NSW murder rate down, but sex assaults up

A person's chance of getting murdered in NSW in 2015 is lower than it was in 1990 but the rates of sexual assault are much higher.

Most violent-offence categories in NSW have recorded a downward trend in the last 25 years but assault, sexual assault and other sexual offences have gone the other way.

A new report by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) has recorded upward trends in those categories, including a 131 per cent increase in sexual assaults between 1990 and 2015.

Sexual assaults peaked at 4800 last year, while other sexual offences including indecent assault and grooming peaked at 6666.

"The increase in sexual offences may be partly due to increased reporting of these offences by victims," BOCSAR director Don Weatherburn noted in the report.

Dr Weatherburn also noted a significant overall long-term upward trend in general assault rates, but a drop since the early 2000s.

"The current rate of recorded assaults is similar to that of the late 1990s ... and currently the rate of assault remains 23 per cent below the 2002 peak," he said in his report.

In 2002 more than 70,000 people were assaulted, compared to 62,000 last year.

But in good news the state's murder rate is also at its lowest level in 25 years, with 66 recorded in 2015 compared to 119 in 1990 and a peak of 129 in 1999.

Current figures show the rate to be 0.9 murders per 100,000 population, down from 2.0 per 100,000 in 1990, 1995 and 1999.