Canada's crime severity index drops 5 percent in 2025, lowest in over a decade

Canada's crime severity index dropped 5 percent in 2025 to a value of 75.01, marking the second consecutive annual decline following an upward trend that began in 2015.

The decline was driven largely by a sharp drop in homicides. Police reported 672 homicides in 2025, 125 fewer than the year prior — a 16 percent decrease and the largest annual decline since 1986. Among victims, 175 women and girls were killed, 67 fewer than in 2024, while the number of men and boys decreased by 53.

Break-and-entering, which Statistics Canada identifies as the most severe property crime based on its weight in the Crime Severity Index, had the largest impact on the overall decline. The police-reported rate for breaking and entering dropped 11 percent to 264 incidents per 100,000 people, falling in all provinces and territories. This rate also dropped 41 percent compared to 2015.

However, not all crime categories improved. Shoplifting increased for the fifth straight year, with 208,941 incidents reported in 2025 — a rate of 502 incidents per 100,000 people, up 11 percent since 2024.

The conventional crime rate, which measures the volume of police-reported crimes relative to population but does not account for severity, declined 2 percent to 5,585 incidents per 100,000 population in 2025. The steeper decline in the Crime Severity Index compared to the conventional crime rate suggests the overall severity of crime declined more than the volume of crime.

The Crime Severity Index, standardized to 100 in 2006, stood at 75.01 in 2025 — 37 percent lower than the peak of 118.84 in 1998 and 25 percent lower than the 2006 baseline.