Canada's Crime Index Drops
Canada's Crime Severity Index Sees Further Declines in 2025, Maintaining Historic Lows
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Key Points
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In 2025, non-violent crime fell 5.3% and violent crime fell 4.9% nationwide, according to Statistics Canada, indicating the overall crime-severity decline outpaced the drop in crime volume.
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The 2025 declines mark the second consecutive year of reductions in crime, following several years of increases, suggesting a broader downward trend rather than a one-year fluctuation.
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New Brunswick and Nunavut did not experience declines in 2025, underscoring that improvements were not uniform across all provinces and territories.
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Regina’s 2025 Crime Severity Index fell 12% to rank 13th among Canada’s 41 CMAs, aided by innovations such as a police plane, alternate-response officers, and a new Cornwall Centre satellite office, though arson and shoplifting remain notable challenges.
Canada's crime rate has hit a 25-year low. The national Crime Severity Index (CSI) — a measure of how serious crimes are, not just how many — fell 2.4% in 2023 to its lowest point since 1998, according to Head Topics. In 2025, the trend kept going: non-violent crime dropped 5.3% and violent crime fell 4.9%, according to CTV News.
The 2025 drop marks the second year in a row that crime has fallen. That back-to-back decline suggests this is a real trend — not a one-year blip. Still, not every part of the country is improving at the same pace.
What Is Driving the National Crime Drop
The biggest gains came from falls in serious offenses. Homicides and major property crimes led the decline, according to Head Topics. The CSI weighs crimes by severity — so a drop in murders moves the index more than a drop in minor theft. That is why the CSI fell faster than the raw number of crimes.
CTV News reported that crime severity declined more steeply than crime volume in 2025. In simple terms: fewer crimes happened, but the crimes that did happen were also less serious. That double improvement pushed the national index to its lowest level in a generation.
Regina Posts 12% CSI Drop With New Police Tools
Regina saw one of the sharpest improvements of any major city. Severe crime fell 12% in 2025, moving the city to 13th out of 41 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) ranked by CSI, according to CKOM. Break-ins, vehicle thefts, and murders all declined. That pushed Regina down the rankings in a good way.
New policing tools helped drive the results. Regina police added a surveillance plane, alternate-response officers for lower-risk calls, and a new satellite office at Cornwall Centre, according to CJME. But not everything improved — arson and shoplifting remain problem areas in the city.
Gaps Remain: Territories and Some Provinces Left Behind
The national numbers hide big regional gaps. The territories still post the highest CSI scores in the country. Nunavut and New Brunswick did not see declines in 2025, according to CTV News. That means the improvements are real — but they are not reaching every corner of Canada.
At the lower end, Prince Edward Island and Quebec rank among the safest provinces by CSI. Cities like Red Deer also recorded a CSI decline of about 3.4% in 2025, according to Global News. The picture varies widely depending on where you live.
Why Many Canadians Still Feel Unsafe Despite the Data
The numbers are improving — but feelings of safety have not always kept up. CTV News reported that public safety remains a fear for many Canadians even as crime rates fall. Social media coverage of crime and local incidents can shape how people feel more than national statistics do.
Experts say perception and reality can move in opposite directions. A single high-profile crime in a neighborhood can feel more real than a government index showing improvement. As long as that gap exists, public confidence may lag behind what the data actually shows.
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