The analysis of ACT Policing statistics, compiled and mapped by the Sunday Canberra Times, shows several of the town centres remain hotspots for crime in the capital, based on the actual number of reported crimes within police patrol zones.

During the year ACT police logged more than 23,000 crimes, with Civic accounting for 1473 or around 6 per cent - the most of any area. Both areas were standouts across the city in terms of the number of assaults and robberies. Along with common theft, assaults were a standout category for Belconnen which was the second worst area for overall crime at 1246 reports.

Woden recorded 864 incidents, with theft other than vehicles, burglary or robbery the highest category at 516. Gungahlin had the lowest level of overall crime of all the town centres, followed by Tuggeranong.

June was the worst month for crime in the territory, especially for property damage.

But the traditional holiday month of January - where many Canberrans head interstate to visit family or to spend time at the coast - was the time burglars were most likely to capitalise on empty houses, with nearly 300 burglaries committed during the first month of 2011.

Those in the city's wealthier inner south suburbs of Barton, Deakin, Forrest, Griffith, Parkes and Yarralumla - along with the restaurant hub of Kingston - were the most likely to have a vehicle stolen, with adjoining suburbs of Weston Creek such as Curtin, Garran and Hughes also at high risk.

The relatively large inner south patrol zone, taking in six residential suburbs along with Kingston and Capital Hill, also had one of the city's highest rates of property damage, with more than 400 reports to police. By comparison the geographically much smaller inner north patrol zone of Braddon and Reid had 315 reports of property damage, while several zones in Tuggeranong also had similar rates of property crime.

When viewed relative to the size of the population living within the patrolled area, Fyshwick, Oaks Estate and all the town centres vastly eclipsed other areas in terms of total crimes committed, suggesting many offenders were travelling to those areas to commit crimes.

ACT Police Minister Simon Corbell said a focus on property crime by ACT Policing had led to a significant reduction of between 25 to 30 per cent over the year.

''Regrettably, crime is part of living in any city but the important thing is to work to reduce that crime and we've had major reductions in crime across the board and that's confirmed in these figures,'' Mr Corbell said.

The number of vehicle thefts was also down by around 30 per cent for the year.

''The ratings we get through the national survey conducted every year show that people rate Canberra as the safest city in Australia to get around during the day, and the second safest in Australia at night after Hobart.

''So we are a very safe city and levels of crime have driven downwards over the past 12 months because of the good work of ACT Policing,'' he said.