Twenty-nine percent of New Zealanders have been victims of crime over the past year, according to a report by the Ministry of Justice.

The report reveals the most common offences were harassment and threatening behaviour, burglary, and fraud and deception – with these offences making up more than half of all crimes.

The number of households that experienced burglaries dropped "significantly" but the number of burglary incidents increased.

"This indicates households that were burgled were more likely to experience multiple burglaries," the Ministry of Justice's general manager sector insights Anton Youngman said.

Half of all adults with "diverse sexualities" experienced crime over the past year – the New Zealand average is 29%.

It also found one in two queer adults would be sexually assaulted during their lifetime.

Sixty-one percent of people who identified as bisexual experienced crime in the past 12 months.

Only a small percentage of offences, 25%, were reported to the police, with only eight% of sexual assaults reported.

The most common reason for not reporting those crimes were people thinking it was “too trivial or not worth reporting”, followed by “police couldn’t have done anything".

"The survey provides us with unique evidence because three quarters of crimes are not reported to police," Youngman said.

"It shows changes in victimisation and can indicate the effectiveness of Government policies on crime."

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