The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index, 2026 edition
Equipment theft is widely described as a single worsening trend. The longest current NSW series is more complicated. The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index finds recorded theft from vehicles in New South Wales fell 72% between 2001 and 2025, and the broad break-and-enter category for non-residential premises fell 85%. One category has genuinely turned: motor vehicle theft is up 42% since 2021, while theft from vehicles kept falling.
The index is derived from the statewide NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Researchrecorded crime workbook, which covers 62 offence categories monthly from 1995-01-01. It measures three NSW offence categories, not a national count of stolen equipment. The frozen source subset, calculation code and checksums are published below.
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The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index finds recorded theft from motor vehicles in New South Wales fell from 90,528 incidents in 2001 to 25,218 in 2025, a 72% decline. Break and enter at non-residential premises, a category that includes but is much broader than yards, sheds and workshops, fell 85% over the same period, from 52,203 to 7,639.
Source: © State of New South Wales (Department of Communities and Justice). Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Released 18 June 2026; accessed 7 September 2026.. Derived by MapTrack.
This is the opposite of what the category says about itself. It is worth being precise about why the difference exists: a decline in recorded incidents is not a decline in exposure for any individual operator, and it says nothing about the value of what is taken when it happens. What the endpoint comparison does show is that these two NSW police-recorded categories were materially lower in 2025 than in 2001.
The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index finds motor vehicle theft in New South Wales rose 42% between 2021 and 2025, from 10,496 incidents to 14,857, while theft from vehicles fell 9% across the same four years.
Source: © State of New South Wales (Department of Communities and Justice). Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Released 18 June 2026; accessed 7 September 2026.. Derived by MapTrack.
The two series moving apart is the finding. Whole vehicles are being taken more often; reported theft of vehicle contents is not rising with it. The source does not identify tools within those contents, so it cannot establish a separate trend for tools in the tray.
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The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index counts 25,054 recorded thefts from motor vehicles in the twelve months to March 2026, or about 69 a day. The same period contains 7,782 recorded break-and-enter incidents at non-residential premises and 14,518 motor vehicle thefts. These are NSW police-recorded incidents, not national equipment-theft estimates.
Earlier versions exposed local-area rankings and a seasonality calculation. Those outputs need additional LGA and population inputs that are not part of this source bundle. They are excluded from this report, its structured data and its downloads until their own frozen inputs, query and checksums can be published and tested.
The underlying counts are published by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, covering 62 offence categories monthly from 1995-01-01. © State of New South Wales (Department of Communities and Justice). Source: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Released 18 June 2026; accessed 7 September 2026.The published annual aggregation and percentage changes are MapTrack's calculations from that data. The agency published the input counts; it did not make these comparisons and does not endorse this index. The data is available under the NSW Department of Communities and Justice CC BY 4.0 terms.
New South Wales only. Offence definitions, counting rules and reporting rates differ between jurisdictions, so these figures are not a league table and should not be ranked against other states or countries. “Steal from motor vehicle” covers all vehicle contents, so it is a labelled proxy for tool theft and never a measurement of it. Recorded crime counts what was reported, so every figure here is a floor rather than a true volume.
Every published figure is regenerated from a frozen subset of the official 18 June 2026 workbook. The extract contains the three offence rows and all 375 monthly columns from January 1995 through March 2026; incident counts are unchanged. The generator verifies the extract checksum, recomputes all 102 public rows and fails if the checked-in output drifts. Download the frozen source subset, read its source metadata and licence record or download the exact calculation code. The source extract SHA-256 checksum is 66544732f14ebecadc2a2ab609b80e30598f9520ea24a900c6b7e16104651b89. Local-area and seasonality outputs remain withheld because they require separate inputs not included here.
Selected verified findings are also published as individually citable entries in the MapTrack equipment statistics library, alongside third-party figures on theft, downtime, maintenance and compliance.
This report is free to quote, republish and build on under CC BY 4.0, including commercially, with attribution to MapTrack and a link to this page. No permission request needed.
The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index 2026, MapTrack, derived from NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data, https://www.maptrack.com/research/australian-equipment-theft-index-2026
MapTrack. (2026). The Australian Equipment Theft Index (2026). The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index, 2026 edition [Data set]. Derived from NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research recorded crime data. https://www.maptrack.com/research/australian-equipment-theft-index-2026
The underlying figures are available as CSV and JSON, each carrying the population definition, the measurement date and the attribution line. Every chart on this page has its own embed code. Questions about the method, or a correction, go to corrections@maptrack.com.
Not as one simple statewide trend. The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index finds recorded theft from motor vehicles in New South Wales fell 72% between 2001 and 2025, from 90,528 incidents to 25,218, and the broad non-residential break-and-enter category fell 85%. Both remain far below 2001 levels in the latest twelve-month period. Motor vehicle theft, however, rose 42% between 2021 and 2025. These NSW offence categories are proxies, not a national equipment-theft count.
Vehicle theft specifically. The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index finds motor vehicle theft in New South Wales rose 42% between 2021 and 2025, from 10,496 incidents to 14,857, while theft from vehicles fell 9% over the same period. Whole vehicles are being taken more often while the contents of vehicles are being taken less often. Both remain far below their 2001 levels.
Cite the MapTrack analysis as: The MapTrack Equipment Theft Index 2026, MapTrack, derived from NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research data, https://www.maptrack.com/research/australian-equipment-theft-index-2026. The derived dataset is published under CC BY 4.0, so it can be quoted and reused with MapTrack attribution and a link to this report. The underlying crime counts also require the NSW Government attribution shown in the method. Figures are downloadable as CSV and JSON, and the frozen source subset and checksum are published for verification.
Five, and they matter. It covers New South Wales only, and state definitions and counting rules differ enough that these figures should not be ranked against other jurisdictions. "Steal from motor vehicle" covers all vehicle contents, so it is a proxy for tool theft rather than a measurement of it. "Break and enter non-dwelling" covers every kind of non-residential premise, so it is broader than worksites, yards and workshops. Recorded crime counts incidents reported to police, so every figure is a floor. Local-area and seasonality outputs are withheld because their separate source inputs are not included in this reproducibility bundle.
No. The New South Wales offence category "steal from motor vehicle" covers all items stolen from vehicles. The index labels it as a proxy because the source does not identify tools, trades or construction businesses separately. It should not be cited as a direct count of stolen tools.
The published trend series covers recorded crime in New South Wales from 1995-01-01 through 2025. It is not an Australian national estimate. State definitions and counting rules differ, so the figures should not be used to rank New South Wales against another jurisdiction.
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