City Travel Stats

Cairns

Australia · Oceania

92Safety indexLower concern
1US flagU.S. State DeptLevel 1 · Normal precautions
1CA flagGlobal Affairs CanadaLevel 1 · Normal precautions
1GB flagUK FCDOLevel 1 · Normal precautions
5/5metric categories covered
Open comparison
-16.92°, 145.78°
Regional locator · ring ≈ the figure's geographic unit

The safety picture

A plain-language read of the sourced figures below

Cairns scores 92 out of 100 in our composite index, ranking safer than about 70% of the cities we score.

Its homicide rate is 1.7 per 100,000, close to the median we track, but that figure is reported for the wider state and uses a definition that does not match our standard, so treat it with caution. Robbery is 53.6 per 100,000, also a state-level figure that we calculated from a count and a population. The US, Canada, and the UK all hold Australia at their lowest advisory level, and their advisories still flag pickpocketing and scams for visitors. A national survey found 90.8% of people feel safe walking alone at night, which fits the low recorded crime, though it covers the country rather than Cairns.

Safety dimensions

Larger area = more concern
Violent crimeRobbery & theftTravel advisory
Violent crime3
Robbery & theft10
Travel advisory0
The radar shows the three sourced, comparable risk measures (homicide, robbery, the strictest travel-advisory level). Tourist petty-crime signals are a different kind of measure — how often advisories mention them — so they are shown as rows under Tourist-specific incidents, not as radar axes.

Homicide / general violence

Intentional homicides (per 100,000)
1.7/100k
ABS "Homicide and related offences" = murder + attempted murder + manslaughter (ANZSOC 01). It includes attempts, so it runs higher than the ICCS 0101 intentional-homicide definition used for peer cities — read it as the ABS homicide-and-related rate, not strictly completed homicides.
Figure is for Queensland (state / province), wider than Cairns itself.

Primary source: Australian Bureau of Statistics — Recorded Crime – Victims (states and territories), 2024

Where this sits on the scaleGuarded
01·3·8·20·40 /100k
Among tracked citiessafer than 47% of tracked cities
1.7/100k
0/100k safest101.2/100k

Robbery (police-recorded)

Robbery (per 100,000)
53.6/100k
Figure is for Queensland (state / province), wider than Cairns itself.
Rate computed by project-atlas: 3009 (count, 2024) ÷ 5618800 population (ABS — National state and territory population (ERP at 31 December 2024), 2024) × 100k.

Primary source: Australian Bureau of Statistics — Recorded Crime – Victims (states and territories), 2024

Where this sits on the scaleGuarded
040·120·250·400·600 /100k
Among tracked citiessafer than 62% of tracked cities
53.6/100k
0.4/100k safest3097.8/100k

Travel advisories

U.S. State Department
1US flagU.S. State DeptLevel 1 · Normal precautions

Primary source: U.S. Department of State — Australia Travel Advisory

Global Affairs Canada
1CA flagGlobal Affairs CanadaLevel 1 · Normal precautions

Primary source: Global Affairs Canada — Australia Travel Advice and Advisories

UK FCDO
1GB flagUK FCDOLevel 1 · Normal precautions

Primary source: UK FCDO — Australia travel advice

Smartraveller (Australia)

No advisory on record.

Perceived safety

How safe people say they feel, from official population surveys — a separate signal, not part of the Safety Index.
Feel safe walking alone at night
National survey
90.8%feel safe
90.8% of people surveyed · Australia · 2022
Population-weighted combine of the ABS men (94%) and women (85%) figures — ABS publishes no combined persons total.
Base is people who actually walked alone after dark (not the whole adult population), so not directly comparable to the UN/Eurostat figures.
Survey figure is for Australia (country), wider than Cairns itself.

Primary source: Australian Bureau of Statistics — General feelings of safety (Personal Safety Survey)

Tourist-specific incidents

How often government travel advisories mention each — a source-consensus signal, not a risk rate.
Pickpocketing & petty theft in travel advisories
3 of 3 advisories mention this
project-atlas count: 3 of 3 reviewed government advisories mention this. A source-consensus signal, not a measured risk rate.

Primary source: Global Affairs Canada — Australia travel advice (Safety and security)

Scams & fraud in travel advisories
3 of 3 advisories mention this
project-atlas count: 3 of 3 reviewed government advisories mention this. A source-consensus signal, not a measured risk rate.

Primary source: Global Affairs Canada — Australia travel advice (Safety and security)