Canada's safest cities ranked by the CrimeMaps Severity Score (CMSS), a severity-weighted crime rate modelled on Statistics Canada's Crime Severity Index methodology. Lower CMSS = fewer and less-severe crimes per 100,000 residents. Covers 6 Canadian cities with sufficient data coverage.
Top 20 safest cities in Canada (2026)
| # | City | Province | CMSS | Incidents | Population | Latest year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medicine Hat | AB | 42,594 | 1,506 | 63,260 | 2026 |
| 2 | Victoria | BC | 78,647 | 2,601 | 91,867 | 2026 |
| 3 | Windsor | ON | 81,636 | 3,811 | 229,660 | 2026 |
| 4 | Lethbridge | AB | 100,347 | 2,158 | 98,406 | 2026 |
| 5 | Saskatoon | SK | 118,270 | 5,863 | 266,141 | 2026 |
| 6 | Gatineau | QC | 512,589 | 19,032 | 291,041 | 2026 |
How we rank safest cities
Each city's latest-year CMSS is computed from incidents per category × Statistics Canada's published 2006-base severity weights, divided by 2021 Census population × 100,000. See the full methodology. Cities with fewer than 1000 reported incidents in the latest year are excluded from the ranking because their coverage is too sparse to compare fairly.
Related rankings
Frequently asked questions
What makes a city "safe" on this ranking?
A lower severity-weighted incident rate per 100,000 residents. We weight each category using Statistics Canada's UCR2 severity weights — a homicide counts for 7,042 weight-units while a minor theft counts for 37. Fewer weighted incidents per capita = a higher safety rank.
How does this differ from Statistics Canada's CSI?
Statistics Canada publishes CSI annually from the UCR2 survey. CrimeMaps Severity Score uses the same formula applied to municipal open-data sources at our own update cadence — we can publish monthly rolling numbers that StatCan's annual cycle cannot.
Why are some Canadian cities missing?
Cities with fewer than 1000 reported incidents in the latest year aren't ranked — not enough data to compare fairly. Every city with full data is indexed individually at /city/[name].