Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY-SA 3.0Crime per resident in St. Mary's runs lower than in 65% of Canadian towns
The index fell from 57.5 in 2023 to 49.8 in 2025. Add to that, it grades B+ for safety on crime the police covering St. Mary's reported from 2023 to 2025. Against usual levels of 86.4 and 62.8, violent and non-violent offences here reach 57 and 51.7. The local count comes to 14.0 violent incidents and 23.7 incidents of property crime per 1,000 people each year, 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. Area behind the crime severity, crime rate and incident counts figures: the Guysborough County detachment area.
What stands out about safety in St. Mary's
Crime per resident, visitors uncounted
Seasonal homes make up about 32% of St. Mary's’s housing, so summer crime is set against winter’s population and the rates read high. How to read it ↓
Below Nova Scotia’s typical town
Within Nova Scotia, the median town comes to 71.4 on the index, against 52.9 in St. Mary's. Towns its size ↓
A low clearance rate
For Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more the typical clearance rate is 34%; St. Mary's’s police clear 21%, 38% of violent crime and 14% of the rest. Questions ↓
Mischief: high for a town its size
St. Mary's records 11 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 ↓
Written from Statistics Canada’s police-reported crime by police service and detachment, 2023–2025. Figures are what police recorded, not convictions.
St. Mary's: B+ for safety, and why
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 St. Mary's, by type
Against the typical town its size, St. Mary's runs highest on mischief (11 per 1,000 against 4.2). Theft under $5,000 sits below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 2 | 0.3 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 0 | 0 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0 | 0 | — |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0 | 0 | — |
| Other violent violations | 2.7 | 0.4 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 18.7 | 2.7 | 9% |
| Possession of stolen property | 1 | 0.1 | — |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 6.3 | 0.9 | 21% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 3 | 0.4 | — |
| Theft under $5,000 | 19.3 | 2.8 | 5% |
| Mischief | 76.7 | 11 | 8% |
| Weapons violations | 1 | 0.1 | — |
| Administration of justice violations | 11.3 | 1.6 | 73% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 6.3 | 0.9 | 21% |
| Drug violations | 5 | 0.7 | 14% |
| Impaired driving | 25 | 3.6 | 35% |
| 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 people or more.
St. Mary's, year by year
Crime Severity Index
The first year, 2023, was the heaviest at 57.5, and 2025 the lightest at 49.8. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, runs from 70.6 in 2023 to 62.9 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | St. Mary's | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 49.8 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 51.4 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 57.5 | 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 St. Mary's, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
The police area St. Mary's is part of, 6,930 residents, recorded about 98 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.
Add about 170 property crimes and 79 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 St. Mary's
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Mary's | 2,212 | 52.9 | 57 | B+ |
| Guysborough (45 km) | 4,721 | 52.9 | 57 | B+ |
| Antigonish County, Subdivision B (54 km) | 6,486 | 66.6 | 81.7 | B− |
| Antigonish (56 km) | 5,175 | 115.4 | 123.5 | C− |
| Antigonish County, Subdivision A (57 km) | 9,682 | 66.6 | 81.7 | B− |
| Port Hawkesbury (69 km) | 3,442 | 68.4 | 80 | B− |
The places around St. Mary's all score higher on the index. One nearby place has no figure apart from this one: they share a police service.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. Distances here run 45–69 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from St. Mary's.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What clearance means. Police clear an incident by charging someone, recommending a charge, or closing it another way. The rate weighs serious crimes more, as the index does.
- An index, not a verdict. 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.”
- Shared with the countryside. An RCMP or OPP detachment reports one set of figures for everywhere it polices, so St. Mary's’s are shared with its surroundings.
- The index’s scale. Canada’s own index has been below its 2006 base of 100 for years, so 100 marks a fixed reference, not today’s national average.
Questions about safety in St. Mary's
Is St. Mary's safe?
A Crime Severity Index of 52.9 (2023–2025), set beside a median of 67.2 for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more: that is where St. Mary's stands, with 14 violent and 23.7 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in St. Mary's?
Top of the list is mischief (11 per 1,000 residents a year); assault, at 5.9, and fraud, at 5.4, follow.
Is crime going up in St. Mary's?
Down 13%: 57.5 in 2023, 49.8 in 2025.
How much of St. Mary's’s crime do police solve?
Counting serious crimes for more, 21% end in a charge or are otherwise solved (34% for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+); split up, that is 38% of violent and 14% of non-violent crime.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving St. Mary's 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).