Photo: GoToVan from Vancouver, Canada · CC BY 2.0Recorded crime per resident is higher in Osoyoos than in 78% of Canadian towns
Its two neighbours with figures both record more crime per resident. On the record of crime the police covering Osoyoos reported from 2023 to 2025, it takes C− for safety: #198 of 251 in British Columbia. Statistics Canada puts its Crime Severity Index at 97.9 for 2023–2025; the typical Canadian town its size scores 68.5. Police clear 17% of crime, weighted by seriousness; the figure for the typical Canadian town its size is 34%.
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.
What stands out about safety in Osoyoos
Visitors count, residents divide
Tourists, seasonal staff and day visitors fill Osoyoos, but Statistics Canada counts its rates per usual resident: every figure here is stretched by people who don’t live in it. How to read it ↓
Mischief: high for a town its size
Osoyoos records 11.2 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 ↓
The non-violent half stands out
Osoyoos scores 68.6 for violence and 110.5 for other crime; the typical Canadian town its size scores 85.7 and 62.8. By type ↓
A higher index than most towns its size
Of the 40 Canadian towns nearest it in size, Osoyoos places 33rd from the lowest index. Towns its size ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
Osoyoos: C− for safety, and why
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: #198 of 251 in British Columbia and #1,926 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.
Crime in Osoyoos, type by type
Against the typical town its size, Osoyoos runs highest on mischief (11.2 per 1,000 against 4.9), fraud (9.2 per 1,000 against 4.9) and drug offences (1.2 per 1,000 against 0.7). Theft under $5,000 and assault sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 4.7 | 0.8 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 0.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.3 | 0.06 | — |
| Robbery | 0.3 | 0.06 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.3 | 0.06 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1 | 0.2 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 18 | 3.1 | 7% |
| Possession of stolen property | 4 | 0.7 | — |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 24 | 4.2 | 8% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 6.3 | 1.1 | 5% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 68.3 | 11.9 | 17% |
| Mischief | 64 | 11.2 | 18% |
| Weapons violations | 3.7 | 0.6 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 11 | 1.9 | 79% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 9 | 1.6 | 30% |
| Drug violations | 7 | 1.2 | 47% |
| Impaired driving | 23 | 4 | 61% |
| 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.
By its index, Osoyoos stands 33rd of 40 towns its size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Ferris Ontario | 5,835 | 17.7 | 27.2 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 15 | Spallumcheen British Columbia | 5,843 | 51.3 | 59.9 | B+ |
| … | |||||
| 23 | Electoral Area A, Bulkley-Nechako British Columbia | 5,829 | 65 | 107 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 28 | Armstrong British Columbia | 5,643 | 73.6 | 83.6 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 30 | Electoral Area B, Peace River British Columbia | 5,814 | 81.8 | 82.5 | C |
| 31 | Espanola Ontario | 5,504 | 90.6 | 123.8 | C |
| 32 | Annapolis County, Subdivision C Nova Scotia | 5,694 | 96 | 107.6 | C− |
| 33 | Osoyoos British Columbia | 5,724 | 97.9 | 68.6 | C− |
| 34 | Seguin Ontario | 5,761 | 106.9 | 196.4 | C− |
| 35 | Creston British Columbia | 5,976 | 111.2 | 103.1 | C− |
| 36 | Cochrane Ontario | 5,948 | 145.5 | 191 | D |
| 37 | Smithers British Columbia | 5,627 | 202.3 | 180.8 | D |
| … | |||||
| 40 | The Pas Manitoba | 5,634 | 572.1 | 753.3 | 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 Osoyoos in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
Year by year in Osoyoos: down 16%, 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
The first year, 2023, was the heaviest at 112.3, and 2024 the lightest at 86.7. 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 | Osoyoos | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 94.8 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 86.7 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 112.3 | 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 Osoyoos, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Osoyoos’s police: about 80 violent incidents a year over 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.
Add about 240 property crimes and 150 other violations a year (2023–2025 average). The grid is 1,000 residents, a coloured dot for each incident a year at these rates.
Crime in the places around Osoyoos
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Osoyoos | 5,724 | 97.9 | 68.6 | C− |
| Electoral Area A, Okanagan-Similkameen | 2,429 | 118.4 | 60.9 | C− |
| Osoyoos 1 | 1,484 | — | — | — |
| Oliver | 5,262 | 132.5 | 95.2 | D |
Each neighbour with its own figure comes in over Osoyoos.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Severity, weighed. One robbery outweighs a run of minor thefts here, since every crime counts by the sentences courts give it. Statistics Canada adds: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- What 100 means. The index is scaled so that Canada as a whole scored 100 in its base year, 2006: a town at 50 has half that severity per resident.
- The clearance rate. Cleared means solved by police, charged or not; it says nothing about what courts decide.
Questions about safety in Osoyoos
Is Osoyoos safe?
With 13.9 violent incidents and 41.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, Osoyoos comes to 97.9 on the Crime Severity Index (2023–2025); Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people have a median of 68.5.
What is the most common crime in Osoyoos?
Most often it is other Criminal Code offences: 19.2 per 1,000 residents a year. Next come theft under $5,000 at 11.9 and mischief at 11.2.
Is crime going up in Osoyoos?
Down 16%: 112.3 in 2023, 94.8 in 2025.
How much of Osoyoos’s crime do police solve?
The weighted clearance rate is 17%: 30% for violent crime and 14% for non-violent. For the typical Canadian town its size it is 34%.
Whose figures are these?
Its own police: the service or contract that covers Osoyoos and nowhere else.
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).