TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rates of both violent crime and property crime (population adjusted) have been increasing in Canada in recent years, and now surpass comparable crime rates in the United States, finds a new study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think tank.
“This idea that Canada is much safer than the United States is not supported by the data as rates of property and violent crime in Canada are now higher than south of the border,” said Livio Di Matteo, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of an upcoming study Comparing Recent Crime Trends in Canada and the United States: An Introduction.
The chapter released today, the first of a larger upcoming study examining crime rates between the two countries, focuses on national comparisons. It finds that from 2014 (a year when crimes rates reached their lowest) to 2022 (the most recent comparable year of data), the violent crime rate in Canada increased by 43.8 per cent to 434.1 violent crimes per 100,000 people. That’s now 14 per cent higher than the violent crime rate in the U.S., which only increased 5.3 per cent over the same period to 380.7 violent crimes per 100,000 people.
Violent crime data in Canada differs from the United States, so adjustments were made to ensure as high a level of comparability as possible. The adjusted violent crime data includes murder, robbery, and assault with a weapon.
Additionally, the rate of population adjusted property crimes (e.g., burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft) is also now 27.5 per cent higher in Canada than in the U.S., with 2491.0 crimes occurring per 100,000 people in Canada in 2022—a 7.0 per cent increase from 2014. By contrast, the property crime rate in the U.S. declined by 24.1 per cent over the same period to 1954.4 crimes per 100,000 people.
Crucially, homicides are also on the rise in Canada with the number of murders increasing from 1.5 per 100,000 in 2014 to 2.3 in 2022—a 53.4 per cent increase. The homicide rate in the U.S. remains markedly higher than in Canada at 5.8 per 100,000 people in 2022 and increased 49.4 per cent from 2014 to 2022.
“Crime rates in Canada, which are still historically low, are nevertheless rising and, in some cases are higher than in the U.S., which should concern Canadians,” Di Matteo said.
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Livio Di Matteo, Senior Fellow
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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Halifax, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org
