Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Oxford has more crime per resident than three in four Canadian towns
Against usual levels of 86.4 and 62.8, violent and non-violent offences here reach 86.7 and 96.5. The index fell from 99.8 in 2023 to 86.2 in 2025. Scored on crime the police covering Oxford reported across 2023 to 2025, the town lands on C− for safety. Year on year, 18.6 violent incidents and 35.2 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 12.0 and 31.2 in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
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. Measured across the Cumberland County detachment area: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts.
What stands out about safety in Oxford
Mischief: high for a town its size
Oxford records 12.4 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 ↓
Above Nova Scotia’s typical town
Oxford’s index of 93.1 compares with 71.4 for the typical town in Nova Scotia. Towns its size ↓
Heavier on property and other crime
Oxford’s index splits into violent crime, 86.7 here and 86.4 for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, and everything else, 96.5 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 Oxford’s grade
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.
What police record in Oxford, by type
Against the typical town its size, Oxford runs highest on mischief (12.4 per 1,000 against 4.2), break and enter (6.2 per 1,000 against 2.5) and assault (8 per 1,000 against 6.7). 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 | 6.3 | 0.3 | 48% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 7 | 0.3 | 100% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 2.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Robbery | 0.3 | 0.02 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 2.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Other violent violations | 7 | 0.3 | 39% |
| Breaking and entering | 138.3 | 6.2 | 13% |
| Possession of stolen property | 15 | 0.7 | 53% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 77.7 | 3.5 | 10% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 16.3 | 0.7 | 4% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 146 | 6.5 | 16% |
| Mischief | 276.7 | 12.4 | 11% |
| Weapons violations | 12.7 | 0.6 | 69% |
| Administration of justice violations | 136 | 6.1 | 58% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 36.3 | 1.6 | 29% |
| Drug violations | 30 | 1.3 | 24% |
| Impaired driving | 80.7 | 3.6 | 47% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 1 | 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.
Oxford, year by year
Crime Severity Index
Nothing since 2023 has matched that year’s 99.8; the lightest was 2025, at 86.2. For the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, 2023 gave 70.6 and 2025 gave 62.9.
Every year as a table
| Year | Oxford | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 86.2 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 93.3 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 99.8 | 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 Oxford, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
About 420 violent incidents a year across the police area of 22,400 residents that includes Oxford, 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 790 property crimes and 470 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 Oxford
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford | 1,261 | 93.1 | 86.7 | C− |
| Cumberland County, Subdivision C (20 km) | 6,040 | 93.1 | 86.7 | C− |
| Cumberland County, Subdivision D (21 km) | 4,692 | 93.1 | 86.7 | C− |
| Springhill (22 km) | 7,015 | 93.1 | 86.7 | C− |
| Amherst (28 km) | 10,072 | 149.6 | 131.2 | D |
Sharing its police with 3 neighbours, it shares their figure as well, so they aren’t compared.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. Oxford has few close neighbours with figures, so the list reaches 20–28 km out.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What the index measures. The Crime Severity Index adds up police-reported crime, each kind weighted by the sentences courts give it, so one robbery counts for more than many thefts. In Statistics Canada’s words, “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
- A detachment’s area. Detachment figures cover the detachment’s whole area: Oxford together with the countryside and smaller places it polices.
- 100 is Canada in 2006. A reading of 100 is the whole country in 2006. Half of that, 50, means half the severity per resident.
- Cleared, not convicted. 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 Oxford
Is Oxford safe?
The short answer is an index of 93.1 for Oxford (2023–2025), built from 18.6 violent incidents and 35.2 property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents. The typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more is 67.2.
What is the most common crime in Oxford?
Police record other Criminal Code offences most, 13.1 per 1,000 residents a year, ahead of mischief (12.4) and assault (8).
Is crime going up in Oxford?
Over 2023–2025 the index dropped 14%, to 86.2 from 99.8.
How much of Oxford’s crime do police solve?
27%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ manages 34%. Violent crime is cleared at 56% and non-violent crime at 17%.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for Oxford 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).