Performance Indicator 24: Crime Rates

Performance Indicator Twenty-Four is based on the number of personal and property crimes in a jurisdiction. Higher crime rates produce worse ranks.

In 2007, BC had the worst combined personal and property crime rate among Canadian provinces. Crime rates have fallen significantly between 1998 and 2007. BC's rate fell by 26 percent, second only to Ontario.

The crime rate in BC has fallen from 8.6 crimes per 100 people in 1998 to 6.3 crimes per 100 people in 2007. After three years of increases, crime rates in BC fell by 2.8 percent in 2004, and by at least 6.4 percent in each of the three years since.

North American Comparison

British Columbia ranked second last among the 61 subnational jurisdictions on this indicator in 2006.

Although BC saw 7.4 and 8.2 percent reductions in its personal and property crime rate in the last two years it is still ranks either worst or second worst. However, the recent reductions in BC are considerably larger than the Canadian or US average reductions.

Personal vs. Property Crime

Personal crime includes those offenses in the Criminal Code that deal with the application or threat of application of force to a person, including homicide, attempted murder, assault, sexual assault, robbery and abduction. Property crime includes unlawful acts with the intent of gaining property but don't involve the threat or use of violence (e.g., theft, breaking and entering, fraud and possession of stolen goods).

Personal crimes represent roughly one in five crimes in BC meaning the majority of crime is against property. In 2006 and, on average between 1997 and 2006, BC had the highest property crime rate and the third highest personal crime rate among the provinces behind Sakatchewan and Manitoba.

Reporting Rates

Victimization surveys show that only a fraction of crimes are reported to police. Reporting rates generally increase as the severity of the crime increases. In recent years, reporting has remained stable for violent crime, theft and vandalism but has fallen for a number of property related offenses.

Crime by City in North America

Detailed crime data are available by province, state and major metropolitan areas. City by city comparisons show that, consistent with ranks reported above for British Columbia Vancouver has the second-highest combined violent and property crime rate among major Canadian and American cities. While Vancouver has high property crime rates – the highest break and enter and theft rates, the fifth-highest motor vehicle theft rate and the second-highest overall rate – it ranks better on violent crimes and has rates below those found in all the US cities profiled.

Vancouver's violent crime rate of 391 incidents per 100,000 population earned it an eighth place rank, behind top ranked Quebec at 185 incidents per 100,000 population and ahead of bottom ranked Detroit with 716.

Vancouver ranked eighth on the homicide rate with 2.5 per 100,000 population, above the national average of 1.9 but less than one-quarter of bottom ranked Detroit. A similar pattern shows up for aggravated assault and robbery, although the spreads between Vancouver's rate and the bottom ranked cities are not as large.

Crime Rates for Canadian and American Cities, 2006, per 100,000 population

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