Photo: Vxceprex · CC BY-SA 3.0Recorded crime in Grand Forks is close to typical for Canadian towns
Weighted by seriousness, its crime scores 67.5 on the index for 2023–2025, beside 68.5 for the typical Canadian town its size. Its letter overall is B− (#74 of 251 in British Columbia): close to the middle of Canadian towns, from crime its police reported through 2023 to 2025. The local count comes to 11.3 violent incidents and 22.3 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people each year, with 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. Crime severity, crime rate and incident counts: the Boundary/Grand Forks detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Grand Forks
Easing since 2023
From 79.8 in 2023 to 61.3 in 2025: that is Grand Forks’s index, against 74.3 and 64.2 for the typical Canadian town its size. Year by year ↓
In the middle of towns its size
Line up the 40 Canadian towns nearest in size by their index and Grand Forks stands 24th, the lowest first. Towns its size ↓
Near the British Columbia middle
Within British Columbia, the median town comes to 83.2 on the index, against 67.5 in Grand Forks. Towns its size ↓
Mischief: high for a town its size
Grand Forks records 7.8 incidents of mischief per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.9 in the typical town among Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. By type ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
What sits behind Grand Forks’s B−
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: #74 of 251 in British Columbia and #1,304 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.
Grand Forks’s index fell 23% from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
Its index has not been as high since 2023 (79.8); the low point came in 2025, at 61.3. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town its size, runs from 74.3 in 2023 to 64.2 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Grand Forks | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 61.3 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 61.3 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 79.8 | 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 Grand Forks, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Grand Forks’s crime by kind
Against the typical town its size, Grand Forks runs highest on mischief (7.8 per 1,000 against 4.9). Motor vehicle theft and theft under $5,000 sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.04 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 4.7 | 0.5 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 2 | 0.2 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 1 | 0.1 | — |
| Robbery | 0.3 | 0.04 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.3 | 0.04 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 14.7 | 1.5 | 16% |
| Possession of stolen property | 5 | 0.5 | 40% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 13 | 1.4 | 33% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 3.3 | 0.4 | — |
| Theft under $5,000 | 61.7 | 6.5 | 16% |
| Mischief | 74 | 7.8 | 15% |
| Weapons violations | 2.3 | 0.2 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 19.3 | 2 | 57% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 11.7 | 1.2 | 51% |
| Drug violations | 4.3 | 0.5 | — |
| Impaired driving | 43.7 | 4.6 | 84% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 0 | 0 | — |
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.
Grand Forks comes 24th of the 40 towns nearest in size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beresford New Brunswick | 4,389 | 25 | 35.4 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 3 | Electoral Area E, Central Kootenay British Columbia | 4,309 | 35.8 | 32 | A |
| 4 | Electoral Area F, Central Kootenay British Columbia | 4,209 | 35.8 | 32 | A |
| … | |||||
| 16 | Electoral Area E, Cariboo British Columbia | 4,242 | 51.7 | 55.1 | B+ |
| … | |||||
| 18 | Lantzville British Columbia | 4,276 | 58.9 | 58.4 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 21 | Rossland British Columbia | 4,355 | 63.8 | 58.3 | B− |
| 22 | Richmond County, Subdivision A Nova Scotia | 4,305 | 65.2 | 90.1 | B− |
| 23 | Golden British Columbia | 4,433 | 65.5 | 44.5 | B− |
| 24 | Grand Forks British Columbia | 4,308 | 67.5 | 73.9 | B− |
| 25 | Crabtree Quebec | 4,237 | 68.5 | 107.8 | B− |
| 26 | Invermere British Columbia | 4,305 | 71.6 | 60.2 | C+ |
| 27 | Electoral Area E, Sunshine Coast British Columbia | 4,279 | 76.6 | 94 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 40 | High Level Alberta | 4,390 | 324 | 498.7 | 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 Grand Forks in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
9,540 residents, about 110 violent incidents a year: the police area Grand Forks belongs to, 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 210 property crimes, plus 160 other violations, a year (2023–2025 average). Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot, one incident a year at the area’s rates.
Crime in the places around Grand Forks
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks | 4,308 | 67.5 | 73.9 | B− |
| Electoral Area D (Rural Grand Forks), Kootenay Boundary | 3,570 | 67.5 | 73.9 | B− |
| Electoral Area C (Christina Lake), Kootenay Boundary | 1,666 | 67.5 | 73.9 | B− |
Its police also cover 2 neighbouring places, which carry the same index and are left out above.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Reading the number. Figures are relative to one fixed point, Canada in 2006 at 100, rather than to this year’s national number.
- Solved cases. A cleared case is one police consider solved. Whether anyone is convicted is a separate matter the rate doesn’t follow.
- How serious, not how safe. Police-reported incidents, each multiplied by a weight drawn from court sentences, summed and divided by the population: that is the index, and its makers attach a caution, “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- Town and surroundings together. The detachment counts crime across its whole territory, of which Grand Forks is one part.
Questions about safety in Grand Forks
Is Grand Forks safe?
The short answer is an index of 67.5 for Grand Forks (2023–2025), built from 11.3 violent incidents and 22.3 property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents. Set that beside 68.5, the median for Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is the most common crime in Grand Forks?
The three biggest groups are other Criminal Code offences at 8.1, mischief at 7.8 and theft under $5,000 at 6.5, each per 1,000 residents a year.
Is crime going up in Grand Forks?
Over 2023–2025 the index dropped 23%, to 61.3 from 79.8.
How much of Grand Forks’s crime do police solve?
33%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town its size manages 34%. Violent crime is cleared at 62% and non-violent crime at 20%.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for Grand Forks and everywhere else it polices.
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).