Safe Cities profile series: Key indicators by census metropolitan area
Victoria, British Columbia

Release date: May 15, 2020

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Satisfaction with safety

Victoria 91%, British Columbia 86%*, Canada 88%

proportion of people who reported being satisfied with their personal safety from crime in 2014

* significantly different from Victoria (p < 0.05)

Police-reported violent crime rate in 2018

Victoria 1,220, British Columbia 1,164, Canada 1,143

rate per 100,000 population

Ten-year change in police-reported crime rate (2008 to 2018)

Victoria -31%, British Columbia -23%, Canada, -17%

Population and demographics

Map showing the location of Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria was home to 395,523 people in 2018, and it had a high density population of 568 residents per square kilometre. One in four (24%) residents were aged 24 and younger, slightly lower than the distribution in British Columbia (26%) and across Canada (28%).

About 4.8% of Victoria residents were part of the Indigenous population (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) in 2016, slightly lower than in British Columbia (5.9%) but similar to Canada (4.9%). Immigrants represented nearly one in five (18%) residents, lower than British Columbia (28%) and Canada (22%). One in eight (12%) immigrants in Victoria were recent immigrants (since 2011), similar to British Columbia (14%) but slightly lower than Canada (16%). There was a notably smaller proportion of people who identified as a visible minority in Victoria (14%) than British Columbia (30%) and Canada overall (22%).

Education, employment and income

In 2016, nearly seven in ten (67.9%) Victoria residents aged 25 to 64 had completed some form of postsecondary education, one in four (24.8%) had completed high school (or equivalent) as their highest level of education, and less than one in ten (7.3%) had completed neither.

In 2018, the unemployment rate in Victoria (4.0%) was lower than in British Columbia (4.7%) and Canada’s provinces (5.8%). Households in Victoria earned a median after-tax annual income of $55,800 in 2017, higher than in British Columbia ($52,120) and Canada ($52,090). The percentage of families considered low-income was lower in Victoria (14%) than in British Columbia (18%) and Canada (17%).

Housing and families

On average, there were 2.2 persons per household in Victoria in 2016, similar to British Columbia (2.4) and Canada (2.4). Most (63%) households in Victoria owned their homes, somewhat lower than British Columbia (68%) and Canada (68%). When a household spends 30% or more of its income on shelter costs, it is considered to live in unaffordable housing: this was the case for three in ten (29%) Victoria households, similar to British Columbia (28%) but somewhat higher than Canada (24%). A small proportion (5.4%) of occupied private dwellings in Victoria were in need of major repairs, slightly lower than British Columbia (6.3%) and Canada (6.5%). About one-seventh (15%) of Victoria families were lone-parent families, on par with British Columbia (15%) and Canada (16%). In 2018, there were an estimated 1,525 homeless individuals living in Victoria.

Community safety and sense of belonging

In 2014, nearly half (48%) of Victoria residents aged 15 and older were very satisfied with their personal safety from crime, significantly higher than British Columbia residents (37%) and Canadians living in the provinces overall (38%).
Over half (54%) of Victoria residents felt very safe when walking alone after dark, similar to the proportion in British Columbia (50%) and Canada’s provinces (52%).
- Women who lived in Victoria were significantly less likely than men to feel very safe when walking alone after dark (46% versus 61%), similar to British Columbia and Canada’s provinces.
Less than one in five (17%) Victoria residents thought social disorder was a big or moderate problem in their neighbourhood, significantly lower than in British Columbia (24%) and Canada’s provinces (22%).
One in four (24%) Victoria residents said they had a very strong sense of belonging to their community, the same as British Columbia (24%) and similar to Canada’s provinces (25%).
Over a six-year period (2009 to 2014), 13%^E of Victoria residents experienced discrimination, similar to British Columbia (14%) and Canada’s provinces (13%).
About 16% of Victoria residents said they knew most people in their neighbourhood in 2014, not significantly different from British Columbia (20%) but significantly lower than in Canada’s provinces (21%).
The vast majority (94%) of Victoria residents reported having confidence in police in 2014, which was significantly higher than the proportion in British Columbia (90%) and Canada’s provinces (91%).

Self-reported experiences of victimization

In 2018, 6.6% of Victoria residents aged 15 and older were victims of a self-reported physical or sexual assault, not significantly different from British Columbia (4.6%) and Canada’s provinces (4.4%).
Just over one in four (27%) Victoria residents experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public, which was not significantly different than British Columbia (26%) but was significantly higher than Canada’s provinces (23%).
- In Victoria, women were significantly more likely to experience unwanted sexual behaviour in public than men (41% versus 11%).
- Of those who experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public, less than one in ten (7.6%) Victoria residents said the most serious incident took place on public transit, significantly lower than in British Columbia (15.4%) but not significantly different from Canada’s provinces (11.5%).
  - For reference, in 2016, the use of public transit as a main mode of commuting in Victoria (11%) was similar to British Columbia (13%) and Canada overall (12%).
- Of those who experienced unwanted sexual behaviour in public in 2018, nearly six in ten (57%) Victoria residents changed their behaviour while in public as a result, as did half of those in British Columbia (53%) and those in Canada’s provinces (50%).

Police-reported crime

In 2018, Victoria police reported an overall crime rate of 5,819 incidents per 100,000 population, 21% lower than in British Columbia (7,400) but 6% higher than in Canada (5,488).
Over the past decade (2008 to 2018), police-reported crime declined by 31% in Victoria, while a smaller decline was seen in British Columbia (-23%) and Canada (-17%).
The severity of crime in Victoria increased by 5% between 2017 and 2018, mostly due to an increase in fraud. Over the past decade (2008 to 2018), the severity of crime in Victoria declined by 38%, compared with a 28% decline in British Columbia and a 17% decline in Canada.

Property crime

Police-reported: There were 3,825 property crimes per 100,000 population reported by police in Victoria in 2018, 20% lower than in British Columbia (4,771) but 15% higher than Canada (3,339).
Self-reported: There were 145^E property crimes per 1,000 Victoria households reported in 2014 (includes breaking and entering, theft of motor vehicle or parts, theft of household property and vandalism), which was not significantly different than British Columbia (167) and Canada’s provinces (143).

Violent crime

In 2018, there were 1,220 incidents of violent crime per 100,000 population reported by police in Victoria, 5% higher than British Columbia (1,164) and 7% higher than Canada overall (1,143).
- In Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, around half of victims of violent crime were female (48%, 50% and 53%, respectively).
Between 2008 and 2018:
- The violent crime rate in Victoria declined by 14%, a smaller decline than in British Columbia (-31%) but similar to Canada (-14%).
- The severity of violent crime in Victoria declined by 27%, which was smaller than the decline in British Columbia (-37%) but larger than Canada (-13%).
Violent crime against girls and women declined to a somewhat smaller extent in Victoria than violent crime against boys and men between 2009 and 2018 (-28% versus -32%).

Hate crime

The police-reported hate crime rate—which depends on police services' level of expertise in identifying crimes motivated by hate—was higher in Victoria (6.1 incidents per 100,000 population) than in British Columbia (5.0) and Canada (4.9) in 2018.
Between 2014 and 2018, the rate of police-reported hate crime in Victoria increased by 28%, a smaller increase than in British Columbia (+37%) and Canada (+33%).

Intimate partner violence

There were 246 victims of intimate partner violence per 100,000 population aged 15 and older reported by police in Victoria in 2018, 11% lower than British Columbia (277) and 24% lower than Canada (323).
The large majority (77%) of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence in Victoria were female, similar to British Columbia (78%) and Canada (79%).
Same-sex partners accounted for 2.9% of police-reported intimate partner violence in Victoria between 2009 and 2018, slightly higher than British Columbia (2.5%) but slightly lower than Canada (3.4%).

Homicide

In 2018, Victoria had 2 homicides—a rate of 0.51 per 100,000 population—lower than British Columbia (1.78) and Canada (1.76).
Of the 2 homicide victims in Victoria, neither was female. Meanwhile, 19% of homicide victims in British Columbia and 25% of homicide victims in Canada were female.
The number of homicides in Victoria decreased from 5 victims in 2008 to 2 victims in 2018.

Charts and tables

Chart 1 start

Chart 1 Police-reported violent and non-violent Crime Severity Indexes, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 1998 to 2018

Data table for Chart 1

Data table for Chart 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 1. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Violent Crime Severity Index, Non-violent Crime Severity Index, Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, calculated using index units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Year	Violent Crime Severity Index			Non-violent Crime Severity Index
	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada
	index
1998	133	132	98	150	180	127
1999	121	133	99	150	164	116
2000	110	122	98	128	153	110
2001	97	117	97	125	158	108
2002	92	121	96	122	158	107
2003	89	117	98	123	169	110
2004	84	120	96	129	166	107
2005	74	120	99	121	157	102
2006	82	121	100	131	147	100
2007	81	118	98	118	138	94
2008	82	116	95	111	124	89
2009	83	113	94	97	112	85
2010	86	104	89	88	104	81
2011	73	96	86	73	97	75
2012	65	91	82	72	96	73
2013	53	80	74	59	90	67
2014	57	76	71	62	95	65
2015	67	82	75	71	97	68
2016	56	74	77	64	98	70
2017	63	75	81	59	92	71
2018	60	73	82	65	93	72
Note: Crime Severity Indexes are based on Criminal Code incidents, including traffic offences, as well as other federal statute violations. The base index was set at 100 for 2006 for Canada. Data on the Crime Severity Indexes are available as of 1998. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Aggregate Database.

Chart 1 end

Chart 2 start

Chart 2 Police-reported violent crime, by sex of victim, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 2009 to 2018

Data table for Chart 2

Data table for Chart 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 2. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Female victims, Male victims, Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, calculated using rate per 100,000 population units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Year	Female victims			Male victims
	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada
	rate per 100,000 population
2009	1,180	1,474	1,206	1,439	1,578	1,202
2010	1,124	1,406	1,209	1,454	1,474	1,162
2011	863	1,215	1,124	1,087	1,300	1,087
2012	773	1,090	1,079	1,103	1,213	1,048
2013	744	977	1,004	981	1,056	947
2014	800	907	952	967	965	898
2015	837	913	970	1,024	991	914
2016	798	862	978	949	913	910
2017	851	866	1,019	928	883	926
2018	851	915	1,048	983	923	936
Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, excluding traffic offences. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Excludes victims where the sex was reported as unknown. Victims refer to those aged 89 and younger. Victims aged 90 and older are excluded due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. For a list of offences included in violent crime see Table 2. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Trend Database.

Chart 2 end

Chart 3 start

Chart 3 Police-reported property crime, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 2009 to 2018

Data table for Chart 3

Data table for Chart 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 3. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, calculated using rate per 100,000 population units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Year	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada
Year	rate per 100,000 population
2009	5,550	5,593	4,122
2010	4,958	5,192	3,838
2011	4,275	4,774	3,536
2012	4,141	4,766	3,438
2013	3,479	4,514	3,154
2014	3,517	4,807	3,100
2015	3,777	4,871	3,231
2016	3,544	4,892	3,239
2017	3,447	4,719	3,266
2018	3,825	4,771	3,339
Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, excluding traffic offences. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. For a list of offences included in property crime see Table 3. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Aggregate Database.

Chart 3 end

Table 1 start

Table 1
Police-reported crime rate for selected offences, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Police-reported crime rate for selected offences. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Percent difference between Victoria and British Columbia and Percent difference between Victoria and Canada, calculated using rate units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Victoria	British Columbia	Canada	Percent difference between Victoria and British Columbia	Percent difference between Victoria and Canada
Type of offence	rate			Percent difference between Victoria and British Columbia	Percent difference between Victoria and Canada
Total crime (excluding traffic)	5,819	7,400	5,488	-21	6
Total violent crime	1,220	1,164	1,143	5	7
Violations causing death and attempted murder	0.8	4	4	-79	-82
Sexual assault and sexual violations against children^{Table 1 Note 1}	95	85	101	11	-6
Assaults^{Table 1 Note 2}	638	629	649	1	-2
Other violent offences	487	446	389	9	25
Total property crime	3,825	4,771	3,339	-20	15
Breaking and entering	294	524	431	-44	-32
Theft^{Table 1 Note 3}	2,316	2,767	1,720	-16	35
Fraud	413	477	402	-13	3
Mischief^{Table 1 Note 4}	747	905	699	-18	7
Other property crime offences	55	97	86	-43	-36
*Total other Criminal Code* offences**	773	1,465	1,006	-47	-23
*Total Criminal Code* traffic offences**	262	325	339	-19	-23
Total alcohol-impaired driving^{Table 1 Note 5}	214	226	178	-5	21
Total drug-impaired driving^{Table 1 Note 6}	16	13	12	17	31
Alcohol and drug-impaired driving^{Table 1 Note 7}	0.8	1	0.7	-31	12
Impaired driving (not specified)^{Table 1 Note 7}	0.8	0.2	0.3	278	199
Other Criminal Code traffic offences	31	85	148	-64	-79
Total drug offences	165	366	225	-55	-27
Total other federal statute offences	64	119	70	-46	-8
Total all offences	6,310	8,210	6,123	-23	3
Note 1 Includes sexual assault (level 1, 2 and 3), sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, making sexually explicit material available to children, and the offences of parent or guardian procuring sexual activity, luring a child by means of telecommunication, agreement or arrangement (sexual offence against a child) and bestiality (in presence of, or incites a child). Excludes incidents of child pornography. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes assault (level 1, 2 and 3), assault against a peace officer, unlawfully causing bodily harm, criminal negligence causing bodily harm and other assaults. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Includes total theft of motor vehicle, total theft over $5,000 (non-motor vehicle) and total theft of $5,000 or under (non-motor vehicle). Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes altering, removing or destroying a vehicle identification number. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes alcohol-impaired operation of a vehicle, alcohol-impaired operation of a vehicle causing death or bodily harm, failure or refusal to comply with testing for the presence of alcohol and failure or refusal to provide a breath or blood sample. In some jurisdictions, impaired driving incidents that meet the elements of the Criminal Code may be handled using a provincial statute. Collection of these incidents is not within the scope of the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes drug-impaired operation of a vehicle, drug-impaired operation of a vehicle causing death or bodily harm, failure or refusal to comply with testing for the presence of drugs and failure or refusal to provide a breath or blood sample. In some jurisdictions, impaired driving incidents that meet the elements of the Criminal Code may be handled using a provincial statute. Collection of these incidents is not within the scope of the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Return to note 6 referrer Note 7 Reflects new impaired driving offences as per Bill C-46, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (offences relating to conveyances) and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, which came into effect part way through 2018. Return to note 7 referrer Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, including traffic offences, as well as other federal statute violations. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Aggregate Database.

Table 1 end

Table 2 start

Table 2
Police-reported violent crime rate for selected offences, by sex of victim, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Police-reported violent crime rate for selected offences. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Female victims and Male victims, calculated using rate units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Victoria		British Columbia		Canada
	Female victims	Male victims	Female victims	Male victims	Female victims	Male victims
	rate
Total violent crime	851	983	915	923	1,048	936
Violations causing death and attempted murder	0.5	1	2	6	2	6
Homicide	0	1	0.7	3	0.9	3
Other violations causing death^{Table 2 Note 1}	0	0	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3
Attempted murder	0.5	0	0.7	3	1	3
Sexual offences	164	18	149	18	170	23
Sexual assault	133	6	115	11	134	16
Sexual assault – level 3 – aggravated	0.5	0	0.3	0	0.7	0.1
Sexual assault – level 2 – weapon or bodily harm	1	0	1	0.3	2	0.4
Sexual assault – level 1	131	6	113	11	131	16
Sexual violations against children^{Table 2 Note 2}	31	12	34	7	36	7
Assaults	487	795	558	700	613	644
Physical assault	475	746	545	649	599	590
Assault – level 3 – aggravated	2	9	3	9	6	13
Assault – level 2 – weapon or bodily harm	67	169	95	196	111	173
Assault – level 1	405	569	446	444	483	404
Assault against a peace officer	8	48	9	47	10	48
Other assaults	4	2	4	3	4	7
Other violent offences	200	168	206	199	263	262
Firearms – use of, discharge, pointing	0.5	1	1	3	2	6
Robbery	12	36	26	56	31	75
Forcible confinement or kidnapping	6	0.5	11	3	15	3
Trafficking in persons^{Table 2 Note 3}	0	0	0.4	0	1	0^sNote: value rounded to 0 (zero) where there is a meaningful distinction between true zero and the value that was rounded. A “0” represents a true zero value.
Extortion	2	4	5	9	6	9
Criminal harassment	33	8	24	7	53	17
Uttering threats	75	98	80	100	114	134
Indecent or harassing communications	58	19	47	16	22	9
Non-consensual distribution of intimate images	4	0.5	5	0.8	7	1
Commodification of sexual activity^{Table 2 Note 4}	0	0	0.2	0.1	1	0.1
Other violent offences	7	2	7	4	10	8
Total traffic offences	1	0	3	4	16	21
Traffic violations causing death	1	0	0.4	0.7	0.4	0.9
Traffic violations causing bodily harm	0.5	0	3	4	6	7
Traffic violations – injury unspecified or unknown^{Table 2 Note 5}	0	0	0	0	9	12
0^s value rounded to 0 (zero) where there is a meaningful distinction between true zero and the value that was rounded. A “0” represents a true zero value. Note 1 Includes, for example, criminal negligence causing death. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual exploitation, making sexually explicit material available to children and the offences of parent or guardian procuring sexual activity, luring a child by means of telecommunication, agreement or arrangement (sexual offence against a child) and bestiality (in presence of, or incites a child). Excludes sexual assaults against children and youth, which are reported as level 1, 2 or 3 sexual assault, and incidents of child pornography. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Includes four specific indictable offences to address human trafficking, namely sections 279.01 (trafficking in persons), 279.011 (trafficking of a person under the age of 18), 279.02 (material benefit) and 279.03 (withholding or destroying documents). Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 As of December 2014, new offences classified as “commodification of sexual activity” under “violent crime” include: the purchasing of sexual services or communicating for that purpose, receiving a material benefit deriving from the purchase of sexual services, procuring of persons for the purpose of prostitution and advertising sexual services offered for sale. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes failure to stop after an accident and failure to stop or remain (expired 2011-04-28). Return to note 5 referrer Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, excluding traffic offences. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Excludes victims where the sex was reported as unknown. Victims refer to those aged 89 and younger. Victims aged 90 and older are excluded due to possible instances of miscoding of unknown age within this age category. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Trend Database.

Table 2 end

Table 3 start

Table 3
Police-reported crime for selected offences, census metropolitan area of Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, 2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Police-reported crime for selected offences. The information is grouped by Type of offence (appearing as row headers), Victoria, British Columbia and Canada, calculated using number and rate units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Type of offence	Victoria		British Columbia		Canada
Type of offence	number	rate	number	rate	number	rate
Total non-violent crime	20,139	5,090	351,728	7,046	1,845,269	4,979
Total property crime	15,135	3,825	238,141	4,771	1,237,324	3,339
Breaking and entering	1,165	294	26,161	524	159,812	431
Possess stolen property^{Table 3 Note 1}	135	34	3,484	70	23,898	64
Theft of motor vehicle	455	115	12,570	252	86,132	232
Theft over $5,000 (non-motor vehicle)	192	49	4,580	92	20,113	54
Theft of $5,000 or under (non-motor vehicle)	8,517	2,153	120,967	2,423	531,312	1,434
Fraud	1,409	356	20,160	404	129,409	349
Identity theft	21	5	465	9	3,745	10
Identity fraud	205	52	3,203	64	15,839	43
Mischief^{Table 3 Note 2}	2,954	747	45,199	905	259,064	699
Arson	82	21	1,352	27	8,000	22
Total other offences	3,058	773	73,147	1,465	372,834	1,006
Weapons violations	177	45	3,198	64	16,610	45
Child pornography^{Table 3 Note 3}	98	25	1,755	35	5,843	16
Prostitution^{Table 3 Note 4}	0	0	26	0.5	110	0.3
Terrorism	0	0	6	0.1	102	0.3
Disturb the peace	831	210	41,848	838	94,378	255
Administration of justice offences	1,538	389	19,504	391	226,864	612
Other offences	414	105	6,810	136	28,927	78
*Total Criminal Code* traffic offences**	1,037	262	16,234	325	125,544	339
Total alcohol-impaired driving^{Table 3 Note 5}	847	214	11,281	226	65,820	178
Total drug-impaired driving^{Table 3 Note 6}	62	16	666	13	4,429	12
Alcohol and drug-impaired driving^{Table 3 Note 7}	3	0.8	55	1	250	0.7
Impaired driving (not specified)^{Table 3 Note 7}	3	0.8	10	0.2	94	0.3
Other Criminal Code traffic offences	122	31	4,222	85	54,951	148
Total drug offences	654	165	18,247	366	83,483	225
Total other federal statute offences	255	64	5,959	119	26,084	70
Human trafficking^{Table 3 Note 8}	0	0	1	0^sNote: value rounded to 0 (zero) where there is a meaningful distinction between true zero and the value that was rounded. A “0” represents a true zero value.	112	0.3
Youth Criminal Justice Act	41	10	689	14	4,823	13
Other federal statute offences	214	54	5,269	106	21,149	57
0^s value rounded to 0 (zero) where there is a meaningful distinction between true zero and the value that was rounded. A “0” represents a true zero value. Note 1 Includes trafficking and the intent to traffic stolen goods. Return to note 1 referrer Note 2 Includes altering, removing or destroying a vehicle identification number. Return to note 2 referrer Note 3 Includes offences under section 163.1 of the Criminal Code which makes it illegal to access, possess, make, print or distribute child pornography. When the victim is not identified, this offence is reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey with the most serious offence being “child pornography” which falls under the larger crime category of “other Criminal Code offences.” In cases where a victim is identified, police will report the most serious offence as sexual assault, sexual exploitation or other sexual violations against children, which fall under the category of “violent crime” and child pornography may be reported as a secondary violation. Due to the complexity of these cyber incidents, the 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. Return to note 3 referrer Note 4 Includes prostitution offences that are considered non-violent offences. These include: communicating to provide sexual services for consideration and stopping or impeding traffic for the purpose of offering, providing or obtaining sexual services for consideration. Excludes commodification of sexual activity offences. Return to note 4 referrer Note 5 Includes alcohol-impaired operation of a vehicle, alcohol-impaired operation of a vehicle causing death or bodily harm, failure or refusal to comply with testing for the presence of alcohol and failure or refusal to provide a breath or blood sample. In some jurisdictions, impaired driving incidents that meet the elements of the Criminal Code may be handled using a provincial statute. Collection of these incidents is not within the scope of the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Return to note 5 referrer Note 6 Includes drug-impaired operation of a vehicle, drug-impaired operation of a vehicle causing death or bodily harm, failure or refusal to comply with testing for the presence of drugs and failure or refusal to provide a breath or blood sample. In some jurisdictions, impaired driving incidents that meet the elements of the Criminal Code may be handled using a provincial statute. Collection of these incidents is not within the scope of the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Return to note 6 referrer Note 7 Reflects new impaired driving offences as per Bill C-46, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (offences relating to conveyances) and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, which came into effect part way through 2018. Return to note 7 referrer Note 8 Includes human trafficking offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Return to note 8 referrer Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, excluding traffic offences. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Aggregate Database.

Table 3 end

Table 4 start

Table 4
Police-reported crime rate, census metropolitan area of Victoria, 2008 to 2018
Table summary
This table displays the results of Police-reported crime rate. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Violent crime, Property crime and Total crime, calculated using number, rate and percent change in rate from previous year units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Year	Violent crime			Property crime			Total crime
Year	number	rate	percent change in rate from previous year	number	rate	percent change in rate from previous year	number	rate	percent change in rate from previous year
2008	4,863	1,412	1	20,689	6,007	-9	28,995	8,418	-7
2009	5,060	1,452	3	19,341	5,550	-8	28,158	8,081	-4
2010	5,311	1,510	4	17,436	4,958	-11	27,198	7,734	-4
2011	4,477	1,270	-16	15,072	4,275	-14	23,158	6,569	-15
2012	4,085	1,138	-10	14,865	4,141	-3	21,738	6,055	-8
2013	3,748	1,026	-10	12,708	3,479	-16	19,260	5,273	-13
2014	3,947	1,065	4	13,036	3,517	1	20,000	5,396	2
2015	4,409	1,171	10	14,215	3,777	7	22,079	5,866	9
2016	4,302	1,118	-5	13,642	3,544	-6	21,179	5,502	-6
2017	4,516	1,156	3	13,470	3,447	-3	20,946	5,361	-3
2018	4,828	1,220	6	15,135	3,825	11	23,021	5,819	9
Percent change from 2008 to 2018	-0.7	-14	Note ...: not applicable	-27	-36	Note ...: not applicable	-21	-31	Note ...: not applicable
... not applicable Note: Crime rates are based on Criminal Code incidents, excluding traffic offences. Counts are based on the most serious violation in the incident. One incident may involve multiple offences. Rates are calculated on the basis of 100,000 population. Populations are based on July 1 estimates from Statistics Canada, Centre for Demography. Percent changes are based on unrounded rates. For a list of offences included in violent crime see Table 2 and for a list of offences included in property crime see Table 3. Total crime includes violent, property and other types of crimes. Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, Aggregate Database.

Table 4 end

^E use with caution

Note: This fact sheet contains data that come from multiple sources across multiple reference years. Some figures may be presented differently than in other Statistics Canada publications due to rounding. For detailed information on data definitions and sources, please refer to the Safe Cities profile series: Definitions and data sources document.

Date modified:: 2020-05-15

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Safe Cities profile series: Key indicators by census metropolitan area
Victoria, British Columbia

Satisfaction with safety

Police-reported violent crime rate in 2018

Ten-year change in police-reported crime rate (2008 to 2018)

Population and demographics

Education, employment and income

Housing and families

Community safety and sense of belonging

Self-reported experiences of victimization

Police-reported crime

Property crime

Violent crime

Hate crime

Intimate partner violence

Homicide

Charts and tables

Safe Cities profile series: Key indicators by census metropolitan area Victoria, British Columbia

Satisfaction with safety

Police-reported violent crime rate in 2018

Ten-year change in police-reported crime rate (2008 to 2018)

Population and demographics

Education, employment and income

Housing and families

Community safety and sense of belonging

Self-reported experiences of victimization

Police-reported crime

Property crime

Violent crime

Hate crime

Intimate partner violence

Homicide

Charts and tables

Note of appreciation

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Safe Cities profile series: Key indicators by census metropolitan area
Victoria, British Columbia