Toronto is known as a low-crime city compared to locales with similar or greater populations, but it may surprise some to learn that the 416 is way ahead of even New York City, Detroit and Los Angeles in one specific category of criminal activity.
A new study published on Tuesday by independent Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute reveals that Ontario cities like Toronto, Hamilton and Windsor outpace several major U.S. cities in property crime. This includes many places known for their high crime rates, like New York City, Detroit, L.A. and Flint, Michigan.
The study looked at the property crime (e.g., burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft) rates of large urban areas with populations of 100,000 people or more, using maximum annual crime rates from 2019 through 2022.
Toronto’s per person property crime rate exceeded New York’s by a shocking 40 per cent, though overall crime rates are obviously much higher in what is the United States’ largest city.
However, Toronto only came in in the 242nd position on the list
Perhaps the biggest local shocker in the study is Thunder Bay, Ontario, which scored the highest per-person rate of property crime, as well as violent crime in the province.
“Ontarians are no doubt aware that the rate of property crimes in the province’s biggest cities is on the rise, but they might not know how bad it’s become relative to American cities to the south,” said Livio Di Matteo, senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and author of Comparing Recent Crime Trends in Canada and the U.S.
The findings of the study may look surprising on the surface, but anyone who has been following headlines here in Ontario is no doubt aware of the rash of car thefts and carjackings that have plagued the province in recent years, both included in this category of property crime.
Ontario city is second worst for violent crime in Canada and Toronto is way down the list https://t.co/rBPfsWTOcX
— blogTO (@blogTO) February 22, 2025
While this surge in vehicle thefts appears to have waned in 2025, Di Matteo stresses that “Crime rates in some of Ontario’s largest cities, while still historically low, are on the rise and should be of greater concern for both citizens and policymakers.”
Toronto still has something of a reputation among Canadians as a city grappling with crime, but it only ranked 261st overall among cities with the most violent crimes.
But it was Winnipeg, Manitoba, that earned the not-so-welcome distinction of ranking as Canada’s most violent city with the highest per-person rate of violent crimes (murder, robbery, and assault with a weapon) of all Canadian urban areas.
Winnipeg ranked 18th out of 334 North American cities with the most violent crime and 8th place among cities with the worst property crime.
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