Rentola, an online platform catering to both tenants and landlords, has just unveiled its latest research findings spotlighting the safest cities in Canada.
The report conducted a comprehensive evaluation of Canadian cities, assessing their safety based on the effectiveness of law enforcement and the prevalence of crime. This assessment resulted in the assignment of a safety score to each city. The research drew upon data from Statistics Canada and took into consideration the following key factors:
- The number of citizens per police officers.
- The Violent Crime Index, which emphasizes serious crimes such as homicides, assaults, and robberies.
- The Non-Violent Crime Index, focusing on offenses like embezzlement, insider trading, and fraud.
- The Crime Solving Rate, calculated by determining the percentage of solved cases among total reported crimes.
- The Crime Severity Index, which gauges the gravity and frequency of crimes within a city.
Subsequently, the study aimed to amalgamate these findings into a unified safety score. This scoring system employed a scale ranging from 1 to 10, with 1 representing the lowest level of safety and 10 signifying the highest attainable safety score.
Here are the top ten safest cities in Canada, along with their corresponding safety scores:
1. Barrie, Ontario: 7.13
2. Brantford, Ontario: 7.00
3. Guelph, Ontario: 6.84
4. Toronto, Ontario: 6.63
5. Saint John, New Brunswick: 6.63
6. Belleville, Ontario: 6.43
7. Windsor, Ontario: 6.42
8. St. Catharines-Niagara, Ontario: 6.40
9. Lethbridge, Alberta: 6.37
10. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Ontario: 6.29
This comprehensive analysis confirms that Ontario continues to excel in safety, as it claims 50% of the coveted spots among the top 20 safest cities in Canada, solidifying its reputation as a secure haven for residents and property owners alike
A standout observation in this list is Toronto's ranking as the fourth-safest city in Canada. Toronto, being the largest city in Canada with a population of 2.7 million within the city limits and a broader population of 6.2 million when considering the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), as analyzed in the Rentola study, is notably secure.
From a provincial perspective, among the 34 cities covered in this report, 14 were located in Ontario, six in Quebec, four in British Columbia, and three in Alberta.
Surprisingly, the study's Crime Severity Index (CSI) findings revealed that Ontario and Quebec exhibited significantly lower crime severity compared to other Canadian provinces, an unexpected discovery considering that these two provinces are the most densely populated in the nation.
It's worth noting that while many Canadian cities demonstrate high safety scores and low crime rates, there is an inherent expectation of some level of crime, whether of a serious or non-serious nature. Nevertheless, Canadian cities consistently maintain their status as some of the safest in the world.
Is this information useful for making decisions about where to live?
Although the Rentola report doesn't claim to encompass all safety considerations or cover every Canadian city (due to data limitations leading to some cities being excluded), it does offer valuable insights into crime rates and law enforcement across various cities.
This information can be beneficial for readers seeking to gauge the safety of a particular city. Additionally, Statistics Canada has released data that can aid newcomers in making more informed decisions about where to reside while staying connected to a major city.
