Calgary ranked first for violent crime rate in Canada's largest metro areas

Calgary leads the pack when it comes to the highest violent crime rate among the five largest metropolitan areas in Canada, according to a new study from Fraser Institute.

The report looked at the maximum annual crime rate for the 2019 to 2022 period, the most recent years of data available, for Canada’s select census metropolitan areas (CMA’s), including the five largest — Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, and Calgary.

Among those five metropolitan areas, Calgary had the highest violent crime rate (population-adjusted), while Vancouver had the highest rate of property crime.

Calgary ranked 11th out of 36 Canadian urban areas in violent crime and was the highest ranked of Canada’s five largest cities. Vancouver ranked 16th for violent crimes, Montreal ranked 18th, and Toronto ranked 24th out of 36 urban areas. Violent crimes include murder, robbery, and assault with a weapon.

On property crimes, which include burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft, Vancouver ranked highest of the four largest cities at sixth nationwide, followed by Calgary in seventh, Toronto in 27th, and Montreal in 30th.

Nationwide, using the maximum annual crime rate from 2019 to 2022, Winnipeg had the highest violent crime rate at 675 crimes per 100,000 people. That’s more than twice the national average of 262.

Fraser Institute

“Crime rates in Canadian cities, while still historically low, are on the rise and should be of greater concern for both citizens and policymakers,” said Livio Di Matteo, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of the study.

Another Alberta city also received attention in the report, with Lethbridge snagging the highest rate of property crime nationwide at 5,521 crimes per 100,000, which is more than twice the national average of urban areas at 2,513.

The Crime Severity Index (CSI) measures changes in the level of severity of crime in Canada from year to year. In the index, all crimes are assigned a weight based on their seriousness. The level of seriousness is based on actual sentences handed down by the courts in all provinces and territories. More serious crimes are assigned higher weights, and less serious offences are assigned lower weights. As a result, more serious offences have a greater impact on changes in the index.

Check out the full Fraser Institute study.