Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Crime in Hillsborough sits close to the middle of Canadian towns
Statistics Canada puts its Crime Severity Index at 58.4 for 2023–2025; the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ scores 67.2. Its 3 neighbours with figures all record more crime per resident. Overall, Hillsborough grades B for safety: close to the middle of Canadian towns, on crime its police reported from 2023 to 2025. In a usual year, 10.8 violent incidents and 19.2 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, 12.0 and 31.2.
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. Source area for crime severity, crime rate and incident counts: the Sackville detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Hillsborough
Less severe than in 2023
Hillsborough’s index went from 84.1 in 2023 to 64.2 in 2025; the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ moved from 70.6 to 62.9. Year by year ↓
Much like New Brunswick’s towns
Set among New Brunswick’s towns, whose median is 72.8, Hillsborough scores 58.4. 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.
The B for Hillsborough, and how it is built
How sure: Less sure than most. No detachment reports for Hillsborough itself, so the grade rests on the nearest one’s figures, 22 km away.
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.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
Hillsborough’s crime by kind
Assault and theft under $5,000 sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.03 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 1.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 3.3 | 0.3 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 1.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Robbery | 1.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.3 | 0.03 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1 | 0.09 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 22.7 | 2 | 6% |
| Possession of stolen property | 17 | 1.5 | 28% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 26.3 | 2.4 | 4% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 2.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Theft under $5,000 | 51 | 4.6 | 18% |
| Mischief | 53 | 4.7 | 4% |
| Weapons violations | 3.7 | 0.3 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 19 | 1.7 | 59% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 10 | 0.9 | 7% |
| Drug violations | 10 | 0.9 | 23% |
| Impaired driving | 22.3 | 2 | 48% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 1.3 | 0.1 | — |
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 people or more.
Hillsborough’s index fell 24% from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
2023 opened the run as its heaviest year (84.1); 2024 was the lightest, at 26.9. Set beside it, the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ went from 70.6 in 2023 to 62.9 in 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Hillsborough | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64.2 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 26.9 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 84.1 | 70.6 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Hillsborough, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
Around 120 violent incidents a year at the detachment nearest Hillsborough (11,300 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.
Add about 210 property crimes and 110 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 Hillsborough
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillsborough | 1,414 | 58.4 | 80 | B |
| Hillsborough | 1,569 | 58.4 | 80 | B |
| Memramcook | 5,616 | 58.4 | 80 | B |
| Dorchester | 1,130 | 58.4 | 80 | B |
| Coverdale | 5,167 | 72.8 | 74.8 | C+ |
| Riverview | 22,614 | 113.1 | 113.3 | C− |
| Dieppe | 35,986 | 113.1 | 113.3 | C− |
The places around Hillsborough all score higher on the index. Neighbours policed by the same service carry the same figure, so the 3 of them aren’t set against it.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What clearance means. A crime is cleared when police lay or recommend a charge, or solve it another way; the weighted rate counts serious crimes for more.
- An index, not a verdict. Each incident counts by its seriousness, judged from court sentences, and the total is set per resident. As Statistics Canada puts it, “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- The index’s scale. Figures are relative to one fixed point, Canada in 2006 at 100, rather than to this year’s national number.
Questions about safety in Hillsborough
Is Hillsborough safe?
On Statistics Canada’s figures, Hillsborough scores 58.4 on the Crime Severity Index for 2023–2025, with 10.8 violent and 19.2 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year. In the middle of Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more the figure is 67.2.
What is the most common crime in Hillsborough?
Most often it is mischief: 4.7 per 1,000 residents a year. Next come theft under $5,000 at 4.6 and other Criminal Code offences at 4.5.
Is crime going up in Hillsborough?
No: the index fell 24%, from 84.1 in 2023 to 64.2 in 2025.
How much of Hillsborough’s crime do police solve?
28%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ manages 34%. Violent crime is cleared at 51% and non-violent crime at 15%.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for Hillsborough 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).