Police-reported Information Hub
Preliminary quarterly hate and cybercrime data

Data coverage and considerations

These are preliminary data and are expected to differ from final official annual results released in the summer each year. They reflect all microdata monthly submissions received from police services prior to the date the data were finalized for release. As a result, some months may be incomplete. Once data for a quarter are released, they are not retroactively updated. Therefore, year-to-date data may not equal the total of the most recently released quarter and the previous quarter’s year-to-date total.

Data coverage for preliminary police-reported data varies monthly. Preliminary data were reported by police services covering 91% to 99% of the population of Canada. Monthly data may be incomplete because of ongoing police investigations or delays in data entry. Official annual police-reported data are typically available in July of the following year.

For official published annual statistics on hate crime and cybercrime, see the following online data tables: 35-10-0066, 35-10-0067, 35-10-0191, 35-10-0001, 35-10-0002.

The preliminary quarterly data are available for calendar quarters (first: January 1 to March 31; second: April 1 to June 30; third: July 1 to September 30; fourth: October 1 to December 31) and year to date for the end of each quarter.

Year to date data are cumulative and represent incidents reported to police between the start of the calendar year (January 1st) and the end of each calendar quarter (for example, ‘Q2- Year-to-Date’ includes incidents reported between January 1st and June 30th).

Percentage change values have not been calculated as there may be variations in the number of police services reporting from one period to the next. This could result in false comparisons between quarters.

Selected data at the regional level have been suppressed due to small counts and to protect confidentiality.

Police-reported crime data are drawn from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, a census of all crime known to police services. Police-reported crime statistics conform to a nationally approved set of common crime categories and definitions. They have been systematically reported by police services and submitted annually to Statistics Canada since 1962. Differences in local police service policies, procedures and enforcement practices can affect the comparability of crime trends.

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

Crime Severity Index and police-reported crime rate

The Crime Severity Index (CSI) and police-reported crime rate are area-based measures that summarize police-reported crime. The CSI was developed to complement the conventional crime rate and other indicators by considering both the number and severity of crimes in a given area. These measures are not indicators of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.

For additional contextual information within and outside the criminal justice system, see the following resources:

• Crime and justice statistics
• Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population
• Centre for Municipal and Local Data
• Rural Canada statistics

Police-reported hate crime incident

Hate crimes refer to criminal offences committed against a person or property that is motivated in whole or in part by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, or on any other similar factor. For more information on the concepts, methods and quality of the data contained in this table, consult the statistical data documentation: Uniform Crime Reporting Survey - 3302.

Police data on hate crimes reflect only the incidents that come to the attention of police and are classified as hate crimes. Police determine whether a crime was motivated by hatred. They indicate the type of motivation based on information gathered during the investigation and common national guidelines for record classification. Hate crime counts include confirmed and suspected hate crime incidents.

Police-reported cybercrime incident

A criminal incident may include multiple violations of the law. For the analysis of cyber-related violations, one distinct violation within the incident is identified as the "cybercrime violation." The cybercrime violation represents the specific criminal violation in an incident in which a computer or the Internet was the target of the crime, or the instrument used to commit the crime. For the majority of incidents, the cybercrime violation and the most serious violation were the same.

Because of the complexity of cyber incidents, these data likely reflect the number of active or closed investigations for the year rather than the total number of incidents reported to police. Data are based on police-reported incidents that are recorded in police services' records management systems.