Domestic violence rates are 65% higher in regional areas

While the rate has been stable for the past two years, it rose 3.5 per cent over the past decade, while the sexual assault rate was up 8.5 per cent over the same period in regional areas of the state.

In the two years to the end of 2024, the rate of people breaching apprehended violence orders (AVOs) rose - by nearly 12 per cent outside the city, according to the latest data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR).

An AVO is designed to protect someone from intimidating, aggressive or violent behaviour by a person they know.

Over 10 years, the intimidation, stalking and harassment rate also rose - by 5.6 per cent - in regional parts of the state.

A lack of services, transport and funding - combined with physical isolation - made getting help even harder for domestic violence victims in regional areas, Domestic Violence NSW chief executive Delia Donovan said.

"In Sydney, if one shelter is full there are usually several nearby options.

"But in regional areas, a single shelter may serve hundreds of kilometres - leaving families with impossible choices like, how will children get to school? How will survivors maintain their jobs?" she said.

Limited emergency and affordable accommodation also made fleeing a dangerous home more difficult, the peak body for domestic and family violence services said.

"Some towns have no shelters at all, forcing survivors to travel even 200 kilometres to find help, often on just one bus that everyone knows about," Ms Donovan said.

"This makes it hard for them to escape without being seen."

Ms Donovan said baseline funding for domestic violence support in regional and rural areas should be increased and service providers shouldn't be competing for it.

Domestic Violence NSW is calling on the state government to immediately increase baseline funding for services to address the problem by 50 per cent, or $163 million.

"Despite the alarming statistics outlined by BOCSAR, NSW continues to have one of the lowest per capita spends on domestic and family violence services in Australia," Ms Donovan said.

Jackie Fitzgerald, the executive director of BOCSAR, said the discrepancy in crime rates between metropolitan and regional NSW was "an unfortunate reality".

"Socio economic factors are probably the biggest driver," she said.

The increase in sexual violence was across the community and reflected increased reporting rates, but the rise in domestic violence was harder to pin down.

"It's very much true that the police are seeing and responding to more domestic violence than ever before," Ms Fitzgerald said.

The federal and NSW government recommitted to a joint funding agreement to address domestic, family and sexual violence on March 24.

Despite community safety fears, in the two years to December 2024, robbery rates went down outside greater Sydney and the number of incidents of people stealing from a motor vehicle fell by 12 per cent.

According to BOCSAR data, stealing from shops went up more than 10 per cent over a decade, but stealing from homes went down.

But the big leaps - by rate - over the past two years were in possession or use of illegal drugs (up 31.8 per cent) and possession or use of amphetamines (up 26.1 per cent).

The rate of people getting caught with cannabis went down.

Crimes involving illegal or regulated weapons jumped 15.8 per cent over two years.

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