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Ottawa crime in 2020

In 2020, Ottawa recorded 29,393 total reported incidents, representing a 17.3% decrease compared to 35,558 incidents in 2019. Annual totals reflect open-data reporting levels rather than per-capita risk. Theft was the most frequent category with 8,752 incidents, followed by assault at 5,675 and fraud at 5,415. The Other category contained 3,296 recorded incidents, all designated as Other crime under its subcategory breakdown. Mischief accounted for 3,082 incidents.

29,393
Incidents in 2020
9.6%
Share of selected city data
8 of 9
Rank among years
Theft
Top category
8,752 incidents
-17.3%
Year-over-year
vs 2019

Category mix in 2020

Theft 8,752
29.8% of 2020 incidents
Assault 5,675
19.3% of 2020 incidents
Fraud 5,415
18.4% of 2020 incidents
Other 3,296
11.2% of 2020 incidents
Mischief 3,082
10.5% of 2020 incidents
8% of 2020 incidents

Ottawa crime 2020

In 2020, Ottawa, Ontario recorded 29,393 police-reported incidents in the municipal open-data archive. This total represents a 17.3% decrease compared to the 35,558 incidents logged in 2019. Note that these year totals reflect annual reporting figures rather than per-capita risk.

This overview examines the complete 2020 calendar-year dataset for Ottawa, presenting primary category counts and multi-year comparison points. The 29,393 incidents reported in 2020 account for 9.6% of the 307,063 total records logged across the city's full dataset spanning from 2001 to 2026. Top recorded categories during the year included Theft with 8,752 incidents, Assault with 5,675 incidents, and Fraud with 5,415 incidents.

Year-over-year

The 2020 total of 29,393 incidents represents a 17.3% decline from the 35,558 incidents recorded in 2019. Within the city's multi-year series, 2020 ranked 8th out of 9 tracked years in total incident count, placing it below prior figures such as 32,768 in 2018 and subsequent figures such as 30,736 in 2021 and 35,695 in 2022. Theft was the leading category in 2020 with 8,752 incidents, followed by Assault with 5,675 incidents and Fraud with 5,415 incidents. Other crime accounted for 3,296 incidents, Mischief recorded 3,082 incidents, and Break and enter recorded 2,359 incidents.

Key stats

What these numbers mean

In 2020, Ottawa recorded 29,393 total incidents, placing it 8th out of 9 tracked years in the city's series. This represented a decrease from 35,558 incidents in 2019 before annual totals rose to 30,736 in 2021 and 41,490 in 2024. Theft led the 2020 category mix with 8,752 incidents, remaining substantially higher than Assault at 5,675 and Fraud at 5,415. The 3,296 Other category records consisted entirely of Other crime subcategory entries.

About this dataset

Frequently asked questions about Ottawa crime in 2020

How many incidents were recorded in Ottawa in 2020?

Ottawa recorded 29,393 incidents in 2020. This annual count represents 9.6% of the 307,063 total records archived for the city across all years between 2001 and 2026. The 2020 figure ranks 8th among the 9 tracked years in the city series.

How did Ottawa's 2020 incident count compare to 2019?

Ottawa's incident count decreased by 17.3% in 2020, dropping from 35,558 incidents in 2019 to 29,393 incidents. Following 2020, annual incident counts increased to 30,736 in 2021, 35,695 in 2022, 38,581 in 2023, and 41,490 in 2024. Note that year-over-year figures reflect reported incidents rather than per-capita risk.

What were the top categories of recorded incidents in Ottawa during 2020?

Theft was the leading category in Ottawa in 2020 with 8,752 incidents. Assault ranked second with 5,675 incidents, followed by Fraud with 5,415 incidents. Other crime accounted for 3,296 incidents, Mischief recorded 3,082 incidents, and Break and enter recorded 2,359 incidents.

Where does the 2020 incident data for Ottawa come from?

The data comes from Ottawa's municipal open-data portal in Ontario (ON), which archives police-reported incident records. The full archive for Ottawa contains 307,063 records spanning from 2001 to 2026, with 2020 providing a complete calendar-year count of 29,393 incidents.

Sources

Data is sourced from Ottawa's municipal open-data portal in Ontario (ON).

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