Photo: Northwest · CC BY-SA 4.0Edmonds is about average among Canadian towns for recorded crime
The index fell from 74.2 in 2023 to 68.7 in 2025. Edmonds grades C+ for safety overall (#83 of 251 in British Columbia): close to the middle of Canadian towns, on crime its police reported from 2023 to 2025. What’s more, each year brought 10.9 violent incidents and 35.9 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (10.8 and 25.1 in the typical Canadian town of 50,000+). A Crime Severity Index of 70.5, the 2023–2025 mean, compares with 60.3 for the typical Canadian town of 50,000+.
Statistics Canada, police-reported crime, 2023–2025 means. The index weighs each crime by its seriousness; rates are incidents per 1,000 residents a year. Not measured by town: crime severity and crime rate (the Burnaby service area).
What stands out about safety in Edmonds
A low clearance rate
Weighted by seriousness, 15% of crime in Edmonds ends in a charge or is otherwise solved: 27% of violent crime and 11% of the rest. Across Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more the figure is 38%. Questions ↓
The non-violent half stands out
Violent crime scores 64.6 on Edmonds’s index against 75.2 for the typical Canadian town of 50,000+; non-violent crime, 73.4 against 54.2. By type ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
The C+ for Edmonds, and how it is built
How sure: Not as firm as most grades, since the figure covers the entire city rather than Edmonds alone.
The grade weighs the Crime Severity Index and its violent half, averaged over 2023–2025, against every Canadian town and city neighbourhood of 1,000 people or more.
Its place: #83 of 251 in British Columbia and #1,398 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more.
What Burnaby’s police record, by type
These are Burnaby’s figures, for its police’s whole area: they aren’t published by neighbourhood.
Against the typical town its size, Burnaby runs highest on theft under $5,000 (21.3 per 1,000 against 11.5), break and enter (2.8 per 1,000 against 2.2) and mischief (4.7 per 1,000 against 3.8). Sexual assault and motor vehicle theft sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 2.3 | 0.01 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 70.7 | 0.2 | 24% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 33.3 | 0.1 | 99% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 12 | 0.04 | 39% |
| Robbery | 121.7 | 0.4 | 24% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 15 | 0.05 | 73% |
| Other violent violations | 31.3 | 0.1 | 22% |
| Breaking and entering | 805 | 2.8 | 12% |
| Possession of stolen property | 49.3 | 0.2 | 33% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 291.7 | 1 | 3% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 275.3 | 0.9 | 7% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 6,244.7 | 21.3 | 10% |
| Mischief | 1,370.7 | 4.7 | 9% |
| Weapons violations | 146.3 | 0.5 | 40% |
| Administration of justice violations | 323 | 1.1 | 87% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 183.7 | 0.6 | 28% |
| Drug violations | 209.7 | 0.7 | 46% |
| Impaired driving | 267.7 | 0.9 | 77% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 214.3 | 0.7 | 12% |
Statistics Canada’s violation groups for the whole police service or detachment: incidents a year are its own, the town’s share is only estimated in the tiles. Cleared: incidents solved by a charge or otherwise, as a share of those reported.
Incidents per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025 means, against the typical figure for Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more.
Edmonds, year by year
Crime Severity Index
Nothing since 2023 has matched that year’s 74.2; the lightest was 2024, at 68.5. The typical Canadian town of 50,000+ went from 64.3 in 2023 to 59.2 in 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Edmonds | Typical town of 50,000+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 68.7 | 59.2 |
| 2024 | 68.5 | 59.9 |
| 2023 | 74.2 | 64.3 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Edmonds, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 50,000+.
Crime in the places around Edmonds
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edmonds | 34,805 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
| Buckingham Heights | 8,794 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
| Royal Oak | 18,364 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
| East Burnaby | 17,233 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
| New Westminster | 92,124 | 87.9 | 94.6 | C |
| South Slope | 8,989 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
| Metrotown | 36,594 | 70.5 | 64.6 | C+ |
5 neighbours report through the same police, so their figure is this one and they aren’t compared.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What the index measures. Statistics Canada builds the index from every crime police record, weighted by how seriously the courts treat it, and divides by the population. It adds a warning of its own: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- One figure for the city. Its city publishes no open neighbourhood crime figures, so every figure for Edmonds is the city police’s, for the whole city.
- 100 is Canada in 2006. Its scale starts from Canada in 2006, set at 100, so a figure above 100 means more serious crime per resident than the country had then.
- Cleared, not convicted. Police clear an incident by charging someone, recommending a charge, or closing it another way. The rate weighs serious crimes more, as the index does.
Questions about safety in Edmonds
Is Edmonds safe?
The short answer is an index of 70.5 for Edmonds (2023–2025), built from 10.9 violent incidents and 35.9 property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents. The middle of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more is 60.3.
What is the most common crime in Edmonds?
Top of the list is theft under $5,000 (21.3 per 1,000 residents a year); other Criminal Code offences, at 10.9, and assault, at 5.2, follow.
Is crime going up in Edmonds?
No: the index fell 7%, from 74.2 in 2023 to 68.7 in 2025.
How much of Edmonds’s crime do police solve?
Police solve 27% of violent crime and 11% of everything else, 15% overall once each crime is weighted by seriousness, against 38% for the typical Canadian town of 50,000+.
Whose figures are these?
The city force’s, one set of figures for the city.
Source: Statistics Canada, police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025 (Statistics Canada Open Licence); TownRatings calculation.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, police services (tables 35-10-0186 to 0190, 0061, 0063, 0064), 2023–2025 · Statistics Canada, Incident-based crime statistics by detailed violations, police services (35-10-0178 to 0185) · Safety Grade: TownRatings calculation. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).