Regional Indicator 15: Personal and Property Crime

	Why It's Important The crime rate is both a reflection of community safety and security and an indicator of other social and economic problems. It can reflect lack of opportunities, inadequate education or social dysfunction. Crime is very costly to society, from both individual and community perspectives. Note: *Regional BC includes the Kelowna CMA.

Regional Indicator Fifteen is based on the number of personal and property crimes in a jurisdiction. Higher crime rates produce worse ranks.

After relatively small increases in 2001 and 2002 and a moderate increase in 2003 crime rates have returned to a downward trend throughout the province. Since 2005, the only increase seen in any region of BC was Victoria's 2006 value of 0.8 percent. Average decreases for 2005 through 2007 range from 4.5 percent in Victoria to 9.1 percent in Kelowna.

Overall, between 1998 and 2007, crime rates fell by 35 percent in Vancouver, 22 percent in Victoria, 14 percent in Regional BC and 11 percent in Abbotsford.

In 2007, Victoria recorded 5.7 crimes for every 100 residents. Vancouver's rate was 6.2 and Kelowna had the highest rate at 7.2 incidents per 100 population.

On average, between 1998 and 2007, crime rates in Vancouver were 22 percent higher than Victoria's and 10 percent higher than in Regional BC.