Photo: KenWalker · CC BY-SA 4.0Recorded crime per resident is lower in Fairwinds than in 78% of Canadian towns
Violence accounts for an index of 43.2 and other offences for 45.4, against usual levels of 85.7 and 62.8. A Safety Grade of A− follows from crime the police covering Fairwinds reported over the years 2023 to 2025: #23 of 251 in British Columbia. Each of the 4 towns on its borders with figures records more crime per resident. Annual rates stand at 9.8 violent incidents and 21.0 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 12.9 and 31.2 in the typical town its size.
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. Data for crime severity, crime rate and incident counts covers the Oceanside detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Fairwinds
Lower than most of British Columbia
Set among British Columbia’s towns, whose median is 83.2, Fairwinds scores 44.5. Towns its size ↓
Lower than many towns its size
Counting up from the lowest index, Fairwinds is 11th of the 40 Canadian towns closest in population. Towns its size ↓
Heavier on property and other crime
Set beside the typical Canadian town its size, Fairwinds’s two halves part ways: 43.2 for violence (typical 85.7) and 45.4 for the rest (typical 62.8). By type ↓
A low clearance rate
Police cleared 25% of Fairwinds’s crime, weighted by seriousness (45% of violent crime, 18% of the rest), against 34% across Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. Questions ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
The A− for Fairwinds, and how it is built
How sure: Less sure than most: the grade leans on the closest detachment, 10 km from Fairwinds, since none reports under the town’s name.
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: #23 of 251 in British Columbia and #394 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Fairwinds’s crime by kind
Against the typical town its size, Fairwinds runs highest on mischief (6.1 per 1,000 against 4.9). Break and enter and theft under $5,000 sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.01 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 4.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 3.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 1 | 0.03 | — |
| Robbery | 1.7 | 0.06 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.7 | 0.02 | — |
| Other violent violations | 3.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 44.7 | 1.5 | 23% |
| Possession of stolen property | 21.3 | 0.7 | 17% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 43.7 | 1.5 | 13% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 20.7 | 0.7 | 5% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 163.7 | 5.5 | 7% |
| Mischief | 182.3 | 6.1 | 14% |
| Weapons violations | 8.7 | 0.3 | 54% |
| Administration of justice violations | 41.7 | 1.4 | 56% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 25.3 | 0.9 | 30% |
| Drug violations | 10 | 0.3 | 33% |
| Impaired driving | 83 | 2.8 | 55% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 0.7 | 0.02 | — |
Statistics Canada’s violation groups for the whole police service or detachment, incidents a year its own. 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 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Fairwinds comes 11th of the 40 towns nearest in size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trent Lakes Ontario | 7,357 | 20.6 | 24.8 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 8 | Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Ontario | 7,052 | 35 | 39.3 | A |
| 9 | Niverville Manitoba | 7,277 | 36.3 | 55.5 | A |
| 10 | Les Cèdres Quebec | 7,145 | 39.2 | 61.7 | A |
| 11 | Fairwinds British Columbia | 7,125 | 44.5 | 43.2 | A− |
| 12 | Saint-Honoré Quebec | 6,984 | 48.7 | 80 | B+ |
| 13 | Wainfleet Ontario | 7,329 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
| 14 | Electoral Area C, East Kootenay British Columbia | 7,006 | 56.2 | 70.5 | B |
| … | |||||
| 18 | Kent British Columbia | 7,093 | 65.5 | 97.8 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 22 | Fernie British Columbia | 7,086 | 69.5 | 65.2 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 36 | Hope British Columbia | 7,183 | 208.1 | 173 | D |
| … | |||||
| 38 | Merritt British Columbia | 7,190 | 270.6 | 338.1 | D |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Algoma, Unorganized, North Part Ontario | 7,008 | 302.3 | 509 | D− |
The 40 Canadian towns of 2,500+ people closest in population; city neighbourhoods, city totals and reserves are left out. Towns on one police service or detachment share its index.
The Canadian towns closest to Fairwinds in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
Around 290 violent incidents a year at the detachment nearest Fairwinds (29,800 residents), 2023–2025
Violent incidents per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Property crimes per 1,000 a year, 2023–2025
Statistics Canada counts actual incidents; those police record as unfounded are listed apart and kept out of its crime rates and severity index. Each incident is filed under its most serious violation, which the survey sets partly by the maximum penalty.
And about 620 property crimes, plus 290 other violations, a year (2023–2025 average). Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot, one incident a year at the area’s rates.
Fairwinds’s index held steady from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
Nothing since 2023 has matched that year’s 48; the lightest was 2024, at 39.8. Over 2023–2025, the typical Canadian town its size moved from 74.3 to 64.2.
Every year as a table
| Year | Fairwinds | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 45.7 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 39.8 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 48 | 74.3 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Fairwinds, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Crime in the places around Fairwinds
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fairwinds | 7,125 | 44.5 | 43.2 | A− |
| Lantzville | 4,276 | 58.9 | 58.4 | B− |
| Parksville | 15,371 | 107.4 | 88.3 | C− |
| Electoral Area G, Nanaimo | 8,412 | 44.5 | 43.2 | A− |
| Electoral Area C, Nanaimo | 3,733 | 58.9 | 58.4 | B− |
| Nanaimo | 111,845 | 121.6 | 127.7 | D |
Every neighbour with a figure of its own has a higher index than Fairwinds. The comparison skips one neighbour reported under the same police.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 100 is Canada in 2006. Figures are relative to one fixed point, Canada in 2006 at 100, rather than to this year’s national number.
- Cleared, not convicted. A cleared case is one police consider solved. Whether anyone is convicted is a separate matter the rate doesn’t follow.
- 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.”
Questions about safety in Fairwinds
Is Fairwinds safe?
Fairwinds’s Crime Severity Index is 44.5 (2023–2025 mean); its police record 9.8 violent incidents and 21 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year. For Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, the typical index is 68.5.
What is the most common crime in Fairwinds?
Most often it is mischief: 6.1 per 1,000 residents a year. Next come other Criminal Code offences at 5.6 and theft under $5,000 at 5.5.
Is crime going up in Fairwinds?
The index stayed close to where it was, 48 in 2023 and 45.7 in 2025.
How much of Fairwinds’s crime do police solve?
About 25% of crime is cleared, weighted by seriousness, with 45% of violent and 18% of other crime; the figure for the typical Canadian town its size is 34%.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Fairwinds together with its neighbours or the countryside around it.
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).