Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0Sheet Harbour is about average among Canadian towns for recorded crime
Split in two, the index gives 94.3 for violence and 62.8 for everything else (normally 75.2 and 54.2). About 31% of crime here is cleared by police, set against 38% for the typical Canadian town of 50,000+. What’s more, its Safety Grade, C+ (#17 of 88 in Nova Scotia), rests on crime its police reported from 2023 to 2025: close to the middle of Canadian towns. In a usual year, 13.8 violent incidents and 37.3 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the typical Canadian town of 50,000+, 10.8 and 25.1.
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. Area behind the crime severity and crime rate figures: the Halifax Metropolitan Area service area.
What’s behind Sheet Harbour’s grade
How sure: Less sure, since one city-wide figure stands behind it, and Sheet Harbour can differ a long way from its city’s average.
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: #17 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,398 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more.
Which crimes make up Halifax Metropolitan Area’s figures
These are Halifax Metropolitan Area’s figures, for its police’s whole area: they aren’t published by neighbourhood.
Against the typical town its size, Halifax Metropolitan Area runs highest on theft under $5,000 (24 per 1,000 against 11.5), assault (6.7 per 1,000 against 4.9) and mischief (5.1 per 1,000 against 3.8). Break and enter sits below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 9.7 | 0.02 | 65% |
| Sexual violations against children | 124.7 | 0.2 | 34% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 232.7 | 0.5 | 94% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 44.7 | 0.09 | 51% |
| Robbery | 289.7 | 0.6 | 48% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 59 | 0.1 | 92% |
| Other violent violations | 151.3 | 0.3 | 48% |
| Breaking and entering | 920.7 | 1.8 | 20% |
| Possession of stolen property | 123 | 0.2 | 70% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 462.3 | 0.9 | 14% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 200.3 | 0.4 | 17% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 12,134 | 24 | 12% |
| Mischief | 2,574 | 5.1 | 12% |
| Weapons violations | 299.3 | 0.6 | 44% |
| Administration of justice violations | 2,638.3 | 5.2 | 81% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 437.3 | 0.9 | 43% |
| Drug violations | 335.7 | 0.7 | 37% |
| Impaired driving | 773.7 | 1.5 | 88% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 36 | 0.07 | 24% |
Statistics Canada’s violation groups for the whole police service or detachment: incidents a year are its own, the town’s share is only estimated in the tiles. 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 50,000 people or more.
In Sheet Harbour, steady between 2023 and 2025
Crime Severity Index
Its index peaked in 2024 at 73.5, between two lighter years; the lowest, 2025, came in at 68.7. The typical Canadian town of 50,000+ went from 64.3 in 2023 to 59.2 in 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Sheet Harbour | Typical town of 50,000+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 68.7 | 59.2 |
| 2024 | 73.5 | 59.9 |
| 2023 | 71.9 | 64.3 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Sheet Harbour, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 50,000+.
Crime in the places around Sheet Harbour
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheet Harbour | 3,334 | 71.4 | 94.3 | C+ |
| St. Mary's (53 km) | 2,212 | 52.9 | 57 | B+ |
| Pictou County, Subdivision B (66 km) | 6,482 | 83.9 | 99.7 | C |
| Colchester County, Subdivision C (67 km) | 14,211 | 72.9 | 100.8 | C+ |
| Stewiacke (68 km) | 1,786 | 72.9 | 100.8 | C+ |
| Stellarton (68 km) | 4,251 | 116.6 | 97.1 | C− |
1 of the 5 neighbours with their own figures score lower than Sheet Harbour. St. Mary's, 53.3 km away, is the nearest lower one, at 52.9 to 71.4.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. Distances here run 53–68 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Sheet Harbour.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Reading the number. Statistics Canada set the national index at 100 for 2006; every figure here is read against that.
- Solved cases. Cleared means solved by police, charged or not; it says nothing about what courts decide.
- How serious, not how safe. 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.”
- City-wide figures. No open data breaks the city’s crime down by neighbourhood, so Sheet Harbour carries the city-wide figures.
Questions about safety in Sheet Harbour
Is Sheet Harbour safe?
Averaged over 2023–2025, the Crime Severity Index for Sheet Harbour comes to 71.4. Per 1,000 residents a year, police logged 13.8 violent incidents and 37.3 property crimes. In the middle of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more the figure is 60.3.
What is the most common crime in Sheet Harbour?
Top of the list is theft under $5,000 (24 per 1,000 residents a year); other Criminal Code offences, at 8, and assault, at 6.7, follow.
Is crime going up in Sheet Harbour?
Hardly at all, from 71.9 in 2023 to 68.7 in 2025.
How much of Sheet Harbour’s crime do police solve?
Weighted by seriousness, police cleared 31% of crime (49% of violent crime, 20% of the rest). The typical Canadian town of 50,000+ clears 38%.
Whose figures are these?
The city force’s, one set of figures for the city.
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).