Statistics Canada Article on Crime in Rural and Urban Areas

Juristat, a publication of Statistics Canada, has published an article entitled Police-reported crime in rural and urban areas in the Canadian provinces, 2017.

It provides analysis of recent trends in crime rates and severity in rural and urban areas, both at the national and provincial levels.

Among the highlights:

• Police services serving a mostly rural population served 16% of the population in the provinces in 2017, but reported 23% of violent crimes, 17% of property crimes, 27% of Criminal Code traffic offences, and 23% of other Criminal Code violations.
• In 2017, the police-reported crime rate in rural areas (6,210 incidents per 100,000 population) was 23% higher than the urban crime rate (5,051 incidents per 100,000 population).
• The police-reported crime rate in Canada declined from 2009 to 2017. However, the decrease was larger in urban areas (-19%) than in rural areas (-13%).
• The higher crime rate in rural areas was driven by a small number of police services that reported very high crime rates. In fact, most police services serving a predominantly rural population recorded relatively low rates of crime.
• Higher crime rates in rural areas were mainly observed in the Prairie provinces. In the Prairie provinces in 2017, rates in rural areas were 36% to 42% higher than in urban areas.
• Higher rural crime rates were mainly observed in the northern areas of the provinces: in the South, crime rates were lower in rural areas in all provinces except Alberta.
• The higher crime rates in rural areas were mainly due to high rates of physical assault, mischief and disturbing the peace. These common violations were reported about twice as often by police services serving a mostly rural population.
• Other violent crimes overrepresented in rural areas included sexual violations against children and violent firearms offences (such as discharging or pointing a firearm). Conversely, more robberies and offences related to human trafficking or the commodification of sexual activity were reported in urban areas.
• In 2017, the rate of impaired driving was about twice as high in rural areas as it was in urban areas. The gap was even wider for incidents of impaired driving causing bodily harm or death.