The most common areas for car theft in Australia revealed

More than 45,000 cars were stolen in the past year and new research shows the states and local areas where your vehicle is most at risk.

New research has revealed the areas where your car is most likely to be stolen.

Comparison site Finder says the ACT has the highest rate of car theft out of any state or territory.

Finder analysed data from the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council to pinpoint the states and local government areas that had the highest rate of car thefts.

The ACT recorded 254 thefts per 100,000 residents.

Car thefts were most common in the ACT.

Queensland was the next on the list with a total of more than 12,000 thefts recorded in the 12 months to March this year. This equalled 242 incidents per 100,000.

This was followed by the Northern Territory with 239 thefts per 100,000 residents, Western Australia (198) and Victoria (196).

Victoria has the highest total of car thefts out of any state or territory with 12,648.

The bottom three were rounded out by Tasmania (181), South Australia (151) and NSW, which had just 132 thefts per 100,000 residents.

NSW is the most populous state in the country and had about 2000 less total thefts than either Victoria or Queensland.

The data also showed two big differences between NSW and Victoria.

In Victoria, the most common areas for car thefts were in Melbourne. The three local government areas of Yarra, Maribyrnong and Port Phillip fared the worst.

The Holden Commodore VE was the most stolen vehicle.

In NSW regional areas were the hot spots. Cessnock in the Hunter Region, Coonamble in the Central West and Wentworth near the Victorian border were the three worst.

The most common stolen cars were the Holden Commodore VE with 884 examples reported stolen, the Toyota HiLux (516) and Ford Ranger (448) utes.

The HiLux and Ranger have been the two most popular vehicles in the country for several years.

Overall more than 45,000 cars were reported stolen, which is a decline of 24 per cent on the previous years.

Utes such as the Ford Ranger were also popular with thieves around the country.

Finder’s insurance specialist, Taylor Blackburn, says having comprehensive car insurance is the best way to guard against car theft.

“Your car is one of the most valuable assets you own,” says Blackburn. “Car insurance will be your financial lifeboat in the event of theft, but you’ll need to take out third party fire and theft or a comprehensive policy to be protected.”