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What it costs to live in Lake Macquarie, NSW

Lake Macquarie council area, New South Wales. About 224,540 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

$680

A week. That's the median rent on new leases in the June quarter 2026.

Pokies losses

$786

Lost for every resident in a year. That's 70% of the NSW average.

See pokies losses in Lake Macquarie

Electricity

$1,899

A year on the default offer in the Ausgrid network area, which covers most of Lake Macquarie, for 3,900 kWh. That's the most a standing offer can cost. A typical plan here costs $1,709.

See electricity prices

Unleaded petrol

188c

A litre, on average, at 55 stations here over the year to September 2026. That's 4c less than the NSW average.

See when fuel is cheapest

Crime police recorded

Violent crime, 2025–26

Lake Macquarie1,200
NSW average1,183

Police recorded 2,663 of these in Lake Macquarie. That's 1,200 for every 100,000 people, or about the NSW average. Five years before, in 2020–21, it was 1,044, so it has gone up 15%.

See each year
YearRecordedPer 100,000NSW per 100,000
2025–262,6631,2001,183
2024–252,5901,1671,171
2023–242,3911,0781,156
2022–232,1039591,084
2021–222,028936981
2020–212,2351,0441,055
2019–202,0079491,009
2018–191,9999711,008
2017–182,012983999
2016–171,8699181,000

Property crime, 2025–26

Lake Macquarie1,686
NSW average1,622

Police recorded 3,741 of these in Lake Macquarie. That's 1,686 for every 100,000 people, or about the NSW average. Five years before, in 2020–21, it was 1,632, so it's about the same.

See each year
YearRecordedPer 100,000NSW per 100,000
2025–263,7411,6861,622
2024–253,9741,7911,589
2023–243,9071,7611,651
2022–233,3261,5171,572
2021–223,0701,4171,381
2020–213,4941,6321,544
2019–203,8971,8421,826
2018–194,5732,2212,022
2017–184,4132,1562,066
2016–174,9122,4142,184

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 Lake Macquarie

Who lives in each one, their homes and how they get around.

Look further

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.