Cooktown crime rate and Crime Score · Queensland
Cooktown is a suburb in the Wujal Wujal council area of Queensland (about 301 residents in the council). The council has a Crime Score 57 out of 100 (moderate), 139th of 362 councils nationally.
Modelled estimate, not police figures: Cooktown (2,746 residents at the 2021 Census) is estimated to account for about 28 of the offences recorded each year in the Wujal Wujal council area (likely 14 to 46), roughly 1,000 per 100,000 residents, including about 6 violent offences (likely 2 to 10). 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 (95th percentile), sexual offences (95th percentile), break-ins (93rd percentile). Five years earlier the same basis gave 68.
In 2025-26: violent 10,963 per 100,000 (+48% vs five years earlier); property 4,319 per 100,000 (-62% vs five years earlier); break-ins 0 per 100,000 (-100% vs five years earlier); theft 997 per 100,000 (-6% vs five years earlier). For violent crime that is 13th of 78 Queensland councils with data, highest first.
Unemployment in the Wujal Wujal council area is 25.4% (Queensland 5.4%), Census, 10 August 2021. Social housing makes up 84.8% of occupied homes (13 public and 54 community-housing dwellings at the 2021 Census; Queensland 3.3%). An estimated 8 people were homeless on Census night 2021, 280.7 per 10,000 residents (Queensland 43.5), apportioned from ABS Statistical Area Level 2 counts. 0.4% of residents were born overseas (Queensland 24.1%), most often in New Zealand. Modelled estimates for 2026-27, not measurements: unemployment about 27.5% (confidence 65 of 100); social housing about 77.1% of homes; about 276.2 homeless people per 10,000 residents; about 0.4% born overseas. Confidence falls with distance from the last published figure, and the map's Estimates toggle shows every year back to 1994-95.
Queensland publishes crime statistics by council area, not by suburb, so the figures shown for Cooktown are those of the Wujal Wujal council area.
| Offences | Per 100,000 | Count | 5-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent | 10,963 | 33 | +48% |
| Property | 4,319 | 13 | -62% |
| Break-ins | 0 | 0 | -100% |
| Theft | 997 | 3 | -6% |
How suburb estimates are made, and how accurate they are.
Wujal Wujal council area: full statistics · Interactive map of every council.
Crime in postcode 4895: every suburb and council it covers.
Questions
Is Cooktown safe?
Queensland publishes crime figures by council area, not by suburb. Cooktown is in the Wujal Wujal council area, which recorded 11,000 violent offences per 100,000 residents in 2025-26, 8 times the Queensland rate (1,380) and 8.6 times the national rate (1,280). A modelled estimate for Cooktown itself is roughly 1,000 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.
Nearby suburbs
Bloomfield · Degarra · Hope Vale · Rossville · Starcke · Wujal Wujal
australiancrimerate.com.au/suburb/qld/cooktown/ · Australian Crime Map