When it comes to violent crime, rural Ontario was more dangerous than urban Ontario in 2017.
Data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, which takes information from police departments across the country, show that in 2017, rural Ontario’s violent crime rate was about 18 per cent higher than the urban crime rate. The total number of violent crimes was higher in urban areas because of higher population density but on a per capita basis, violent crime is higher in rural areas.
Overall crime rates were also remarkably similar in urban and rural areas. So much for the clean-living countryside. Rural Ontario’s overall crime rate was about three per cent lower than the urban rate.
It mirrors a trend across the country. Nationally, the rural violent crime rate is almost 50 per cent higher than the urban violent crime rate. The national trend, however, appears to be driven by three areas: The Northwest Territories, where the rural violent crime rate is triple the urban one; the Prairies, where the violent rural crime rate is one-third higher to 50 per cent as high; and Quebec, which has a rural violent crime rate about 30 per cent higher than the urban rate.
