Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Recorded crime in Wainfleet is close to typical for Canadian towns
Split in two, the index gives 72.6 for violence and 49.9 for everything else (normally 85.7 and 62.8). Its Safety Grade, B (#377 of 862 in Ontario), rests on crime its police reported from 2023 to 2025: close to the middle of Canadian towns. Year on year, 9.4 violent incidents and 25.1 incidents of property crime occur per 1,000 residents, compared with 12.9 and 31.2 in the typical town its size. The index held steady between 2023 (55.4) and 2025 (53.8).
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. Area-wide: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts, counted over the Niagara Region (St. Catharines) service area.
What stands out about safety in Wainfleet
Lower than many towns its size
Counting up from the lowest index, Wainfleet 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, Wainfleet scores 56.1. 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’s behind Wainfleet’s grade
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: #377 of 862 in Ontario and #736 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.
What police record in Wainfleet, by type
Motor vehicle theft and assault sit below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 11.7 | 0.02 | 79% |
| Sexual violations against children | 139.7 | 0.3 | 47% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 115.3 | 0.2 | 99% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 23.7 | 0.04 | 55% |
| Robbery | 184.3 | 0.3 | 47% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 31 | 0.06 | 90% |
| Other violent violations | 100 | 0.2 | 56% |
| Breaking and entering | 1,186.7 | 2.2 | 19% |
| Possession of stolen property | 118.3 | 0.2 | 89% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 959.7 | 1.8 | 10% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 240.3 | 0.4 | 11% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 6,173.3 | 11.5 | 17% |
| Mischief | 1,897 | 3.5 | 18% |
| Weapons violations | 100 | 0.2 | 74% |
| Administration of justice violations | 3,185 | 5.9 | 95% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 278.3 | 0.5 | 51% |
| Drug violations | 280.3 | 0.5 | 89% |
| Impaired driving | 558.3 | 1 | 97% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 129.3 | 0.2 | 8% |
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.
By its index, Wainfleet stands 14th of 40 towns its size
| # | Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trent Lakes Ontario | 7,357 | 20.6 | 24.8 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 4 | Colborne Ontario | 7,216 | 30.1 | 41.7 | A+ |
| … | |||||
| 6 | Chesley Ontario | 7,639 | 33.7 | 38.7 | A |
| 7 | Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Ontario | 7,052 | 35 | 39.3 | A |
| … | |||||
| 11 | Louiseville Quebec | 7,570 | 44.3 | 60.8 | A− |
| 12 | Fairwinds British Columbia | 7,125 | 44.5 | 43.2 | A− |
| 13 | Saint-Calixte Quebec | 7,627 | 54 | 93.4 | B |
| 14 | Wainfleet Ontario | 7,329 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
| 15 | Electoral Area C, East Kootenay British Columbia | 7,006 | 56.2 | 70.5 | B |
| 16 | Clarenville Newfoundland and Labrador | 7,441 | 64.2 | 58.5 | B− |
| 17 | Kent British Columbia | 7,093 | 65.5 | 97.8 | B− |
| … | |||||
| 40 | Algoma, Unorganized, North Part Ontario | 7,008 | 302.3 | 509 | 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 Wainfleet in population, the lowest Crime Severity Index first (2023–2025 means).
Wainfleet, year by year
Crime Severity Index
The middle year, 2024, was the heaviest at 58.9; 2025 was lightest, at 53.8. Over 2023–2025, the typical Canadian town its size moved from 74.3 to 64.2.
Every year as a table
| Year | Wainfleet | Typical town its size |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 53.8 | 64.2 |
| 2024 | 58.9 | 68.8 |
| 2023 | 55.4 | 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 Wainfleet, each year, against the typical Canadian town its size.
551,100 residents, about 5,080 violent incidents a year: the police area Wainfleet belongs to, 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 13,500 property crimes and 4,880 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 Wainfleet
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wainfleet | 7,329 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
| Port Colborne | 21,921 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
| Welland | 66,480 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
| Pelham | 19,980 | 56.1 | 72.6 | B |
Its police also cover 3 neighbouring places, which carry the same index and are left out above.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- A regional police service. A regional or shared police service reports one set of figures for every municipality it covers, Wainfleet included.
- Reading the number. A reading of 100 is the whole country in 2006. Half of that, 50, means half the severity per resident.
- Solved cases. The clearance rate is the share of incidents police solve, by a charge or otherwise, weighted by seriousness like the index. It isn’t a conviction rate.
- How serious, not how safe. Statistics Canada builds the index from every crime police record, weighted by how seriously the courts treat it, and divides by the population. It adds a warning of its own: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.”
Questions about safety in Wainfleet
Is Wainfleet safe?
With 9.4 violent incidents and 25.1 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, Wainfleet comes to 56.1 on the Crime Severity Index (2023–2025); Canadian towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people have a median of 68.5.
What is the most common crime in Wainfleet?
Most often it is theft under $5,000: 11.5 per 1,000 residents a year. Next come other Criminal Code offences at 6.8 and fraud at 5.4.
Is crime going up in Wainfleet?
Hardly at all, from 55.4 in 2023 to 53.8 in 2025.
How much of Wainfleet’s crime do police solve?
The weighted clearance rate is 37%: 49% for violent crime and 30% for non-violent. For the typical Canadian town its size it is 34%.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Wainfleet together with its neighbours or the countryside around it.
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).