Police-reported Information Hub
Homicide in Canada

See Definitions for detailed explanations of common concepts and terminology used in the analysis of police-reported crime information.

Homicide

Homicide includes Criminal Code offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide.

Indigenous identity

For the purposes of the Homicide Survey, Indigenous identity includes people identified as First Nations people (either status or non-status), Métis or Inuit, and people with an Indigenous identity whose Indigenous group is not known to police. Non-Indigenous identity refers to instances where the police have confirmed that a victim or accused person is not identified as an Indigenous person. Indigenous identity reported as "unknown" by police includes instances where police are unable to determine the Indigenous identity of the victim or accused person, where Indigenous identity is not collected by the police service, or where the accused person has refused to disclose their Indigenous identity to police. Indigenous identity is reported by the police and is determined through information found with the victim, such as status cards, or through information supplied by the victims' families, community members, or other sources (i.e., such as band records, or forensic evidence such as genetic testing).

Racialized identity group

The concept of "racialized groups" is measured with the "visible minority" variable in this release. There is currently no definition or standard for "racialized groups." Until further notice, derivation and dissemination of data for "racialized groups" follow the visible minority of person standard. "Visible minority" refers to whether a person belongs to one of the visible minority groups defined by the Employment Equity Act. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-White in colour." The visible minority population consists of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese. The concept of "rest of the population" is used to include any victim or accused person excluded from the concept of "racialized groups" or "visible minority." For the purposes of the Homicide Survey, an individual's "visible minority" status is identified by police. Racialized identity group is reported by the police and is determined through information found with the victim, or through other means such as information supplied by the victims' families, community members, or other sources.

"Rest of the Population" refers to instances where the police have confirmed that the individual is not identified as belonging to a racialized identity group.

Gender

The year 2019 marked the first cycle of collection of the Homicide Survey data for which information on gender identity was reported for victims of homicide. Gender refers to the gender a person publicly expresses in their daily life, including at work, while shopping or accessing other services, in their housing environment or in the broader community. Prior to 2019, Homicide Survey data was presented by the sex of the victims. Sex and gender refer to two different concepts. Caution should be exercised when comparing counts for sex with those for gender. Given that small counts of victims identified as "gender diverse" may exist, the aggregate Homicide Survey data available to the public has been recoded to assign these counts to either "male" or "female" in order to ensure the protection of confidentiality and privacy. Victims identified as gender diverse have been assigned to either male or female based on the regional distribution of victims' gender.

Primary method

If multiple methods are used against one victim, only the primary method causing the death is counted. Thus, only one method is counted per victim.

Gang-related homicide

A homicide is classified as linked to organized crime or a street gang when police confirm or suspect that the accused person and/or the victim was either a member, or a prospective member, of an organized crime group or street gang, or if either individual was somehow associated with an organized crime group or a street gang, and the homicide was carried out as a result of this association.

The homicide was deemed as being linked to organized crime or a street gang when either "Yes" or "Suspected" was reported for the relation to organized crime or a street gang.

Solved homicide

Includes only those homicides in which there were known accused. If there were more than one accused, only the closest relationship to the victim was recorded.

Census metropolitan area (CMA) and census agglomeration (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 must live in the core. A CA must have a core population of at least 10,000. To be included in the CMA or CA, adjacent municipalities must have a high degree of integration with the core, as measured by commuting flows derived from census data. A CMA or CA may have more than one police service. It is important to note that while official police-reported data on crime from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey use Statistics Canada's standard Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) names, the boundaries for the policing-based CMAs do not always fully align with the standard CMA geographic units used for disseminating information about the Census of Population.

Missing person

A victim is considered missing at the time of their homicide if they were reported as a missing person to any police service before they were discovered deceased. A Missing Person report must have been filed and the status of "missing" must be continuous up to the time of the individual's discovery as a victim of homicide.

Urban and rural areas

Rural police services serve a territory where most of the population lives outside a CMA or CA, and includes small towns that do not qualify as CAs. Urban police services serve an area where most of the population lives within a CMA or CA. Police services are classified as rural or urban based on the majority of the population they serve, rather than on the place of residence of each Canadian. Consequently, urban residents can be served by a police service classified as rural, and vice versa. The terms “rural area” and “urban area” are used to designate areas or populations based on the classification of the police services that serve them. The definitions of rural and urban in this report may differ from those used in other Statistics Canada reports or tables.

Related surveys

• Homicide Survey
• Uniform Crime Report Survey (UCR)
• Police Administration Survey
• General Social Survey-Victimization

Recent analytical releases

• The Daily – Crime and justice
• Juristat publication
• Crime and justice statistics

For any questions or data requests, please refer to the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) Client Services group: statcan.ccjcss-ccsjsc.statcan@statcan.gc.ca