Waterways crime rate and Crime Score · Victoria
Waterways is a suburb in the Kingston council area of Victoria (about 168,061 residents in the council). The council has a Crime Score 52 out of 100 (moderate), 160th of 362 councils nationally.
Modelled estimate, not police figures: Waterways (2,422 residents at the 2021 Census) is estimated to account for about 65 of the offences recorded each year in the Kingston council area (likely 32 to 110), roughly 2,700 per 100,000 residents, including about 5 violent offences (likely 2 to 8). 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 robbery (89th percentile), break-ins (63rd percentile), theft (84th percentile). Five years earlier the same basis gave 52.
In 2024-25: violent 854 per 100,000 (+9% vs five years earlier); property 5,103 per 100,000 (+19% vs five years earlier); break-ins 649 per 100,000 (+37% vs five years earlier); theft 2,893 per 100,000 (+14% vs five years earlier). For violent crime that is 46th of 79 Victoria councils with data, highest first.
Unemployment in the Kingston council area is 4.3% (Victoria 5%), Census, 10 August 2021. Social housing makes up 2% of occupied homes (949 public and 257 community-housing dwellings at the 2021 Census; Victoria 2.5%). An estimated 549 people were homeless on Census night 2021, 34.3 per 10,000 residents (Victoria 47.1), apportioned from ABS Statistical Area Level 2 counts. 33% of residents were born overseas (Victoria 31.6%), most often in England, India, China. Modelled estimates for 2026-27, not measurements: unemployment about 4.8% (confidence 85 of 100); social housing about 1.8% of homes; about 33.8 homeless people per 10,000 residents; about 33.5% born overseas. Confidence falls with distance from the last published figure, and the map's Estimates toggle shows every year back to 1994-95.
Victoria publishes crime statistics by council area, not by suburb, so the figures shown for Waterways are those of the Kingston council area.
Figures are for 2024-25, the latest year Victoria has published; some other states have released 2025-26.
| Offences | Per 100,000 | Count | 5-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent | 854 | 1,436 | +9% |
| Property | 5,103 | 8,576 | +19% |
| Break-ins | 649 | 1,091 | +37% |
| Theft | 2,893 | 4,862 | +14% |
How suburb estimates are made, and how accurate they are.
Kingston council area: full statistics · Interactive map of every council.
Crime in postcode 3195: every suburb and council it covers.
Questions
Is Waterways safe?
Victoria publishes crime figures by council area, not by suburb. Waterways is in the Kingston council area, which recorded 854 violent offences per 100,000 residents in 2024-25, about 19% lower than the Victoria rate (1,060) and about 30% lower than the national rate (1,220). A modelled estimate for Waterways itself is roughly 2,700 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
Aspendale · Aspendale Gardens · Bonbeach · Braeside · Carrum · Chelsea · Chelsea Heights · Cheltenham · Cheltenham East · Clarinda · Clayton South · Dingley Village · Edithvale · Heatherton · Mentone · Moorabbin · Moorabbin Airport · Mordialloc · Parkdale · Patterson Lakes · Southland Centre · Springvale South
australiancrimerate.com.au/suburb/vic/waterways/ · Australian Crime Map