Dotted with holiday homes, Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay has the most unlawful entries in the greater Brisbane area. Dunwich police division, which collects statistics for the island, recorded the most break-ins during the past 10 years, adjusted for population. Brisbane break-in rates. Credit:Lydia Lynch/ QPS data On average there were 126 break-ins each year, per 100,000 people. With just 1863 residences on the island, six break-ins have been reported since January.

Coming in close second for the highest rate of break-ins in the past decade was Dutton Park, an inner-city suburb where about half the residents are renters. Forty-six kilometres to the north-west, the residents of Dayboro can rest easier; the district had the lowest break-in rate for the past 10 years. Clare Hohns, whose family has lived in the area for 30 years, said it was "100 per cent" the kind of place where people would pop over to ask their neighbour for sugar or a cup of flour. "It is getting bigger but everyone still knows everyone here," Ms Hohns said. "Most people are on a first-name basis with the two police officers out here.

"One of them has been here for 10 years and is a really nice guy. "People move out here for a small-town vibe but they are still close enough to commute into the city." Ms Hohns said many of Dayboro's homes were on acreage, which meant thieves would be spotted coming up the driveway from kilometres away, and most people had dogs. "I think it also helps that if the community sees something suspicious they tell someone else. "We have a lot of Facebook groups, so people post on there to give people the heads-up if they see something suspicious."

Which areas are becoming more dangerous More crimes are being committed each year in the Mango Hill area, where the total number of charges has soared from 668 crimes in 2001 to 3965 crimes in 2018. The increase is likely linked to the rapid growth of the area, 26 kilometres north of the CBD. Mango Hill boomed when the northern part was subdivided to form the suburb of North Lakes.

An extra 6625 people moved to the area between the 2011 and 2016 census. Closer to the city, Stafford has become much safer in the past two decades, with crimes more than halving from 1374 in 2001 to 458 in 2018. Crime in the police district, 10 kilometres north of the CBD, has decreased steadily since 2001, despite an extra 1000 people moving into the suburb since the turn of the millenium. There has been only one murder in the area in the past 10 years, compared with seven murders in the previous decade.