Police personnel and expenditures, 2012
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Released: 2013-03-20
As of May 15, 2012, Canadian police services had 69,539 police officers, an increase of 115 from 2011. However, police strength, as measured by the number of police officers per capita, declined 1.0% to 199 officers for every 100,000 population.
Chart 1
Police strength per 100,000 population, Canada
Despite small declines in recent years, police strength in Canada has generally grown over the past decade.
Provincially, the largest growth in the rate of police strength from 2011 to 2012 occurred in Manitoba (+3%). As a result, Manitoba replaced Saskatchewan as the province with the highest police strength. Prince Edward Island and Alberta reported the lowest.
Police strength decreased in the majority of Canada's census metropolitan areas in 2012. The largest declines occurred in Moncton (-8%) and Saint John (-6%). Winnipeg replaced Saint John as the metropolitan area with the highest rate of police strength, while Moncton reported the lowest rate.
For the second year in a row, the number of female officers increased, while the number of male officers declined. There were 234 more female and 119 fewer male officers in 2012 than in 2011. Women accounted for 20% of all police officers in 2012, compared with 15% a decade earlier. The proportion of women among the higher ranks of policing has also increased steadily since the early 1990's, growing from 1% in 1992 to 16% in 2012.
About 7,500 police officers were eligible for retirement with full pension in 2011, representing approximately one in ten officers across Canada. Just under 1,300 actually retired that year, representing 2% of the total number of police officers.
Expenditures on policing totalled $12.9 billion in 2011, a 0.7% decrease from the previous year when controlling for inflation. This was the first decline since 1996 and was driven by the conclusion of Royal Canadian Mounted Police expenditures on national special events such as the 2010 Olympic Games and G8/G20 Summits.
After controlling for inflation, Yukon (-2.5%) and Nova Scotia (-1.7%) were the only jurisdictions to report a decrease in spending. Spending increased the most in Alberta (+5.3%) and Saskatchewan (+4.9%).
Note to readers
In Canada, information on police personnel and expenditures is collected by Statistics Canada through the annual Police Administration Survey. Using data reported by each police service in Canada, this report provides details on police personnel and expenditures at the national, provincial and municipal levels. For the first time, in 2012, a new Supplemental Survey was added to collect detailed information on police hirings, retirements, eligibility to retire and, where available, visible minority status.
Data in this report represent two distinct time periods. Most of the information on police personnel is based on a "snapshot date" of May 15, 2012, while data on hirings, departures and expenditures represent the calendar year ending December 31, 2011 (or March 31, 2012 for those police services operating on a fiscal year).
The report, Police Resources in Canada, 2012 (Catalogue number85-225-X), is now available. From the Browse by key resource module of our website under Publications, choose All subjects, then Crime and justice.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@canada.ca).
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