Police-reported crime in rural areas in the Canadian provinces, 2023
Released: 2025-04-29
The police-reported crime rate in the provinces and the Crime Severity Index (CSI) are consistently higher on a year-over-year basis in rural areas than in urban areas. In 2023, the police-reported crime rate was 34% higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
Rural areas across Canada's provinces vary in terms of their demographic, economic and geographic characteristics, particularly between the northern and southern areas of the provinces (see Note to readers). Therefore, the level of police-reported crime is not the same in all rural areas across the country. An examination of rural crime reflects numerous different situations and contexts across the Canadian provinces.
The Juristat article "Characteristics of police-reported crime in rural areas in the Canadian provinces, 2023," released today, uses police-reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey to examine incidents, victims and persons accused of crime to highlight differences between rural and urban areas across the provinces.
Overall police-reported crime rate and crime severity higher in rural areas
In 2023, just under 500,000 incidents of crime were reported by police services in rural areas in the provinces. This represented a rate of 7,317 incidents for every 100,000 population, roughly one-third (+34%) higher than the urban rate (5,440).
The CSI is another way to measure police-reported crime and considers the relative severity of police-reported offences in addition to their volume (see Note to readers). Similar to the crime rate, the CSI was 30% higher in rural areas (99) than in urban areas (76) in 2023.
The police-reported crime rate is nearly three times higher in the rural north than in the rural south
In 2023, most provinces followed the national pattern of higher police-reported crime rates in rural areas. The largest gaps between rural and urban areas were recorded in Saskatchewan (68% higher in rural areas), Manitoba (65% higher) and Alberta (54% higher). Conversely, rates were lower in the rural areas of Prince Edward Island (18% lower than in urban areas), Ontario (8% lower) and Quebec (4% lower).
Differences between the rural and urban CSI also varied across the provinces. As with the crime rate, the largest gaps were observed in the Prairie provinces: Alberta (54% higher in rural areas), Saskatchewan (44% higher) and Manitoba (41% higher).
Chart 1
Crime Severity Index, by rural or urban area and province, 2023
In addition to regional variation, most of the difference in police-reported crime between rural and urban areas is attributable to differences between the provincial north and provincial south. The crime rate in rural northern regions of the provinces (17,546 per 100,000 population) was about three times higher than in rural southern regions (5,379).
Violent crime rates higher in rural areas
Similar to the overall crime rate, violent crime has been consistently higher on a per capita basis in rural areas. In 2023, the police-reported violent crime rate was 1.7 times higher in rural areas (2,126 per 100,000 population) than in urban areas (1,274). About one-quarter (26%) of all crimes reported by police in rural areas in 2023 were violent, compared with just over one-fifth (22%) in urban areas.
Overall, all types of violent crime had higher rates in rural areas than in urban areas, except for robbery.
Higher rates of police-reported violence against women and girls in rural areas
In 2023, 1,963 women and girls in rural areas were victims of violent crime for every 100,000 women and girls living in rural areas. This rate was higher than that recorded among men and boys in rural areas (1,494 per 100,000 rural men and boys) and among women and girls in urban areas (1,137 per 100,000 urban women and girls).
The rate of violent crime was more than three times higher for women and girls in the rural north (4,974 per 100,000 women and girls in the rural north) than in the rural south (1,416 per 100,000 women and girls in the rural south). A similar pattern was found for men and boys in the rural north (3,459 per 100,000 men and boys in the rural north) and rural south (1,131 per 100,000 men and boys in the rural south).
Accused persons tend to be older in rural areas
In rural areas, in 2023, persons accused of violent crime tended to be older. There were 2,616 persons aged 25 to 44 accused of violent crime for every 100,000 population in this age group in rural areas, higher than any other age group. In contrast, the peak age group for accused persons in urban areas was 12 to 17 (1,287 for every 100,000 population in this age group in urban areas).
More specifically, the peak age was 27 years in rural areas, compared with 15 years in urban areas.
Police-reported intimate partner and family violence higher in rural areas
In rural areas, proportionally fewer violent crimes are committed by strangers. For example, in 2023, 13% of police-reported violent crime in rural areas was perpetrated by someone unknown to the victim, compared with 30% in urban areas.
In contrast, in rural areas, more crimes are committed by someone known to the victim. Notably, rates of police-reported intimate partner violence and family violence were higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
In 2023, there were 571 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population aged 12 and older in rural areas, almost double the rate in urban areas (309). Likewise, the rate of violent crime committed by a non-spousal family member was almost three times higher in rural areas (372 victims per 100,000 population aged 12 and older) than urban areas (138).
More than three-quarters of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence were women and girls, in both rural (77%) and urban (78%) areas.
Higher property crime rate in rural areas driven by police-reported mischief offences
Property crime is also a focus of concern in rural areas. In 2023, the overall property crime rate was 13% higher in rural areas (3,692 per 100,000 population) than in urban areas (3,262). However, unlike violent crime, many forms of property crime—including possession of stolen property, fraud and theft of $5,000 or under—were more common in urban areas than rural areas. The largest difference was for shoplifting, which was nearly four times higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
With respect to property crime, the rate of motor vehicle theft was also higher in urban areas than rural areas in 2023. From 2018 to 2023, the rate of motor vehicle theft increased 27% in urban areas, while remaining relatively stable in rural areas (+2%).
Mischief—an offence that may be reported to bylaw or other non-police officials in urban areas—was the main reason property crime was higher in rural areas. It accounted for 43% of all police-reported property crimes in rural areas in 2023, more than double the share in urban areas (19%).
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Note to readers
This analysis is based on police-reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Several factors can influence police-reported statistics. For example, an incident must come to the attention of the police. Differences between police services, such as in available resources or departmental priorities, policies and procedures, can also impact police-reported crime. For instance, some police services may use municipal bylaws to deal with minor offences, so some crimes, such as mischief or disturbing the peace, may be underreported in urban areas.
Urban areas are those where the majority of the population lives within a census metropolitan area (CMA) or census agglomeration (CA). Rural areas are those where the majority of the population lives outside a CMA or CA. A CMA or CA is formed by one or more adjacent municipalities centred on a population centre (known as the core). A CMA must have a total population of at least 100,000, of which 50,000 or more live in the core. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000. To be included in a CMA or CA, adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the core, as measured by daily commuting flows derived from census data. A CMA or CA may have more than one police service.
The provincial north comprises the northern regions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The provincial south includes the southern regions of these provinces and all of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. For more information, consult the Variant of Standard Geographical Classification 2021 for North and South on the Statistics Canada website. The territories are excluded from this analysis on rural crime, as they differ from the provinces and among each other in many respects.
The crime rate and the Crime Severity Index (CSI) are complementary measures of police-reported crime. The crime rate measures the volume of crime reported by police per 100,000 population, while the CSI measures the volume and severity of crime reported by police.
Products
The article "Characteristics of police-reported crime in rural areas in the Canadian provinces, 2023" is now available as part of the publication Juristat (85-002-X). The infographic "Police-reported crime in rural areas of the Canadian provinces, 2023" (11-627-M) is also released today.
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; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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