Is Stewart Island a safe suburb to live in?

Stewart Island has only 459 residents, so its per-resident crime rate is not a reliable guide to safety and it is not ranked. Crime here is mostly recorded in commercial or public spaces rather than homes.

What is the crime rate in Stewart Island?

The annual crime rate in Stewart Island is 2.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents.

Stewart Island Safety Snapshot

Southland, New Zealand

Police data to August 2026

Generates a printable report with charts & summary.

Is Stewart Island safe? Its score is unreliable because few people live here: crime in a commercial or public area divided by under 500 residents gives an extreme rate, so it is not ranked.

The annual total crime rate in Stewart Island is 2.2 crimes per thousand residents. The overall crime trend in the area has remained the same in recent months with criminal activity peaking in October 2025.

How the safety score works

Few residents live here (459 at the 2023 Census). Crime in a commercial, industrial or harbour area is counted where it happens, so dividing it by a small resident population produces an extreme per-1,000 rate. Treat the score and rate here as unreliable; Stewart Island is excluded from regional rankings.

Safety Score (NZCHI-adjusted)

iHow it works

99 / 100

Crimes per 1,000 residents

2.2

Regional rank not available

3-Month Trend

■0%(flat)

Offence breakdown · past 12 months

Based on total incidents. Police data to August 2026

Assault 1.0%
Assault accounts for 1.0 percent of incidents.

View full safety overview for Stewart Island ›

Stewart Island Demographics

2023 Census data

Loaded live from the API for this suburb.

Population

480

Households

216

Median income

$68,704

Median rent

$255

Age distribution

Share of total population.

Age 0-14

63 (13.1%)

Age 15-64

315 (65.6%)

Age 65+

102 (21.3%)

Birthplace

Share of stated birthplace records.

Born in NZ

393 (83.4%)

Born overseas

78 (16.6%)

Ethnicity

Normalised to ethnicity responses (can exceed population).

European

444 · 76.7%

Māori

102 · 17.6%

Pacific

9 · 1.6%

Asian

9 · 1.6%

MELAA

6 · 1%

Other

9 · 1.6%

Home tenure (as stored)

Normalised to stated total when present.

Owned

381 · 97.7%

Not owned

150 · 38.5%

Other

27 · 6.9%

Household composition

Normalised to household composition total.

One family

111 (17.4%)

Two families

0 (0%)

Three+ families

0 (0%)

Other composition

528 (82.6%)

Demographic data sourced from Stats NZ , licensed under CC BY 4.0

FAQ

Is Stewart Island a safe suburb to live in?

Stewart Island has only 459 residents, so its per-resident crime rate is not a reliable guide to safety and it is not ranked. Crime here is mostly recorded in commercial or public spaces rather than homes.
What is the crime rate in Stewart Island?

The annual crime rate in Stewart Island is 2.2 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents.