Photo: Tabercil · CC BY 3.0Per resident, Durham records less crime than 66% of Canadian towns
Recorded violent incidents ran at 8.0 per 1,000 residents a year and property crime at 19.9, against 12.0 and 30.5 in the typical town its size. Between 2023 and 2025 the severity figure rose, 49.2 to 54.1. Counting crime the police covering Durham reported from 2023 to 2025, it grades B+ for safety: #295 of 862 in Ontario. Its violent half comes to 63.2 and its non-violent half to 47.8, where the norm is 89.4 and 56.
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.
What stands out about safety in Durham
In the middle of towns its size
Set among the 40 Canadian towns closest to it in population, Durham comes 18th, counting from the lowest Crime Severity Index. Towns its size ↓
A high clearance rate
The weighted clearance rate, the share of crime police solve, is 45% for Durham (75% violent, 29% non-violent), beside 33% for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Questions ↓
Close to Ontario’s typical town
The typical Ontario town scores 56.2; Durham, 51.9. 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 sits behind Durham’s B+
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: #295 of 862 in Ontario and #570 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Crime in Durham, type by type
Against the typical town its size, Durham runs highest on break and enter (2.7 per 1,000 against 2.2). Theft under $5,000 and assault sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.02 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 6 | 0.4 | 88% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 5.3 | 0.4 | 100% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.7 | 0.05 | — |
| Robbery | 1.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 0.7 | 0.05 | — |
| Other violent violations | 1.7 | 0.1 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 38.7 | 2.7 | 17% |
| Possession of stolen property | 12.3 | 0.9 | 92% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 25.7 | 1.8 | 18% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 13 | 0.9 | 8% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 99 | 7 | 13% |
| Mischief | 44.7 | 3.1 | 11% |
| Weapons violations | 5 | 0.4 | 46% |
| Administration of justice violations | 54 | 3.8 | 76% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 8.3 | 0.6 | 69% |
| Drug violations | 7.3 | 0.5 | 96% |
| Impaired driving | 17.3 | 1.2 | 98% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 5.7 | 0.4 | 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 10,000 to 50,000 people.
Durham, year by year
Crime Severity Index
Its most recent year, 2025, was also its heaviest (54.1); the lightest was 2023 (49.2). In the same years the typical Canadian town its size read 69.5 (2023), then 60 (2025).
Every year as a table
| Year | Durham | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 54.1 | 60 |
| 2024 | 52.3 | 67.9 |
| 2023 | 49.2 | 69.5 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Durham, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
About 110 violent incidents a year reached Durham’s police, 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.
Property crime adds about 280 a year and other violations 130 (2023–2025 average). Of 1,000 dots, one per resident, the coloured ones are a year’s incidents at these rates.
Among 40 towns its size, Durham places 18th
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiny Ontario | 14,195 | 27.9 | 36.4 | A+ |
| 2 | Rockwood Ontario | 14,870 | 29 | 28.2 | A+ |
| 3 | Mount Forest Ontario | 14,407 | 29 | 28.2 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 5 | Central Elgin Ontario | 15,230 | 31.5 | 41.2 | A |
| … | |||||
| 15 | Bécancour Quebec | 14,943 | 46.5 | 64.3 | A− |
| 16 | Ingersoll Ontario | 14,911 | 47.7 | 60.5 | B+ |
| 17 | Rosemère Quebec | 14,198 | 47.9 | 61 | B+ |
| 18 | Durham Ontario | 14,355 | 51.9 | 63.2 | B+ |
| 19 | Sainte-Adèle Quebec | 15,216 | 53.5 | 71.6 | B |
| 20 | Limoges Ontario | 15,122 | 53.9 | 62.3 | B |
| 21 | Matane Quebec | 14,180 | 53.9 | 85.4 | B |
| … | |||||
| 40 | North Battleford Saskatchewan | 14,882 | 528.4 | 591.9 | 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 Durham in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
Crime in the places around Durham
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Durham | 14,355 | 51.9 | 63.2 | B+ |
| Hanover (15 km) | 8,723 | 91.9 | 108.3 | C |
| Chatsworth (24 km) | 7,770 | 32 | 38.1 | A |
| Walkerton (24 km) | 10,811 | 47.4 | 56.9 | B+ |
| Dundalk (27 km) | 11,599 | 40.6 | 49.1 | A− |
| Mildmay (29 km) | 6,247 | 33.7 | 38.7 | A |
4 of the 5 neighbours with their own figures score lower than Durham. Chatsworth, 24.1 km away, is the nearest lower one, at 32 to 51.9.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. No closer places have figures: these lie 15–29 km from Durham.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- How serious, not how safe. 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.”
- Reading the number. Figures are relative to one fixed point, Canada in 2006 at 100, rather than to this year’s national number.
- Solved cases. 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 Durham
Is Durham safe?
A Crime Severity Index of 51.9 (2023–2025), set beside a median of 66 for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people: that is where Durham stands, with 8 violent and 19.9 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in Durham?
Top of the list is theft under $5,000 (7 per 1,000 residents a year); other Criminal Code offences, at 6, and fraud, at 3.5, follow.
Is crime going up in Durham?
It went up 10% between 2023 and 2025, from 49.2 to 54.1.
How much of Durham’s crime do police solve?
Weighted by seriousness, police cleared 45% of crime (75% of violent crime, 29% of the rest). The typical Canadian town its size clears 33%.
Whose figures are these?
Its own police: the service or contract that covers Durham and nowhere else.
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).