The council's community safety officer, Amy Duckett, said the presence of Rotorua police in the CBD was a factor contributing towards locals feeling safe in the city.
She said during the day time, the majority - 89.2 per cent of respondents - said they felt "very safe" or "safe" in the CBD, up from 85.9 per cent in 2011.
"It's encouraging to see that residents' perceptions of safety in the CBD have increased since 2011 and we would hope to see further improvement over the next year with our City Safe Guardians patrolling the streets.
"It's also great that over half - 51.3 per cent - of those surveyed were aware of the City Safe Guardians programme and most think the Guardians are helping make the city safe," she said.
However, the survey revealed 32 per cent of respondents have been verbally abused by a stranger or person they did not know well, the highest figure of any previous survey period.
A further 42 respondents - 10.5 per cent - said they had witnessed or been a victim of a crime that they had not reported to police. This was lower than 2011 with 14 per cent and 2010 with 11.1 per cent.
Mrs Duckett said this year's results showed fewer people were aware of crime prevention initiatives such as Community Policing Centres, CCTV cameras and the liquor ban.
"We now plan to work with police to raise awareness of those initiatives in the year ahead," she said.
Rotorua Police Area Commander Inspector Bruce Horne said it was pleasing to see the vast majority of the people surveyed felt safe in Rotorua.
"Police believe that everyone has the right to be safe and feel safe and our strategies are directed toward achieving that outcome. Increased foot patrols and police visibility generally in the CBD has been a focus for local police over recent years."
He said police were also encouraged by the result showing more people were reporting crime, rather than ignoring it.
However, Rotorua District Councillor Charles Sturt said it was concerning that almost one in 10 people said they had witnessed, or been a victim of a crime they had not reported to police.
Councillor Merepeka Raukawa-Tait said she felt the survey had limited uses and said, for example, that some parts of Rotorua had a much higher tolerance toward crime and annual trends were very similar.
She suggested the survey should be run every three years with most councillors agreeing with her.
Corporate and customer services committee chairwoman Janet Wepa said councillors would look into a three yearly survey at their next meeting.
The 2012 Rotorua Perceptions of Safety report is now available in full on Rotorua District Council's website www.rdc.govt.nz.