Unchanged from the preceding financial year.
Official recorded crime data / Greater Sydney
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What the records show.
What safety needs next.
Thirty years of NSW Police-recorded assault and sexual offences on bus premises — explained clearly, with the data behind every chart.
Explore the findingsFY2026 · recorded category incidents380Assaults and sexual offences combined
318assaults
62sexual offences
Bus premises include buses, depots, terminals and bus stops. This is not a bus-stop-only figure.
Read this first. These are recorded incidents across bus premises in Greater Sydney (including the Central Coast), not verified counts specifically at bus stops. The combined figures add two police-recorded offence categories and may not represent unique criminal events. Definitions and methodology
01 / Latest official figures
In one year, 380 incidents were recorded.
Police-recorded assaults and sexual offences on bus premises across Greater Sydney, 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026.
Up from 49 the previous year.
July 2021 to June 2026.
July 2016 to June 2026.
Not isolated to a single year
The five-year figures show that recorded incidents have persisted across multiple years.
Two distinct categories
Assault includes domestic, non-domestic and police assaults; sexual offences encompass multiple offence types.
Reported, not all incidents
Unreported crime is not captured. These records show incidents that reached police recording systems.
02 / Year-by-year trends
Has the situation changed?
Explore the changes by offence type. The controls update both charts together.
Financial years ending 30 June
Recorded assaults
Number of incidents by financial year
Assault: domestic, non-domestic and assault police.
Recorded sexual offences
Number of incidents by financial year
Sexual assault; sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences.
Assaults held steady
318 incidents were recorded in both FY2025 and FY2026.
A 26.5% one-year rise
Recorded sexual offences moved from 49 to 62. FY2023, however, was higher at 76.
Use the longer view
A single year cannot establish a sustained trend. Reporting practices and journey volumes also matter.
03 / Historical perspective
Three decades. One consistent question.
From FY1997 to FY2026, the record contains 9,996 combined assault and sexual offence category incidents.
FY1997–FY20269,996Combined recorded category incidents
FY2008: 448 — highest combined count in the series
Combined recorded category incidentsScale begins at zero
Not a straight line upwards
The latest year is below the FY2008 peak. Historical patterns fluctuate.
Long history, different conditions
Population, service use and crime recording may have changed over thirty years.
Persistence calls for investigation
Regular recorded incidents strengthen the case for better location-level evidence.
See the full 30-year figures
| Financial year | Assault | Sexual offences | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY1997 | 212 | 35 | 247 |
| FY1998 | 275 | 37 | 312 |
| FY1999 | 249 | 35 | 284 |
| FY2000 | 160 | 20 | 180 |
| FY2001 | 219 | 21 | 240 |
| FY2002 | 177 | 18 | 195 |
| FY2003 | 267 | 23 | 290 |
| FY2004 | 307 | 41 | 348 |
| FY2005 | 326 | 46 | 372 |
| FY2006 | 376 | 39 | 415 |
| FY2007 | 347 | 48 | 395 |
| FY2008 | 396 | 52 | 448 |
| FY2009 | 296 | 47 | 343 |
| FY2010 | 331 | 52 | 383 |
| FY2011 | 329 | 39 | 368 |
| FY2012 | 316 | 43 | 359 |
| FY2013 | 338 | 51 | 389 |
| FY2014 | 282 | 50 | 332 |
| FY2015 | 305 | 49 | 354 |
| FY2016 | 211 | 43 | 254 |
| FY2017 | 264 | 50 | 314 |
| FY2018 | 298 | 50 | 348 |
| FY2019 | 323 | 56 | 379 |
| FY2020 | 312 | 45 | 357 |
| FY2021 | 281 | 54 | 335 |
| FY2022 | 202 | 41 | 243 |
| FY2023 | 300 | 76 | 376 |
| FY2024 | 325 | 64 | 389 |
| FY2025 | 318 | 49 | 367 |
| FY2026 | 318 | 62 | 380 |
04 / Geographic distribution
Where were incidents recorded?
Compare police-recorded incident volumes across 34 local government areas. These are not rankings of personal risk.
Top 10 LGAs · FY2026
Recorded incident volumes, not exposure-adjusted risk
Blacktown: 47 recorded incidents
Blacktown had the largest combined FY2026 count, including 43 assaults and four sexual offences.
Almost half in five LGAs
The five largest-volume LGAs accounted for 173 of the 380 combined category incidents, or 45.5%.
Counts are not risk rates
Passenger journeys, bus stops and service frequency must be considered before comparing safety.
View accessible LGA figures for FY2026
| LGA | Assault | Sexual offences | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blacktown | 43 | 4 | 47 |
| Sydney | 28 | 6 | 34 |
| Canterbury-Bankstown | 25 | 7 | 32 |
| Parramatta | 28 | 3 | 31 |
| Penrith | 23 | 6 | 29 |
| Inner West | 19 | 4 | 23 |
| Central Coast | 14 | 7 | 21 |
| Northern Beaches | 17 | 2 | 19 |
| Fairfield | 14 | 4 | 18 |
| Randwick | 14 | 2 | 16 |
| Campbelltown | 13 | 2 | 15 |
| Waverley | 11 | 2 | 13 |
| Cumberland | 9 | 2 | 11 |
| Bayside | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| Liverpool | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| Sutherland | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Burwood | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Ku-Ring-Gai | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Ryde | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Willoughby | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Camden | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| The Hills | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Canada Bay | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Lane Cove | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Strathfield | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Georges River | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Hornsby | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| North Sydney | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Wollondilly | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Blue Mountains | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hunters Hill | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Mosman | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Woollahra | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hawkesbury | 0 | 0 | 0 |
05 / People behind the statistics
Children and young people feature prominently.
BOCSAR separately provided victim demographics for July 2025 to June 2026. These are percentages where age and gender were recorded.
Recorded assault victims352
Recorded sexual offence victims53
Percentages are BOCSAR's rounded figures among victims with demographic information recorded. They may not total 100%. Do not convert these rounded percentages to exact numbers of people. Victim figures are not counts of unique individuals across all offence categories.
55% were under 18
Young people made up more than half of recorded sexual offence victims with the relevant information available.
Adult women also affected
They accounted for 43% of recorded sexual offence victims with the relevant demographic information.
What this cannot confirm
The data does not say whether young victims were school pupils or whether an incident happened at a stop.
06 / When incidents happen
About three in ten occurred between 3 pm and 6 pm.
The available BOCSAR supplementary figures highlight selected times and weekdays, not a complete hourly or daily breakdown.
Afternoon incident share
Assaults30%
Sexual offences31%
Time of occurrence reported for FY2026 incidents on Greater Sydney bus premises.
Selected weekday concentrations
Assaults · Thursday21%
Sexual offences · Monday24%
These are the largest weekday shares reported, not a complete seven-day series.
Afternoons merit closer study
This interval overlaps with school and commuter travel, but the ages and trips of those involved are unknown.
Different weekday patterns
Thursday accounted for 21% of assaults; Monday for 24% of sexual offences.
Busy periods bring exposure
Without hourly patronage, incident shares cannot establish the risk per passenger.
07 / What remains unknown
We know the scale. We still need the precise locations.
Better evidence can guide targeted, proportionate public transport safety responses.
Bus stops separately
How many offences happened specifically at bus stops, rather than on buses, in depots or at terminals?
Comparable exposure
How do numbers change when measured against passenger journeys, stop use and service volumes?
Unreported offences
Police records cannot quantify offences that were never reported or detected.
What works in prevention
This dataset does not evaluate CCTV or other interventions. Effectiveness requires separate evidence.
Evidence-led safety
The next step is more specific official data.
Request bus-stop-only breakdowns, privacy-safe location information, offence subtypes, passenger exposure and more detailed time patterns.
09 / Transparency and source documents
Trace every number to its source.
Transparent definitions, downloadable tables and a clear record of what the official statistics do — and do not — measure.
Primary statistical source
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Custom extract CB26-26235 · NSW Police-recorded assault and sexual offence incidents on bus premises in Greater Sydney, by LGA and financial year.
- FY1997–FY2026 (July 1996 to June 2026)
- 34 LGAs, including Central Coast in the supplied Greater Sydney grouping
- Assault: domestic, non-domestic and assault police
- Sexual offences: sexual assault; sexual touching, sexual act and other sexual offences
- Bus premises: bus, bus depot, bus passenger terminal and bus stop
Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
Supplementary information
Victim and timing percentages were supplied separately by BOCSAR Information Officer Caitlin Bennett in the correspondence accompanying extract CB26-26235. They do not appear in the Excel LGA-by-year tables.
How totals are calculated
For every financial year, the LGA counts sum to each offence category's supplied Greater Sydney total. Combined category totals sum assault and sexual offence counts. Rolling periods use complete financial years ending June 2026.
Limits
Recorded incidents are not the same as all offences, unique events, individual victims, bus-stop-only incidents or exposure-adjusted safety rates. Historical changes may be affected by reporting, policing, demographics and bus usage.
Download source-derived tables
The original custom BOCSAR workbook is not redistributed here. These tables are derived from the supplied extract with source acknowledgement.
Repository version 1.0 · Verified 3 November 2026. Content is a community-led interpretation of official statistics and is not an official BOCSAR, NSW Police or NSW Government publication. For primary statistical information, visit BOCSAR. For a correction or clarification, contact the campaign.