Photo: P199 · Public domainHastings Highlands has less crime per resident than three in five Canadian towns
Of the two halves, violence comes to 59.6 and other offences to 53.9, beside norms of 85.7 and 62.8. The Safety Grade comes out at B, drawn from crime the police covering Hastings Highlands reported through 2023 to 2025: #371 of 862 in Ontario. On top of that, in a usual year, 12.5 violent incidents and 15.9 incidents of property crime are logged per 1,000 inhabitants; in the typical town its size, 12.9 and 31.2.
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. Crime severity, crime rate and incident counts: the Bancroft detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Hastings Highlands
Visitors count, residents divide
Seasonal homes make up about 43% of Hastings Highlands’s housing, so summer crime is set against winter’s population and the rates read high. How to read it ↓
Police clear more here
Police cleared 54% of Hastings Highlands’s crime, weighted by seriousness (82% of violent crime, 41% of the rest), against 34% across Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. Questions ↓
Lower than many towns its size
Counting up from the lowest index, Hastings Highlands is 14th of the 40 Canadian towns closest in population. Towns its size ↓
Near the Ontario middle
Set among Ontario’s towns, whose median is 56.2, Hastings Highlands scores 55.2. 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 Hastings Highlands’s B
How sure: Not as firm as most grades. Its figures come from the nearest detachment, 17 km off, which covers its own area rather than Hastings Highlands.
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: #371 of 862 in Ontario and #726 of 2,572 Canadian towns.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
Hastings Highlands’s crime by kind
Against the typical town its size, Hastings Highlands runs highest on drug offences (1.8 per 1,000 against 0.7). Motor vehicle theft 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 | 3 | 0.3 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 0.7 | 0.06 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 1 | 0.09 | — |
| Robbery | 0 | 0 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 3 | 0.3 | — |
| Other violent violations | 2.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 27.7 | 2.5 | 26% |
| Possession of stolen property | 4.3 | 0.4 | — |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 15.7 | 1.4 | 38% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 6.3 | 0.6 | 5% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 33 | 2.9 | 13% |
| Mischief | 33 | 2.9 | 22% |
| Weapons violations | 11.3 | 1 | 68% |
| Administration of justice violations | 52.3 | 4.7 | 85% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 5.7 | 0.5 | 40% |
| Drug violations | 19.7 | 1.8 | 85% |
| Impaired driving | 35.3 | 3.2 | 100% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 4.3 | 0.4 | — |
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 to 10,000 people.
Hastings Highlands is 14th of 40 towns its size, lowest index first
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Northern Bruce Peninsula Ontario | 5,018 | 29.3 | 46.7 | A+ |
| 2 | Amaranth Ontario | 4,808 | 29.9 | 22.1 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 11 | Morin-Heights Quebec | 5,086 | 53.5 | 71.6 | B |
| 12 | Saint-Jacques Quebec | 4,830 | 54 | 93.4 | B |
| 13 | Warwick Quebec | 4,939 | 55 | 86.5 | B |
| 14 | Hastings Highlands Ontario | 4,957 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
| 15 | Saint-Donat Quebec | 5,087 | 57.5 | 87.6 | B |
| 16 | Altona Manitoba | 4,989 | 59.1 | 44 | B− |
| 17 | Electoral Area C, North Okanagan British Columbia | 5,029 | 61.3 | 74.1 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 25 | Hearst Ontario | 5,032 | 74.2 | 97.9 | C+ |
| … | |||||
| 37 | Tyendinaga Ontario | 5,005 | 131.9 | 280.3 | D |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Nipawin Saskatchewan | 5,033 | 182.3 | 163.9 | 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 Hastings Highlands in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
The detachment closest to Hastings Highlands, 11,400 residents, recorded about 140 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.
And about 180 property crimes, plus 160 other violations, a year (2023–2025 average). Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot, one incident a year at the area’s rates.
Hastings Highlands’s index held steady from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
The middle year, 2024, was the heaviest at 62.8; 2025 was lightest, at 51.3. In the same years the typical Canadian town its size read 74.3 (2023), then 64.2 (2025).
Every year as a table
| Year | Hastings Highlands | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 51.3 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 62.8 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 51.5 | 74.3 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering Hastings Highlands, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Crime in the places around Hastings Highlands
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hastings Highlands | 4,957 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
| Bancroft | 4,331 | 121.5 | 153.2 | D |
| Carlow/Mayo | 1,048 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
| Faraday | 1,820 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
2 nearby places have no figure apart from this one: they share a police service.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What 100 means. Figures are relative to one fixed point, Canada in 2006 at 100, rather than to this year’s national number.
- The clearance rate. Cleared means solved by police, charged or not; it says nothing about what courts decide.
- Severity, weighed. One robbery outweighs a run of minor thefts here, since every crime counts by the sentences courts give it. Statistics Canada adds: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
Questions about safety in Hastings Highlands
Is Hastings Highlands safe?
A Crime Severity Index of 55.2 (2023–2025), set beside a median of 68.5 for Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people: that is where Hastings Highlands stands, with 12.5 violent and 15.9 property incidents per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in Hastings Highlands?
Top of the list is other Criminal Code offences (6.6 per 1,000 residents a year); assault, at 6, and Criminal Code traffic offences, at 5.2, follow.
Is crime going up in Hastings Highlands?
Hardly at all, from 51.5 in 2023 to 51.3 in 2025.
How much of Hastings Highlands’s crime do police solve?
54%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town its size manages 34%. Violent crime is cleared at 82% and non-violent crime at 41%.
Whose figures are these?
A police service or detachment that covers Hastings Highlands and other places, so the figures are shared.
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).