Statistics Canada: Canada-U.S. crime rate gap narrows

The divide between Canadian and American crime rates is shrinking, according to a new Statistics Canada study.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The divide between Canadian and American crime rates is shrinking, according to a new Statistics Canada study.

While the U.S. still outpaces Canada in violent crime and homicides, the long-standing gap has been steadily closing over the past 25 years.

Released Wednesday, the report points to two diverging patterns: a sustained decline in violent crime south of the border and a gradual increase in Canada. While the rate of property crime in Canada was substantially lower than in the U.S. between 2010 and 2015, the rates have converged since then.

Similar trends can be observed in terms of violent crime. In 2023, Canadian police reported 252 incidents of violent crime per 100,000 residents, compared with 334 in the U.S.—a 33-per-cent difference.

Fifteen years earlier, that gap was roughly 77 per cent.

According to the agency, violent crime in the U.S. fell by 37 per cent between 1998 and 2023. In contrast, Canada has seen a nine-per-cent increase since 2009, the year it adopted a new incident-based reporting system.

Statistics Canada says the modest rise north of the border has been driven largely by an uptick in major assault offences, which include attempted murders, as well as Level 2 and Level 3 assaults.

Level 2 refers to assaults involving a weapon or those causing bodily harm, while Level 3—classified as aggravated assault—covers cases resulting in serious or life-threatening injuries.

The Statistics Canada numbers largely reflect a previous study conducted by the Fraser Institute, which showed Canadian cities like Winnipeg, Kelowna and Lethbridge topping the list in terms of property crime across both countries.

While the overall crime rate between the two countries is narrowing, the number of homicides per 100,000 in the United States is exactly three times higher than in Canada.