Photo: Jfvoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Perth East records less crime per resident than nine in ten Canadian towns
Its Safety Grade is A, on crime the police covering Perth East reported from 2023 to 2025: #138 of 862 in Ontario. Police counts work out at 6.2 violent incidents and 11.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents annually; in the typical town its size they are 12.0 and 30.5. Split in two, the index gives 39.3 for violence and 33.5 for everything else (normally 89.4 and 56). Neither of the two towns next door with figures records less crime per resident.
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 Huron (Huron/Wingham) detachment area: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts.
What stands out about safety in Perth East
Below Ontario’s typical town
Perth East’s index of 35 compares with 56.2 for the typical town in Ontario. Towns its size ↓
A lower index than most towns its size
Of the 40 Canadian towns nearest it in size, Perth East places 7th from the lowest index. Towns its size ↓
More crime solved
The weighted clearance rate, the share of crime police solve, is 46% for Perth East (77% violent, 30% non-violent), beside 33% for Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people. Questions ↓
The non-violent half stands out
Perth East scores 39.3 for violence and 33.5 for other crime; the typical Canadian town its size scores 89.4 and 56. 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 Perth East’s grade
How sure: Less sure than most. No detachment reports for Perth East itself, so the grade rests on the nearest one’s figures, 55 km away.
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: #138 of 862 in Ontario and #174 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 Perth East, type by type
Assault 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 | 4.3 | 0.2 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 2.3 | 0.10 | — |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0 | 0 | — |
| Robbery | 1 | 0.04 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 2 | 0.09 | — |
| Other violent violations | 0.7 | 0.03 | — |
| Breaking and entering | 39.7 | 1.7 | 22% |
| Possession of stolen property | 3.3 | 0.1 | — |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 25.3 | 1.1 | 24% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 9.7 | 0.4 | 7% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 57 | 2.4 | 15% |
| Mischief | 43.7 | 1.9 | 21% |
| Weapons violations | 6.3 | 0.3 | 59% |
| Administration of justice violations | 58 | 2.5 | 73% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 8.7 | 0.4 | 54% |
| Drug violations | 8.3 | 0.4 | 88% |
| Impaired driving | 36.3 | 1.5 | 100% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 10 | 0.4 | 3% |
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.
Among 40 towns its size, Perth East places 7th
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rothesay New Brunswick | 12,626 | 20 | 27.9 | A+ |
| 2 | Tiny Ontario | 14,195 | 27.9 | 36.4 | A+ |
| 3 | Erin Ontario | 12,924 | 29 | 28.2 | A+ |
| 4 | Forest Ontario | 12,962 | 32.2 | 38.8 | A |
| 5 | Warman Saskatchewan | 14,245 | 32.3 | 41.7 | A |
| 6 | Kincardine Ontario | 13,169 | 34.4 | 43.4 | A |
| 7 | Perth East Ontario | 13,423 | 35 | 39.3 | A |
| 8 | Winchester Ontario | 12,706 | 36.9 | 47.2 | A |
| 9 | Saint-Amable Quebec | 14,119 | 37.1 | 58.5 | A |
| 10 | Carignan Quebec | 12,618 | 37.1 | 58.5 | A |
| … | |||||
| 15 | Meaford Ontario | 12,652 | 42.7 | 45.3 | A− |
| 16 | Beaverton Ontario | 13,710 | 45.8 | 61.4 | A− |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Thompson Manitoba | 12,917 | 589.9 | 1,034.6 | 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 Perth East in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
The detachment nearest Perth East, 23,900 residents: around 150 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.
Property crime adds about 260 a year and other violations 170 (2023–2025 average). Of 1,000 dots, one per resident, the coloured ones are a year’s incidents at these rates.
Year by year in Perth East: down 10%, 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
The index started at its highest, 36.6 in 2023, and touched its lowest in 2025, at 32.9. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town its size, runs from 69.5 in 2023 to 60 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Perth East | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 32.9 | 60 |
| 2024 | 35.4 | 67.9 |
| 2023 | 36.6 | 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 Perth East, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
Crime in the places around Perth East
Each neighbour with its own figure comes in over Perth East.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Severity, weighed. 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.”
- 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.
Questions about safety in Perth East
Is Perth East safe?
With 6.2 violent incidents and 11.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, Perth East comes to 35 on the Crime Severity Index (2023–2025); Canadian towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people have a median of 66.
What is the most common crime in Perth East?
Top of the list is fraud (3.5 per 1,000 residents a year); Criminal Code traffic offences, at 3.4, and other Criminal Code offences, at 3.3, follow.
Is crime going up in Perth East?
It went down 10% between 2023 and 2025, from 36.6 to 32.9.
How much of Perth East’s crime do police solve?
46%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town its size manages 33%. Violent crime is cleared at 77% and non-violent crime at 30%.
Whose figures are these?
A police service or detachment that covers Perth East 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).