Edmonton ranked among the least safe-feeling cities in Canada
A new poll has revealed which Canadian cities are considered the safest, with Edmonton landing among the bottom five for perceived safety.
Liaison Strategies surveyed a random sample of 1,500 Canadian adults between Aug. 30 and 31, asking respondents how safe or unsafe they believed 15 Canadian cities to be. They were asked whether they considered the cities very safe, somewhat safe, somewhat unsafe, very unsafe, or whether they did not know enough to say.
Edmonton received a net safety score of -8, putting it among just five cities with a negative score. The city tied with Vancouver, while Saskatoon scored -5, Toronto scored -18, and Winnipeg received a score of -28.
That score is based on the share of respondents who consider the city safe minus the share who consider it unsafe. Edmonton was nearly split down the middle, with 50 per cent saying the city is somewhat or very unsafe, while 42 per cent felt it was safe or very safe.
The results also mark a 32-point change for Edmonton compared with the last time Liaison surveyed in 2017, when the city had a positive safety score. Edmonton and Vancouver saw some of the biggest declines among the cities included in the study, both falling from positive territory to -8.
Quebec City had the highest perceived safety score at +57, followed by Ottawa at +56 and Charlottetown at +51.
Liaison Strategies
The study found that crime statistics aren’t the biggest factor when it comes to how Canadians view a city’s safety. News coverage was the top factor at 28 per cent, followed by personal experience at 23 per cent, while just 12 per cent pointed to crime statistics.
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“If people are mostly relying on news coverage, personal experience, and word of mouth, then city safety is not just a policing issue. It is also a reputation issue,” said David Valentin, principal at Liaison Strategies.
The survey also found a gender gap, with women reporting greater concerns about safety in several major cities, including Edmonton.
Looking at Edmonton’s latest crime numbers, however, the stats paint a slightly more complicated picture.
According to Edmonton Police Service’s 2025 crime data released in late July, the city’s overall crime rate increased 3.2 per cent between 2024 and 2025, while property crime jumped 10.1 per cent.
EPS said shoplifting under $5,000 increased 30 per cent, mischief rose 23 per cent, and theft from motor vehicles increased 17 per cent. The violent Crime Security Index (CSI) also showed a 3.2 per cent increase.
At the same time, Edmonton’s overall CSI fell 6.5 per cent, with the non-violent CSI dropping 11 per cent.
“We hear community concerns about disorder, public drug use and property crime in Edmonton’s busiest areas, and how that affects perceptions of safety,” said Edmonton Police operations chief Devin Laforce.
“We will continue to emphasize a data-driven, proactive policing approach, along with strong government and community partnerships that help connect people to the right services as we work together to build a safer Edmonton.”
You can find the full survey results on the Liaison Strategies website.