Photo: Andre Carrotflower · CC BY-SA 4.0Per resident, Sables-Spanish Rivers records more crime than 69% of Canadian towns
Statistics Canada puts its Crime Severity Index at 81.9 for 2023–2025; the typical Canadian town its size scores 68.5. What’s more, it grades C for safety on crime the police covering Sables-Spanish Rivers reported from 2023 to 2025: #774 of 862 in Ontario. Its police logs show 18.6 violent incidents and 19.7 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the typical town its size the numbers are 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. Source area for crime severity, crime rate and incident counts: the Little Current (Manitoulin) detachment area.
What stands out about safety in Sables-Spanish Rivers
Drug offences: high for a town its size
Sables-Spanish Rivers records 4.5 incidents of drug offences per 1,000 residents a year, against 0.7 in the typical town among Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people. By type ↓
Above-typical clearance
Weighted by seriousness, 63% of crime in Sables-Spanish Rivers ends in a charge or is otherwise solved: 80% of violent crime and 53% of the rest. Across Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people the figure is 34%. Questions ↓
Up since 2023
From 69.5 in 2023 to 84.7 in 2025: that is Sables-Spanish Rivers’s index, against 74.3 and 64.2 for the typical Canadian town its size. Year by year ↓
Above Ontario’s typical town
Within Ontario, the median town comes to 56.2 on the index, against 81.9 in Sables-Spanish Rivers. 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 Sables-Spanish Rivers’s C
How sure: A less certain grade than most, because the figures belong to the nearest detachment, 29 km from Sables-Spanish Rivers, not to the town.
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: #774 of 862 in Ontario and #1,745 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.
Which crimes make up Sables-Spanish Rivers’s figures
Against the typical town its size, Sables-Spanish Rivers runs highest on drug offences (4.5 per 1,000 against 0.7), sexual assault (1.9 per 1,000 against 0.9) and assault (8.6 per 1,000 against 6.7). Theft under $5,000 sits below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0.3 | 0.02 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 3.3 | 0.2 | — |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 8.3 | 0.6 | 100% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.3 | 0.02 | — |
| Robbery | 0.3 | 0.02 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 3.3 | 0.2 | — |
| Other violent violations | 5.7 | 0.4 | 70% |
| Breaking and entering | 35.7 | 2.5 | 30% |
| Possession of stolen property | 5.3 | 0.4 | 94% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 16.3 | 1.1 | 51% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 7.7 | 0.5 | 30% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 78 | 5.4 | 21% |
| Mischief | 62.3 | 4.3 | 30% |
| Weapons violations | 19.3 | 1.3 | 76% |
| Administration of justice violations | 114.3 | 7.8 | 84% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 14.3 | 1 | 58% |
| Drug violations | 65.3 | 4.5 | 89% |
| Impaired driving | 81.7 | 5.6 | 100% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 2 | 0.1 | — |
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.
Sables-Spanish Rivers’s index rose 22% from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
It rose to 91.6 in 2024 before easing, with the low of 69.5 in 2023. The comparison line, the typical Canadian town its size, runs from 74.3 in 2023 to 64.2 by 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | Sables-Spanish Rivers | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 84.7 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 91.6 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 69.5 | 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 Sables-Spanish Rivers, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
By its index, Sables-Spanish Rivers stands 26th of 40 towns its size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier Quebec | 3,400 | 28.2 | 46.7 | A+ |
| 2 | North Kawartha Ontario | 3,355 | 28.5 | 38.1 | A+ |
| 3 | Shuniah Ontario | 3,458 | 29.8 | 60 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 5 | Merrickville Ontario | 3,411 | 35.2 | 36.4 | A |
| … | |||||
| 23 | Grande-Rivière Quebec | 3,318 | 69.4 | 134.9 | C+ |
| 24 | Placentia Newfoundland and Labrador | 3,374 | 79.6 | 65.6 | C |
| 25 | Electoral Area F, Columbia-Shuswap British Columbia | 3,475 | 80 | 77.4 | C |
| 26 | Sables-Spanish Rivers Ontario | 3,412 | 81.9 | 109 | C |
| 27 | Atholville New Brunswick | 3,346 | 89.1 | 100 | C |
| 28 | Electoral Area E (West Boundary), Kootenay Boundary British Columbia | 3,361 | 89.9 | 103.7 | C |
| 29 | Cumberland County, Subdivision A Nova Scotia | 3,401 | 93.1 | 86.7 | C− |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Inuvik Northwest Territories | 3,337 | 718.3 | 807.9 | 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 Sables-Spanish Rivers in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
About 270 violent incidents a year in the area of the detachment nearest Sables-Spanish Rivers (14,700 residents), 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 290 property crimes, plus 350 other violations, a year (2023–2025 average). Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot, one incident a year at the area’s rates.
Crime in the places around Sables-Spanish Rivers
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sables-Spanish Rivers | 3,412 | 81.9 | 109 | C |
| Espanola (18 km) | 5,504 | 90.6 | 123.8 | C |
| Little Current (25 km) | 2,764 | 81.9 | 109 | C |
| Wikwemikong Unceded (49 km) | 2,875 | 583.1 | 762.6 | D− |
Sables-Spanish Rivers has the lowest index of the places around it. The table leaves out one neighbour whose figure is this one, reported by the same police.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. Distances here run 18–49 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from Sables-Spanish Rivers.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- How serious, not how safe. 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.”
- Reading the number. 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.
- Solved cases. 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.
Questions about safety in Sables-Spanish Rivers
Is Sables-Spanish Rivers safe?
Sables-Spanish Rivers’s Crime Severity Index is 81.9 (2023–2025 mean); its police record 18.6 violent incidents and 19.7 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year. For Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, the typical index is 68.5.
What is the most common crime in Sables-Spanish Rivers?
Other Criminal Code offences is the most common, at 10.7 per 1,000 residents a year, then assault (8.6) and Criminal Code traffic offences (8.5).
Is crime going up in Sables-Spanish Rivers?
Up 22%: 69.5 in 2023, 84.7 in 2025.
How much of Sables-Spanish Rivers’s crime do police solve?
Weighted by seriousness, police cleared 63% of crime (80% of violent crime, 53% of the rest). The typical Canadian town its size clears 34%.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for Sables-Spanish Rivers and everywhere else it polices.
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).