Tennant Creek crime rate and Crime Score · Northern Territory
Tennant Creek is a suburb in the Barkly council area of Northern Territory (about 7,448 residents in the council). The council has a Crime Score 84 out of 100 (very high), 19th of 362 councils nationally.
Modelled estimate, not police figures: Tennant Creek (3,080 residents at the 2021 Census) is estimated to account for about 610 of the offences recorded each year in the Barkly council area (likely 300 to 1,010), roughly 20,000 per 100,000 residents, including about 220 violent offences (likely 140 to 310). Ranges are 80% intervals; confidence 44 of 100. The estimate shares the council's published total (2025-26, three-year average) between its suburbs using a model trained on South Australia's suburb-level police data and ABS measures of each suburb's population and socio-economic profile.
The score blends national percentile ranks for each published offence category with fixed severity weights; here it is driven most by assault (94th percentile), break-ins (97th percentile), robbery (98th percentile). Five years earlier the same basis gave 78.
In 2025-26: violent 6,592 per 100,000 (+7% vs five years earlier); property 11,439 per 100,000 (-19% vs five years earlier); break-ins 2,605 per 100,000 (-33% vs five years earlier); theft 3,088 per 100,000 (-12% vs five years earlier). For violent crime that is 3rd of 6 Northern Territory councils with data, highest first.
Unemployment in the Barkly council area is 12% (Northern Territory 5.6%), Census, 10 August 2021. Social housing makes up 38.5% of occupied homes (531 public and 84 community-housing dwellings at the 2021 Census; Northern Territory 13.5%). An estimated 722 people were homeless on Census night 2021, 995.9 per 10,000 residents (Northern Territory 563.6), apportioned from ABS Statistical Area Level 2 counts. 9.7% of residents were born overseas (Northern Territory 23.9%), most often in Philippines, England, New Zealand. Modelled estimates for 2026-27, not measurements: unemployment about 11.2% (confidence 71 of 100); social housing about 35.3% of homes; about 979.3 homeless people per 10,000 residents; about 9.9% born overseas. Confidence falls with distance from the last published figure, and the map's Estimates toggle shows every year back to 1994-95.
Northern Territory publishes crime statistics by council area, not by suburb, so the figures shown for Tennant Creek are those of the Barkly council area.
| Offences | Per 100,000 | Count | 5-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent | 6,592 | 491 | +7% |
| Property | 11,439 | 852 | -19% |
| Break-ins | 2,605 | 194 | -33% |
| Theft | 3,088 | 230 | -12% |
How suburb estimates are made, and how accurate they are.
Barkly council area: full statistics · Interactive map of every council.
Crime in postcode 0860: every suburb and council it covers.
Questions
Is Tennant Creek safe?
Northern Territory publishes crime figures by council area, not by suburb. Tennant Creek is in the Barkly council area, which recorded 6,590 violent offences per 100,000 residents in 2025-26, about 63% higher than the Northern Territory rate (4,050) and 5.1 times the national rate (1,280). A modelled estimate for Tennant Creek itself is roughly 20,000 offences of all kinds per 100,000 residents a year (an estimate, not police figures). These are offences recorded by police per resident: they describe the area as a whole, not the risk on any particular street, and places with a busy centre record more because offences are counted where they happen.
australiancrimerate.com.au/suburb/nt/tennant-creek/ · Australian Crime Map