Photo: Ken Eckert · CC BY-SA 4.0Bay Bulls has more crime per resident than 74% of Canadian towns
On Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index, the 2023–2025 average is 90.3, where the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ sits at 67.2. Per 1,000 residents a year, 13.4 violent incidents and 33.1 incidents of property crime were recorded, against 12.0 and 31.2 in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+. What’s more, a Safety Grade of C follows from crime the police covering Bay Bulls reported over the years 2023 to 2025. Police clear 25% of crime, weighted by seriousness; the figure for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ 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. Shared with the rest of the Holyrood detachment area: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts.
What stands out about safety in Bay Bulls
Mischief: high for a town its size
Bay Bulls records 14.7 incidents of mischief per 1,000 residents a year, against 4.2 in the typical town among Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more. By type ↓
The non-violent half stands out
Set beside the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, Bay Bulls’s two halves part ways: 68.4 for violence (typical 86.4) and 99.9 for the rest (typical 62.8). By type ↓
Easing since 2023
Between 2023 and 2025, Bay Bulls moved from 95.1 to 79.3, while the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ went from 70.6 to 62.9. Year by year ↓
Near the Newfoundland and Labrador middle
Set among Newfoundland and Labrador’s towns, whose median is 81, Bay Bulls scores 90.3. 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.
What’s behind Bay Bulls’s grade
How sure: Less sure, as Bay Bulls has no detachment of its own in Statistics Canada’s tables and is graded on the closest one’s figures, 26 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.
Bay Bulls’s crime by kind
Against the typical town its size, Bay Bulls runs highest on drug offences (3.6 per 1,000 against 0.7), mischief (14.7 per 1,000 against 4.2) and break and enter (4.7 per 1,000 against 2.5). Fraud 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 | 0.2 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 2.7 | 0.4 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.7 | 0.09 | — |
| Robbery | 0.7 | 0.09 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.7 | 0.09 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1.3 | 0.2 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 34.3 | 4.7 | 23% |
| Possession of stolen property | 3.7 | 0.5 | — |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 17.7 | 2.4 | 19% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 2 | 0.3 | — |
| Theft under $5,000 | 47.7 | 6.5 | 4% |
| Mischief | 108.7 | 14.7 | 5% |
| Weapons violations | 7 | 0.9 | 29% |
| Administration of justice violations | 43.7 | 5.9 | 51% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 18.3 | 2.5 | 31% |
| Drug violations | 26.7 | 3.6 | 29% |
| Impaired driving | 52.3 | 7.1 | 42% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 0.3 | 0.05 | — |
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.
Year by year in Bay Bulls: down 17%, 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
2024 was the peak (96.6) and 2025 the trough (79.3). Over 2023–2025, the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ moved from 70.6 to 62.9.
Every year as a table
| Year | Bay Bulls | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 79.3 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 96.6 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 95.1 | 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 Bay Bulls, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
About 99 violent incidents a year in the area of the detachment nearest Bay Bulls (7,410 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 240 property crimes and 210 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 Bay Bulls
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Bulls | 1,699 | 90.3 | 68.4 | C |
| Witless Bay | 1,833 | 90.3 | 68.4 | C |
| Division No. 1, Subdivision U | 1,522 | 67.4 | 42.5 | B− |
| Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove | 1,005 | 90.3 | 68.4 | C |
The table leaves out 2 neighbours 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
- Severity, weighed. 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.”
- What 100 means. Statistics Canada set the national index at 100 for 2006; every figure here is read against that.
- The clearance rate. A cleared case is one police consider solved. Whether anyone is convicted is a separate matter the rate doesn’t follow.
Questions about safety in Bay Bulls
Is Bay Bulls safe?
On Statistics Canada’s figures, Bay Bulls scores 90.3 on the Crime Severity Index for 2023–2025, with 13.4 violent and 33.1 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year. Set that beside 67.2, the median for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
What is the most common crime in Bay Bulls?
Mischief is the most common, at 14.7 per 1,000 residents a year, then other Criminal Code offences (12.7) and Criminal Code traffic offences (11.1).
Is crime going up in Bay Bulls?
Down 17%: 95.1 in 2023, 79.3 in 2025.
How much of Bay Bulls’s crime do police solve?
About 25% of crime is cleared, weighted by seriousness, with 40% of violent and 21% of other crime; the figure for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ is 34%.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Bay Bulls 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).