Photo: Unknown author Unknown author · Public domainAmherst has less crime per resident than seven in ten Canadian towns
The grade is B+, built on crime the police covering Amherst reported from 2023 to 2025. Statistics Canada puts its Crime Severity Index at 48.8 for 2023–2025; the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ scores 67.2. Add to that, typical years here bring 11.9 violent incidents plus 11.9 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents, against 12.0 plus 31.2 in the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
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 Laurentides MRC: crime severity, crime rate and incident counts.
What stands out about safety in Amherst
Crime per resident, visitors uncounted
About 46% of Amherst’s homes are cottages, second homes or otherwise empty much of the year: crime in the busy months is divided by year-round residents only, which lifts every rate here. How to read it ↓
Less severe than in 2023
Between 2023 and 2025, Amherst moved from 67.1 to 34.2, while the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ went from 70.6 to 62.9. Year by year ↓
Above-typical clearance
The weighted clearance rate, the share of crime police solve, is 61% for Amherst (80% violent, 46% non-violent), beside 34% for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more. Questions ↓
About the Quebec norm
Set among Quebec’s towns, whose median is 56.1, Amherst scores 48.8. 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 Amherst’s B+ for safety
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.
In Amherst, down 49% between 2023 and 2025
Crime Severity Index
2023 opened the run as its heaviest year (67.1); 2025 was the lightest, at 34.2. In the same years the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ read 70.6 (2023), then 62.9 (2025).
Every year as a table
| Year | Amherst | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 34.2 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 45 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 67.1 | 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 Amherst, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
Crime in Amherst, type by type
Fraud sits below it.
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 1 | 0.02 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 20 | 0.4 | 62% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 21.7 | 0.4 | 100% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 0.7 | 0.01 | — |
| Robbery | 5.3 | 0.1 | 89% |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 4.3 | 0.08 | — |
| Other violent violations | 21 | 0.4 | 80% |
| Breaking and entering | 99 | 1.9 | 32% |
| Possession of stolen property | 8 | 0.2 | 71% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 59.7 | 1.1 | 17% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 16 | 0.3 | 29% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 139 | 2.6 | 38% |
| Mischief | 97.7 | 1.8 | 30% |
| Weapons violations | 16 | 0.3 | 92% |
| Administration of justice violations | 181 | 3.4 | 100% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 22.7 | 0.4 | 82% |
| Drug violations | 91.3 | 1.7 | 84% |
| Impaired driving | 127.7 | 2.4 | 99% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 92.7 | 1.7 | 24% |
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.
About 630 violent incidents a year across the police area of 54,200 residents that includes Amherst, 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 640 property crimes, plus 570 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 Amherst
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amherst | 1,703 | 48.8 | 71.8 | B+ |
| Brébeuf | 1,012 | 48.8 | 71.8 | B+ |
| La Conception | 1,685 | 48.8 | 71.8 | B+ |
| Mont-Tremblant | 11,879 | 48.8 | 71.8 | B+ |
Where neighbours share its police, they share the figure too: 3 aren’t counted above.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- One figure for the MRC. The Sûreté du Québec reports by MRC, so the figures cover every municipality it polices there, Amherst among them.
- What 100 means. 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.
- The clearance rate. A crime is cleared when police lay or recommend a charge, or solve it another way; the weighted rate counts serious crimes for more.
- 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 Amherst
Is Amherst safe?
Statistics Canada puts Amherst at 48.8 on its Crime Severity Index over 2023–2025; Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more sit at 67.2 in the middle. Violent incidents run at 11.9 and property crimes at 11.9 per 1,000 residents a year.
What is the most common crime in Amherst?
The three biggest groups are assault at 5.8, Criminal Code traffic offences at 4.7 and other Criminal Code offences at 4.3, each per 1,000 residents a year.
Is crime going up in Amherst?
It went down 49% between 2023 and 2025, from 67.1 to 34.2.
How much of Amherst’s crime do police solve?
61%, by the weighted clearance rate, where the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ manages 34%. Violent crime is cleared at 80% and non-violent crime at 46%.
Whose figures are these?
A police service or detachment that covers Amherst 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).