Rentola, an online platform for renters and landlords, released a report on the safest cities in Canada. According to the study, 8 out of the top 10 safest cities in Canada are located in the province of Ontario. The research also revealed that out of the top 20 safest cities in Canada, 10 are in Ontario.
The report ranked Canadian cities based on the effectiveness of law enforcement and the crime rate within each city, assigning a safety score to each. The study relied on data from Statistics Canada and took into account factors such as:
- The number of citizens per police officer.
- The violent crime index (focusing on serious crimes such as homicide, assault, robbery, etc.).
- The non-violent crime index (focusing on crimes like embezzlement, insider trading, fraud, etc.).
- Crime resolution rate (calculated by taking the percentage of cases solved as a proportion of total reported crimes).
- The severity index of crimes (obtained by researching the seriousness and frequency of crimes in the city).
Subsequently, the study consolidated all these results into a single safety score. The scoring system ranged from 1 to 10, with 1 being the least safe and 10 being the highest level of safety possible.
Here are the top ten safest cities in Canada, along with their corresponding safety scores:
- Barrie, Ontario: 7.13
- Brantford, Ontario: 7.00
- Guelph, Ontario: 6.84
- Toronto, Ontario: 6.63
- Saint John, New Brunswick: 6.63
- Belleville, Ontario: 6.43
- Windsor, Ontario: 6.42
- St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario: 6.40
- Lethbridge, Alberta: 6.37
- Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ontario: 6.29
From a provincial perspective, out of the 34 cities included in this report, 14 are located in Ontario, 6 in Quebec, 4 in British Columbia, and 3 in Alberta. According to the results of the Crime Severity Index (CSI) on the website, Ontario and Quebec have significantly lower crime rates compared to other provinces in Canada. This is a surprising finding considering that these are the two most populous provinces in the country. Equally surprising is the report’s revelation that the Northwest Territories have the highest rate of serious crime in the nation. The report also notes that while many Canadian cities have high safety scores and low crime rates, there is always some level of expected crime, whether serious or not. Despite this, Canadian cities continue to be ranked among the safest places in the world.
