How this works
The viral "Strava heatmap = good suburb" trick has a real insight buried in it — places where people run, ride and walk at night are usually places people feel safe. But heat lines alone mostly show where fit people live, and they happily run straight through high-crime pockets. So we treat activity as one signal of five, and back it with official data.
🏃 Activity
Density of public GPS traces (OpenStreetMap, ODbL) plus gyms, ovals, pools and sports facilities per km². The glowing map layer is this data, rendered raw.
🛡️ Safety
Recorded criminal incidents per 1,000 residents, latest 12 months, from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research — per suburb, not per council.
💰 Value
Median household income vs median rent (ABS Census 2021). High score = your rent buys more suburb than it should.
🏷️ Sale prices
Sale prices: NSW DCJ Rent and Sales Report, January - March 2026 quarter — © State of New South Wales (Department of Communities and Justice), Rent and Sales Report, CC BY 4.0; suburb-to-postcode mapping © GeoNames.org, CC BY 4.0. NSW publishes no free suburb-level sale medians, so this is the median for the suburb's POSTCODE (non-strata sales = houses, strata = units), which can span several suburbs. Low-volume figures rest on 30 or fewer sales in the quarter; postcodes with 10 or fewer sales are withheld by DCJ.
🌳 Parks & ☕ Cafés
OpenStreetMap park and café density per km², blended 50/50 with the same counts normalised per 1,000 residents so both crowded inner suburbs and sparser leafy ones can score well.
💪 Active & Healthy
A composite of fitness-infrastructure density (gyms/ovals/pools per capita), proximity + attendance at the nearest parkrun event, % of the suburb within 400m of a park, and café density per capita. Off by default — drag its slider up to weight it into the ranking.
🧮 The blend
Every suburb gets a 0–100 percentile per signal. Your sliders weight the signals; the headline number is the weighted blend. No paid placements, ever.
Top 10 suburbs in Sydney (October 2026)
Updated 12 October 2026 · one sentence of real reasons per suburb, from the data on this page.
- Cammeray ★ 87
Cammeray ranks #1: a recorded crime rate of about 17 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 85/100), 100% of it within 400 m of a park, and 2 government primary schools inside the suburb.
- North Curl Curl ★ 81
North Curl Curl (#2) scores on a recorded crime rate of about 11 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 95/100) and 88% of it within 400 m of a park, and 1 government primary school and 1 secondary inside the suburb.
- Northbridge ★ 81
At #3, Northbridge combines a recorded crime rate of about 18 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 85/100) and 74% of it within 400 m of a park, and 1 government primary school inside the suburb.
- Greenwich ★ 81
Greenwich ranks #4: 100% of it within 400 m of a park, a recorded crime rate of about 23 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 74/100), and 63 public transport stops inside it for a transit score of 90.
- Vaucluse ★ 81
Vaucluse takes #5 on 95% of it within 400 m of a park, with a recorded crime rate of about 24 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 71/100), and 1 government primary school inside the suburb.
- Wahroonga ★ 79
Wahroonga (#6) scores on a recorded crime rate of about 18 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 85/100) and 2 government primary schools inside the suburb, and 68% of it within 400 m of a park.
- Wollstonecraft ★ 79
#7 Wollstonecraft — a recorded crime rate of about 16 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 89/100), plus 95% of it within 400 m of a park, and 34 public transport stops inside it for a transit score of 86.
- Mosman ★ 78
What lifts Mosman to #8 is 90% of it within 400 m of a park; it also has a recorded crime rate of about 27 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 66/100), and 3 government primary schools and 1 secondary inside the suburb.
- Roseville ★ 78
Roseville (#9) scores on a recorded crime rate of about 20 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 80/100) and 1 government primary school inside the suburb, and 65% of it within 400 m of a park.
- North Epping ★ 77
North Epping (#10) scores on a recorded crime rate of about 14 offences per 1,000 residents (safety score 92/100) and 99% of it within 400 m of a park, and 1 government primary school inside the suburb.
What are the best suburbs in Sydney for families?
Longueville — safety 82/100, parks 96/100, green space 91/100
Waverton — safety 68/100, parks 98/100, green space 90/100
Chiswick — safety 81/100, parks 94/100, green space 80/100
Revesby Heights — safety 91/100, parks 67/100, green space 94/100
Castlecrag — safety 97/100, parks 81/100, green space 74/100
See the full what are the best suburbs in Sydney for families? ranking →
What are the safest suburbs in Sydney?
Westleigh — safety score 100/100, 6 recorded offences per 1,000 residents
Willoughby East — safety score 100/100, 5 recorded offences per 1,000 residents
Yarrawarrah — safety score 99/100, 8 recorded offences per 1,000 residents
Voyager Point — safety score 99/100, 7 recorded offences per 1,000 residents
North Wahroonga — safety score 99/100, 8 recorded offences per 1,000 residents
See the full what are the safest suburbs in Sydney? ranking →
Which Sydney suburbs offer the best value?
- Voyager Point — value score 100/100, median rent $325/wk
Clemton Park — value score 100/100, median rent $264/wk
Hunters Hill — value score 99/100, median rent $530/wk
Bungarribee — value score 99/100, median rent $453/wk
Chifley — value score 99/100, median rent $400/wk
See the full which Sydney suburbs offer the best value? ranking →
What are the best inner-city & lifestyle suburbs in Sydney?
North Sydney — cafés 99/100, transit 95/100, activity 98/100
Milsons Point — cafés 98/100, transit 100/100, activity 88/100
Edgecliff — cafés 96/100, transit 99/100, activity 88/100
Kirribilli — cafés 88/100, transit 97/100, activity 90/100
Crows Nest — cafés 94/100, transit 97/100, activity 82/100
See the full what are the best inner-city & lifestyle suburbs in Sydney? ranking →
Frequently asked questions
What is the best suburb in Sydney for families?
Longueville ranks highest for families in Sydney, with a safety score of 82/100, a parks score of 96/100 and a green space score of 91/100.
What is the safest suburb in Sydney?
Westleigh has the highest safety score in Sydney (100/100), with 6 recorded offences per 1,000 residents.
What is the cheapest suburb to rent in Sydney?
Malabar has the lowest median rent in our Sydney dataset, at $150/week (ABS Census 2021).
What is the best suburb in Sydney for lifestyle and cafés?
North Sydney leads Sydney for lifestyle, with a café score of 99/100 and a transit score of 95/100.
How are Sydney suburbs ranked?
Every suburb gets a 0–100 percentile score across up to 10 signals — safety (official crime statistics), activity (open GPS-activity traces), value (income vs rent), parks, green space, cafés, transit, wealth, parkrun proximity and a healthy/active composite. You set the weights with the sliders above; the ranking re-orders live. Full method: bestsuburbs.io/methodology.