Photo: South Algonquin Business Alliance · CC BY-SA 4.0Fewer crimes per resident are recorded in South Algonquin than in 60% of Canadian towns
Recorded violent incidents ran at 12.5 per 1,000 residents a year and property crime at 15.9, against 12.0 and 31.2 in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+. The grade is B, built on crime the police covering South Algonquin reported from 2023 to 2025. Against usual levels of 86.4 and 62.8, violent and non-violent offences here reach 59.6 and 53.9.
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 Bancroft detachment area: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts.
What stands out about safety in South Algonquin
Visitors count, residents divide
Only year-round residents divide the crime in South Algonquin, yet 41% of its homes are seasonal or empty: the rates run higher than the place feels to the people who live there. How to read it ↓
Police clear more here
The weighted clearance rate, the share of crime police solve, is 54% for South Algonquin (82% violent, 41% non-violent), beside 34% for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more. Questions ↓
About the Ontario norm
Within Ontario, the median town comes to 56.2 on the index, against 55.2 in South Algonquin. 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.
Inside South Algonquin’s B for safety
How sure: Less sure than most. No detachment reports for South Algonquin itself, so the grade rests on the nearest one’s figures, 52 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.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
Around 140 violent incidents a year at the detachment nearest South Algonquin (11,400 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.
Property crime adds about 180 a year and other violations 160 (2023–2025 average). Of 1,000 dots, one per resident, the coloured ones are a year’s incidents at these rates.
Crime in South Algonquin, type by type
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 people or more.
South Algonquin’s index held steady from 2023 to 2025
Crime Severity Index
2024 was the peak (62.8) and 2025 the trough (51.3). The typical Canadian town of 2,500+ went from 70.6 in 2023 to 62.9 in 2025.
Every year as a table
| Year | South Algonquin | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 51.3 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 62.8 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 51.5 | 70.6 |
Statistics Canada, Crime Severity Index by police service, each year as published. Typical: the median of Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
The Crime Severity Index of the police covering South Algonquin, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
Crime in the places around South Algonquin
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Algonquin | 1,151 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
| Barry's Bay (36 km) | 4,151 | 41.5 | 77.6 | A− |
| Hastings Highlands (41 km) | 4,957 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
| Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (49 km) | 2,505 | 41.5 | 77.6 | A− |
| Carlow/Mayo (49 km) | 1,048 | 55.2 | 59.6 | B |
Every neighbour with a figure of its own has a lower index than South Algonquin. Closest is Barry's Bay, 36.4 km away, at 41.5 to 55.2 here. Where neighbours share its police, they share the figure too: 2 aren’t counted above.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. Distances here run 36–49 km: that is how far the nearest places with figures are from South Algonquin.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The index’s scale. The index is scaled so that Canada as a whole scored 100 in its base year, 2006: a town at 50 has half that severity per resident.
- What clearance means. A crime is cleared when police lay or recommend a charge, or solve it another way; the weighted rate counts serious crimes for more.
- An index, not a verdict. 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 South Algonquin
Is South Algonquin safe?
Against a typical 67.2 for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more, South Algonquin’s Crime Severity Index stands at 55.2 for 2023–2025. Its police record 12.5 violent incidents and 15.9 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in South Algonquin?
The three biggest groups are other Criminal Code offences at 6.6, assault at 6 and Criminal Code traffic offences at 5.2, each per 1,000 residents a year.
Is crime going up in South Algonquin?
Not much: the index went from 51.5 in 2023 to 51.3 in 2025.
How much of South Algonquin’s crime do police solve?
Weighted by seriousness, police cleared 54% of crime (82% of violent crime, 41% of the rest). The typical Canadian town of 2,500+ clears 34%.
Whose figures are these?
A shared service or detachment’s, reported as one for South Algonquin 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).