Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0Val-des-Bois sits near the middle of Canadian towns for recorded crime
Statistics Canada puts its Crime Severity Index at 61.7 for 2023–2025; the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ scores 67.2. Between 2023 and 2025 the severity figure rose, 55.7 to 63.1. Its letter overall is B−: close to the middle of Canadian towns, from crime its police reported through 2023 to 2025. Each year brought 17.5 violent incidents and 13.9 incidents of property crime for every 1,000 residents (12.0 and 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. Crime severity, crime rate and incident counts for the Papineau MRC.
What stands out about safety in Val-des-Bois
More people here than live here
Seasonal homes make up about 41% of Val-des-Bois’s housing, so summer crime is set against winter’s population and the rates read high. How to read it ↓
A high clearance rate
For Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more the typical clearance rate is 34%; Val-des-Bois’s police clear 60%, 79% of violent crime and 41% of the rest. Questions ↓
Violent crime leads the index
Val-des-Bois’s index splits into violent crime, 107.3 here and 86.4 for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+, and everything else, 44 against 62.8. By type ↓
Close to Quebec’s typical town
The typical Quebec town scores 56.1; Val-des-Bois, 61.7. 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 Val-des-Bois’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.
The Crime Severity Index and its two halves, beside the typical figure for Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more.
Val-des-Bois, year by year
Crime Severity Index
At 66.2, 2024 topped the three years, and 2023 was lowest at 55.7. Over 2023–2025, the typical Canadian town of 2,500+ moved from 70.6 to 62.9.
Every year as a table
| Year | Val-des-Bois | Typical town of 2,500+ |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 63.1 | 62.9 |
| 2024 | 66.2 | 68.5 |
| 2023 | 55.7 | 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 Val-des-Bois, each year, against the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
What police record in Val-des-Bois, by type
Against the typical town its size, Val-des-Bois runs highest on assault (8.6 per 1,000 against 6.7).
Every Statistics Canada violation line
| Violation | Incidents a year | Per 1,000 | Cleared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide | 0 | 0 | — |
| Sexual violations against children | 14.7 | 0.5 | 88% |
| Assaults against a peace officer | 8.7 | 0.3 | 100% |
| Firearms: use, discharge, pointing | 5 | 0.2 | 100% |
| Robbery | 1.7 | 0.06 | — |
| Forcible confinement or kidnapping | 4.7 | 0.2 | — |
| Other violent violations | 17.7 | 0.7 | 58% |
| Breaking and entering | 66.7 | 2.5 | 39% |
| Possession of stolen property | 10.7 | 0.4 | 75% |
| Theft of a motor vehicle | 56.7 | 2.1 | 28% |
| Theft over $5,000 | 18 | 0.7 | 22% |
| Theft under $5,000 | 56 | 2.1 | 34% |
| Mischief | 65.7 | 2.4 | 29% |
| Weapons violations | 9.7 | 0.4 | 69% |
| Administration of justice violations | 62 | 2.3 | 87% |
| Other Criminal Code violations | 11 | 0.4 | 75% |
| Drug violations | 31 | 1.1 | 65% |
| Impaired driving | 49 | 1.8 | 100% |
| Failing to stop or remain | 23.7 | 0.9 | 28% |
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 470 violent incidents a year across the police area of 27,100 residents that includes Val-des-Bois, 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 370 a year and other violations 220 (2023–2025 average). Of 1,000 dots, one per resident, the coloured ones are a year’s incidents at these rates.
Crime in the places around Val-des-Bois
| Town | People | Severity index | Violent index | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Val-des-Bois | 1,001 | 61.7 | 107.3 | B− |
| Notre-Dame-du-Laus (26 km) | 1,912 | 73.1 | 131 | C+ |
| Val-des-Monts (30 km) | 14,473 | 29.4 | 51.6 | A+ |
| Montpellier (31 km) | 1,253 | 61.7 | 107.3 | B− |
| L'Ange-Gardien (32 km) | 7,068 | 29.4 | 51.6 | A+ |
| Lochaber-Partie-Ouest (36 km) | 1,016 | 61.7 | 107.3 | B− |
Of 3 places nearby with their own figures, 2 come in under Val-des-Bois. Val-des-Monts, 30.5 km away, is the nearest lower one, at 29.4 to 61.7. The table leaves out 2 neighbours whose figure is this one, reported by the same police.
Each place’s police figures, 2023–2025 means. No closer places have figures: these lie 26–36 km from Val-des-Bois.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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, which publishes the index, attaches a caution: “The CSI is not an indicator of overall safety and should be interpreted in the broader community context.” The number weighs each reported crime by its seriousness before dividing by residents.
- The whole MRC. The Sûreté du Québec reports by MRC, so the figures cover every municipality it polices there, Val-des-Bois among them.
Questions about safety in Val-des-Bois
Is Val-des-Bois safe?
The short answer is an index of 61.7 for Val-des-Bois (2023–2025), built from 17.5 violent incidents and 13.9 property crimes a year for every 1,000 residents. Across Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more, the median is 67.2.
What is the most common crime in Val-des-Bois?
Top of the list is assault (8.6 per 1,000 residents a year); Criminal Code traffic offences, at 3.7, and fraud, at 3.4, follow.
Is crime going up in Val-des-Bois?
Up 13%: 55.7 in 2023, 63.1 in 2025.
How much of Val-des-Bois’s crime do police solve?
Police cleared 60% of crime once each incident is weighted by seriousness: 79% of violent crime and 41% of the rest, against 34% for the typical Canadian town of 2,500+.
Whose figures are these?
Those of the police serving Val-des-Bois 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).