Moncton, St. John’s urban areas have the highest violent crime rates in Canada: study

New data shows a surge in violent crime in Maritime cities.

Violent crime has increased in nearly all major cities across Canada over the past decade, according to a new study.

The data was released by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, an Ottawa-based think tank, in its expanded Urban Violent Crime Report.

The new data comes from 20 urban areas that cover more than 65 per cent of the country’s population.

The data covers the following six categories:

• violent crime
• violent crime severity
• homicide
• aggravated assault
• sexual assault
• robbery

The report says the geography of violent crime has shifted, and smaller and mid-sized urban areas are now matching, or even surpassing, larger urban centers in terms of violent-crime growth.

It adds it is surprised the urban areas of Moncton, N.B., and St. John’s, Newfoundland, have the highest violent crime rates of any it examined.

“And this is not a single year blip; these Atlantic Canadian CMAs (census metropolitan areas) have generally had the highest rates throughout the last decade. Overall, the story of the police-reported violent crime rate in Canadian CMAs is one of consistent, sustained growth, albeit with a slight levelling off in the last year,” it reads.

Dave Snow, co-author of the report said Moncton has the fifth highest violent crime severity rate.

“Clearly violent crime has risen over the last 10 years,” Snow said when looking at all the cities crime rates.

Atlantic Canadian CMAs, as well as the Prairies, have the highest aggravated assault rates.

The study found that the rate sexual assault has “substantially increased” over the last decade, more than doubling in London and Montreal and nearly doubling in Moncton and Gatineau.

Halifax was the only other Atlantic Canadian city included in the study. It says while the city saw increases in all of the six categories over the last decade, the rolling average decreased between 2023 and 2024 in terms of violent crime severity, homicide and sexual assault.