Photo: Laslovarga · CC BY-SA 3.0For crime severity, Hamilton is much like the typical Canadian town its size
None of the 6 towns next door with figures records less crime per resident. Hamilton’s Crime Severity Index dropped from 68.2 in 2023 to 62.2 by 2025. Annual rates stand at 11.7 violent incidents and 31.2 incidents of property crime for every thousand residents, next to 10.8 and 25.1 in the typical town its size. Against usual levels of 75.2 and 54.2, violent and non-violent offences here reach 85.7 and 58.2.
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 Hamilton
Motor vehicle theft: high for a town its size
Hamilton records 3.1 incidents of motor vehicle theft per 1,000 residents a year, against 1.7 in the typical town among Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more. By type ↓
Near the Ontario middle
The typical Ontario town scores 56.2; Hamilton, 65.7. 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 Hamilton’s grade will weigh
Letters come later for Canada; for now the page sets out the figures as Statistics Canada published them.
Crime Severity Index
Violent crime index
Non-violent crime index
Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more, 2023–2025 means. City neighbourhoods count, each with its city’s figure; city totals and reserves don’t.
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 Hamilton’s figures
Against the typical town its size, Hamilton runs highest on motor vehicle theft (3.1 per 1,000 against 1.7), robbery (0.6 per 1,000 against 0.4) and drug offences (1.3 per 1,000 against 0.9).
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 10 | 0.02 | 83% |
| Sexual violations against children | 95 | 0.2 | 55% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 122.3 | 0.2 | 95% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 77.3 | 0.1 | 45% |
| Robbery | 380.7 | 0.6 | 36% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 37 | 0.06 | 83% |
| Other violent violations | 117.7 | 0.2 | 50% |
| Breaking and entering | 1,695 | 2.7 | 22% |
| Possession of stolen property | 237.3 | 0.4 | 88% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 1,925.7 | 3.1 | 6% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 283.3 | 0.5 | 9% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 9,419.7 | 15 | 7% |
| Mischief | 2,898.7 | 4.6 | 14% |
| Weapons violations | 192 | 0.3 | 76% |
| Administration of justice violations | 2,806.3 | 4.5 | 93% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 216.7 | 0.3 | 46% |
| Drug violations | 821.7 | 1.3 | 73% |
| Impaired driving | 397 | 0.6 | 97% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 11.3 | 0.02 | 71% |
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 50,000 people or more.
Hamilton, year by year
Crime Severity Index
Nothing since 2023 has matched that year’s 68.2; the lightest was 2025, at 62.2. Over 2023–2025, the typical Canadian town its size moved from 64.3 to 59.2.
Every year as a table
| Year | Hamilton | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 62.2 | 59.2 |
| 2024 | 66.7 | 59.9 |
| 2023 | 68.2 | 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 Hamilton, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Around 7,380 violent incidents a year on Hamilton’s police records (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 19,700 property crimes and 4,810 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 Hamilton
Every neighbour with a figure of its own has a higher index than Hamilton.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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. Weighted like the index, so solving one assault counts for more than solving a mischief; a charge laid, recommended or otherwise resolved all count.
- What the index measures. Each incident counts by its seriousness, judged from court sentences, and the total is set per resident. As Statistics Canada puts it, “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
Questions about safety in Hamilton
Is Hamilton safe?
The short answer is an index of 65.7 for Hamilton (2023–2025), built from 11.7 violent incidents and 31.2 property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents. In the middle of Canadian towns of 50,000 people or more the figure is 60.3.
What is the most common crime in Hamilton?
Most often it is theft under $5,000: 15 per 1,000 residents a year. Next come assault at 6.7 and other Criminal Code offences at 5.2.
Is crime going up in Hamilton?
The reverse: 68.2 in 2023 came down to 62.2 by 2025, 9% lower.
How much of Hamilton’s crime do police solve?
Police solve 50% of violent crime and 24% of everything else, 34% overall once each crime is weighted by seriousness, against 38% for the typical Canadian town its size.
Whose figures are these?
A police service or contract that serves Hamilton alone, so the figures are the town’s.
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). 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).