Your area › New South Wales › Newcastle
What it costs to live in Newcastle, NSW
Newcastle council area, New South Wales. About 178,935 people lived here in 2025. Here's what rent, power, fuel, the pokies and crime look like, and how each one sits against the rest of New South Wales.
Rent
$660
A week. That's the median rent on new leases in the June quarter 2026.
Pokies losses
$1,181
Lost for every resident in a year. That's about the NSW average.
See pokies losses in NewcastleElectricity
$1,899
A year on the default offer in the Ausgrid network area, for 3,900 kWh. That's the most a standing offer can cost. A typical plan here costs $1,709.
See electricity pricesUnleaded petrol
186c
A litre, on average, at 45 stations here over the year to September 2026. That's 6c less than the NSW average.
See when fuel is cheapestCrime police recorded
Violent crime, 2025–26
Police recorded 2,945 of these in Newcastle. That's 1,665 for every 100,000 people, or 1.4 times the NSW average. Five years before, in 2020–21, it was 1,464, so it has gone up 14%.
See each year
| Year | Recorded | Per 100,000 | NSW per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | 2,945 | 1,665 | 1,183 |
| 2024–25 | 2,913 | 1,647 | 1,171 |
| 2023–24 | 2,672 | 1,511 | 1,156 |
| 2022–23 | 2,588 | 1,485 | 1,084 |
| 2021–22 | 2,342 | 1,365 | 981 |
| 2020–21 | 2,480 | 1,464 | 1,055 |
| 2019–20 | 2,272 | 1,353 | 1,009 |
| 2018–19 | 2,230 | 1,347 | 1,008 |
| 2017–18 | 2,245 | 1,369 | 999 |
| 2016–17 | 2,368 | 1,457 | 1,000 |
Property crime, 2025–26
Police recorded 6,627 of these in Newcastle. That's 3,747 for every 100,000 people, or 2.3 times the NSW average. Five years before, in 2020–21, it was 3,068, so it has gone up 22%.
See each year
| Year | Recorded | Per 100,000 | NSW per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | 6,627 | 3,747 | 1,622 |
| 2024–25 | 6,530 | 3,692 | 1,589 |
| 2023–24 | 6,713 | 3,796 | 1,651 |
| 2022–23 | 5,787 | 3,321 | 1,572 |
| 2021–22 | 5,172 | 3,015 | 1,381 |
| 2020–21 | 5,198 | 3,068 | 1,544 |
| 2019–20 | 5,960 | 3,550 | 1,826 |
| 2018–19 | 6,895 | 4,165 | 2,022 |
| 2017–18 | 6,696 | 4,084 | 2,066 |
| 2016–17 | 6,569 | 4,043 | 2,184 |
This is crime that police recorded in the area over a year, July to June. Lots of crime is never reported, and a rise can mean police are looking harder, not just that more crime happened. Each state counts crime its own way, so only compare a council with its own state.
Suburbs in Newcastle
Who lives in each one, their homes and how they get around.
- Adamstown
- Adamstown Heights (part)
- Bar Beach
- Beresfield
- Birmingham Gardens
- Black Hill (part)
- Broadmeadow
- Callaghan
- Carrington (Newcastle - NSW)
- Cooks Hill
- Elermore Vale
- Fletcher
- Georgetown
- Hamilton
- Hamilton East
- Hamilton North
- Hamilton South
- Hexham
- Islington
- Jesmond
- Kooragang
- Kotara
- Lambton
- Lenaghan
- Maryland (Newcastle - NSW)
- Maryville
- Mayfield (Newcastle - NSW)
- Mayfield East
- Mayfield North
- Mayfield West
- Merewether
- Merewether Heights
- Minmi
- New Lambton
- New Lambton Heights (part)
- Newcastle
- Newcastle East
- Newcastle West
- North Lambton
- Rankin Park (part)
- Sandgate
- Shortland
- Stockton
- Tarro
- The Hill
- The Junction
- Tighes Hill
- Wallsend
- Warabrook
- Waratah
- Waratah West
- Wickham
Look further
- Rents across Australia: what tenants really pay by suburb and postcode.
- Pokies losses by council: where the most is lost, in four states.
- Fuel prices: the price cycle and the cheapest day to fill up.
- Compare Newcastle with another area, side by side.
- Look up another area.
Sources: recorded crime, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Population: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Regional population, CC BY 4.0. Pokies losses: the state's gambling regulator (see the pokies page for its credit). Rent: state rental bond data (see the rent pages). Electricity: Default Market Offer 2026–27: © Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Energy Regulator), CC BY 4.0; retailers' plans under the Consumer Data Right. Fuel: NSW Government FuelCheck, CC BY-SA, so the fuel figure can be reused under the same licence.