of 554.7 break-ins every year per 100,000 residents. It finishes just ahead of countries like Germany and Italy to finish the top 5.
With 736.3 burglary incidents reported annually per 100,000 residents, Houston, Texas is the worst city in America for break-ins. Its worry score is also the highest in the country, with a rating of 58.42 out of 100, while it records a low safety rating of 36.66.
Both of these scores seem to be improving though, with its worry rating dropping by 0.65 points over the course of a year. Houston faces challenges from low police funding, high vacancy rates in particular areas, and economic struggles that affect its safety.
San Francisco’s break-in rate sees 574.1 incidents per 100,000 people annually, but its worry score of 52.71 is the lowest of our top 5. In addition, its safety score of 38.72 is still far below the national average, earning it a second-place finish on our list.
Phoenix has a very similar rate of incidents to Phoenix, with its 574.0 annual reports per 100k, landing it only 0.1 behind in our data. Although it has a safety score of 46.94 and a worry score of 53.98, these both seem to be improving year on year, with an annual difference of 0.84 and 0.89 points respectively.
Jacksonville’s burglary rate stands at 497.6 reported break-ins per 100k locals, earning it the fourth spot on our rankings. Its safety score of 43.62 and its worry score of 53.37 also indicate that residents are fairly concerned about the high risk of crime.
Chicago has the lowest safety score of our top 5, earning just 33.89 points out of a possible 100. Its worry score of 53.37 also ranks high, but surprisingly, its burglary rate of 359.5 incidents per 100k people annually make it one of the rarer cities for break-ins on our rankings. While the rate may be relatively low, its score in other categories indicate high risk regardless.
With local data being unavailable for Cairns and Townsville’s burglary rates, our ranking used values for Queensland as a whole instead. This means there was a minimal difference between the top two in our rankings, as both were listed as having 948.8 annual break-ins per 100,000 people. While the two differed in worry and safety scores, this was only minimally, giving them very similar overall ratings on our index. As a result, we’ve ranked both as the biggest burglary hotspots in Australia.
Darwin is another city with a high rate of burglaries. In fact, the NT city sees 577.9 burglary incidents per 100,000 residents every year. Its low safety score of 36.79, combined with a worry rating of 62.23, give it a third-place finish in our Australian top 5.
Having the second highest worry rating in our rankings, Geelong’s score of 63.31 indicates a population that is anxious about the risk of crime. While its 39.13 safety score is higher than other cities in our top 5, it’s still below the national average, and its burglary rate of 559.8 break-ins per 100,000 residents every year makes it a high-risk area.
As another city in Queensland, Gold Coast has the same rate of incidents as Cairns and Townsville on our list, clocking in at 948.8 burglaries reported per 100k people each year. With a higher safety score of 52.73, and a lower worry score of 44.22, it rounds out our top 5 and finishes ahead of cities such as Brisbane, Perth, and Wollongong.
Executive General Manager Adrian Taylor said that there are things people can do if they have concerns about the crime rate in their area.
“Your local safety can affect your general peace of mind. To prevent incidents as best as possible, consider investing in home security options such as video doorbells and burglar alarms, and always ensure that your windows and doors are locked and secure.” Mr Taylor explained.
“Neighbourhood safety can also affect your home and contents insurance prices. Aside from protecting your home as best as you can to reduce the chance of a burglary happening at your house, you can take steps to help protect your wallet by comparing policies. You might find a better deal for the same level of cover, and it’s easy to switch over and start saving money.”
This dataset ranks 51 locations, further broken down into 3 rankings for AU cities, EU countries & US cities, based on the number of break-ins. To do this, 3 different factors were used (Only 2 are used in the overall ranking). Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalised to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data were not available, a score of 0 was given. The normalised values were then summed to give each location a total score out of 3 (Max score of 2 for the overall ranking). The locations were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores.
The factors used are as follows:
The factors were indexed as follows:
Data was sourced from the following:
All data is correct as of 20/03/2025. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regard to the sources provided.