Canada's Most Dangerous Cities Have Been Ranked & They're Not Where You'd Expect
Toronto is nowhere near the top of the list! 👀
Lethbridge, Alberta. Right: Red Deer, Alberta.
While Canada is generally considered to be a safe country, that doesn't mean there aren't high levels of crime in some areas. What's more, Canada's most dangerous cities aren't necessarily where you'd expect them to be.
According to the global statistics database Numbeo, as many as seven Canadian cities are within the world's top 100 most dangerous places.
The ranking considers each spot's "Crime Index," which is an estimation of the overall level of crime within the last 36 months..
Places that score lower than 20 are perceived to have a very low crime rate, while those that score between 20 and 40 are considered to have low levels of crime.
The cities with a score between 40 and 60 are deemed to have a moderate crime rate.
On the top end of the scale, crime rates between 60 and 80 are considered high, while those places that score 80 or above are considered to have significant levels of criminality.
Each city is also given a "Safety Index," which gives an indication of how dangerous it is both for tourists and for those who live there.
Canada's most dangerous cities
Taking the top spot in Canada is Surrey, B.C., which scored over 63 out of 100 on the Crime Index and just 36.66 out of 100 on the safety scale.
According to Numbeo's data, which is based on the perception of users of the site, Surrey has "very high" levels of drug usage and "high" levels of car break-ins and violent crimes.
Also listed within the top five most dangerous places in Canada are Lethbridge (Alberta), Kelowna (B.C.), Red Deer (Alberta) and Sudbury (Ontario). All of these spots score 60 or higher on the Crime Index and less than 40 when it comes to safety.
In sixth place is Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) and the last of the Canadian cities to be ranked among Numbeo's 100 most dangerous spots is Winnipeg (Manitoba), which is 7th in Canada and 87th overall.
The report says Winnipeg has high levels of crimes like vandalism, drug-taking and assault, although car and home thefts are apparently less common.
Most dangerous cities in the world
Globally, it's Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, that's considered to be the most dangerous city.
This is followed by Pretoria, Durban, and Johannesburg, respectively, which are all located in South Africa.
These spots score incredibly low — 19 or less — when it comes to safety and are considered to have significantly high crime rates too.
Canada's most dangerous places to live
In 2020, Maclean's published its own report that ranked Canada's most dangerous cities based on levels of violent crime.
It was Thompson (Manitoba) that took the top spot on that ranking, followed by North Battleford (Saskatchewan), Portage la Prairie (Manitoba), Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) and Quesnel (B.C.).
There were some similarities between that and the Numbeo data though, with cities like Hamilton (Ontario), Brampton (Ontario), Kamloops (B.C.), Regina (Saskatchewan) and Nanaimo (B.C.) featuring on both lists.
While big cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are included in the full lists, in both instances they score relatively well when it comes to safety.
Canada's most dangerous places in 2022
According to the most recent federal data on crime statistics across Canada, Kelowna fares the worst when it comes to crime rates this year.
CTV reports that the B.C. city has a Crime Severity Index rating of 11,112 per 100,000 residents, which is the worst reported by Statistics Canada in 2022.
Like Numbeo's report, Lethbridge is also listed as one of the most dangerous spots in Canada based on crime statistics.
Overall though, it's clear that no one spot is universally considered to be Canada's most dangerous place.
What's most important is that you feel safe wherever you live — regardless of how it's ranked in these reports!
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
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