Photo: Leonora Enking · CC BY-SA 2.0Recorded crime per resident is lower in Kingston than in 88% of Canadian towns
2 of the 5 towns next door with figures record less crime per resident. The grade is A, built on crime the police covering Kingston reported from 2023 to 2025: #8 of 59 in New Brunswick. Police counts work out at 7.8 violent incidents and 15.3 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the typical town its size they are 12.9 and 31.2. Violence accounts for an index of 35.6 and other offences for 38.9, against usual levels of 85.7 and 62.8.
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. The crime severity, crime rate and incident counts numbers here cover the Hampton detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Kingston
Under the New Brunswick norm
Within New Brunswick, the median town comes to 72.8 on the index, against 37.7 in Kingston. Towns its size ↓
A lower index than most towns its size
Line up the 40 Canadian towns nearest in size by their index and Kingston stands 6th, the lowest first. Towns its size ↓
Less crime solved
For Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people the typical clearance rate is 34%; Kingston’s police clear 22%, 49% of violent crime and 12% of the rest. Questions ↓
Heavier on property and other crime
Kingston’s index splits into violent crime, 35.6 here and 85.7 for the typical Canadian town its size, and everything else, 38.9 against 62.8. 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’s behind Kingston’s grade
How sure: Less sure than most. No detachment reports for Kingston itself, so the grade rests on the nearest one’s figures, 14 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.
Its place: #8 of 59 in New Brunswick and #249 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.
What police record in Kingston, by type
Assault and theft under $5,000 sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 1.3 | 0.08 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 2 | 0.1 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.7 | 0.04 | — |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 1.3 | 0.08 | — |
| Other violent violations | 2 | 0.1 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 25 | 1.5 | 8% |
| Possession of stolen property | 6 | 0.4 | 38% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 14 | 0.9 | 5% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 2.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Theft under $5,000 | 44 | 2.7 | 15% |
| Mischief | 84.3 | 5.1 | 7% |
| Weapons violations | 4 | 0.2 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 42.7 | 2.6 | 55% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 14.3 | 0.9 | 21% |
| Drug violations | 4 | 0.2 | — |
| Impaired driving | 35.7 | 2.2 | 48% |
| 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.
Kingston comes 6th of the 40 towns nearest in size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Powassan Ontario | 3,657 | 15 | 22.5 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 3 | Shuniah Ontario | 3,458 | 29.8 | 60 | A+ |
| 4 | Wellington New Brunswick | 3,458 | 34.5 | 31.3 | A |
| 5 | Saint-Isidore Quebec | 3,550 | 37.7 | 68.7 | A |
| 6 | Kingston New Brunswick | 3,577 | 37.7 | 35.6 | A |
| 7 | Saint-Sulpice Quebec | 3,688 | 39.2 | 59 | A |
| 8 | Ste. Anne Manitoba | 3,587 | 40.3 | 16.9 | A− |
| 9 | Saint-Pascal Quebec | 3,516 | 42.5 | 72 | A− |
| … | |||||
| 28 | Bright New Brunswick | 3,648 | 81.7 | 78.9 | C |
| … | |||||
| 30 | Studholm New Brunswick | 3,668 | 86 | 92.8 | C |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Opportunity No. 17 Alberta | 3,592 | 495.1 | 602.4 | 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 Kingston in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
The detachment closest to Kingston, 16,000 residents, recorded about 130 violent incidents a year, 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 250 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.
Year by year in Kingston: steady, 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
Its highest year was 2023, at 44.2, and its lowest 2024, at 24.9. 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 | Kingston | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 44.1 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 24.9 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 44.2 | 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 Kingston, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Crime in the places around Kingston
Of 5 places nearby with their own figures, 2 come in under Kingston. Closest is Quispamsis, 8.2 km away, at 20 to 37.7 here. The table leaves out one neighbour whose figure is this one, reported by the same police.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- An index, not a verdict. 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.”
- The index’s scale. A reading of 100 is the whole country in 2006. Half of that, 50, means half the severity per resident.
- What clearance means. The clearance rate is the share of incidents police solve, by a charge or otherwise, weighted by seriousness like the index. It isn’t a conviction rate.
Questions about safety in Kingston
Is Kingston safe?
Police-reported crime in Kingston scores 37.7 on Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index (2023–2025 mean), with 7.8 violent incidents and 15.3 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year. In the middle of Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people the figure is 68.5.
What is the most common crime in Kingston?
Top of the list is other Criminal Code offences (5.2 per 1,000 residents a year); mischief, at 5.1, and Criminal Code traffic offences, at 4.4, follow.
Is crime going up in Kingston?
Not much: the index went from 44.2 in 2023 to 44.1 in 2025.
How much of Kingston’s crime do police solve?
The weighted clearance rate is 22%: 49% for violent crime and 12% for non-violent. For the typical Canadian town its size it is 34%.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Kingston 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).