Three-Fifths of Canadians Believe Crime Has Increased in Their Communities: Survey

Riders take a subway train on the Toronto Transit Commission station in downtown Toronto, Saturday, April 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

A total of 62 percent of Canadians say they believe crime has risen in the communities where they live over the last five years, according to new polling from Angus Reid.

The survey released on Jan. 12 found that 24 percent believe there has been no change in crime in their communities, while 5 percent believe there has been a decrease.

In 2014, just 30 percent of Canadians said they believed there had been an increase in crime in their neighbourhoods, while 40 percent said the rates were stable. In 2015, a total of 32 percent said they felt firmly safe to walk in their neighbourhood alone and after dark, but this had fallen to 17 percent in 2025.

The latest survey also showed that more Canadians are seeing crime and safety as a top issue, with that metric rising from about 4 percent of the population in 2014 to 18 percent in 2025.

Conservative voters are more likely to believe that crime has risen in their communities over the past five years, with 81 percent surveyed expressing that sentiment, compared to 51 percent of Liberals and 38 percent of New Democrats.

The survey also found that 84 percent had been contacted by a scammer or fraudster via email in 2025, and 77 percent said they had seen an increase in internet/telephone-based fraud in their communities. While 21 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 29 said they had been the victim of a scam or fraud, a total of 36 percent of those over 60 years old said they had been victimized.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Canadians lost more than $638 million to fraud in 2024, and only 5 to 10 percent of cases are reported to the organization. The Liberal government has said it will introduce legislation to create a financial crimes agency by the spring of 2026.

Angus Reid said while crimes like breaking and entering and theft of $5,000 or under have been on a multi-decade downtrend, shoplifting of $5,000 of under has “bucked this trend” and increased to the “highest mark of decades. The survey said factors like increased financial pressures, mental health and addiction issues, and lower police staffing levels have resulted in this crime trending higher.

The survey found 40 percent of retail workers surveyed had dealt with shoplifting incidents “many times,” while 24 percent said it had happened once or twice while they were working, and 35 percent had not seen it happen. Additionally, 78 percent said they had dealt with verbal abuse by a customer, while 42 said they had experienced a customer becoming “physically threatening.”

According to Statistics Canada, its Crime Severity Index—which is used to compare severity of crime in Canada from year to year and includes all Criminal Code violations, such as traffic and drug violations—the metric has risen from 66.9 in 2014 to 77.8 in 2024. Statistics Canada’s violent crime severity index rose from 70.7 in 2014 to 99.8 in 2024.

Statistics Canada also reported in October 2025 that police-reported drug crime had risen for the first time in 12 years to 128 incidents per 100,000 people, but was “well below its historic peak” of 330 incidents per 100,000 people in 2011.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser introduced legislation in October aiming to make bail laws stricter for violent and repeat offenders. Bill C-14 would create new reverse onuses for major crimes such as auto theft, breaking and entering, human smuggling, and sexual assault, and police would be directed not to release an accused when it is against the public interest.

The bill also includes amendments to toughen sentencing laws for repeat and violent crimes like auto theft and extortion, meaning those found guilty will spend more time in jail. Consecutive sentences would also be imposed for crimes like auto theft, breaking and entering, and extortion, instead of offenders serving time for multiple offences at once.

The Conservative Party has been critical of the Liberal government for its record on public safety and crime, and has repeatedly called for the government to get rid of the principle of restraint that requires judges to release arrested individuals at the earliest opportunity under the least onerous conditions.