The rate of police-reported crimes fell last year in the Greater Montreal area and in Quebec overall, according to new figures from Statistics Canada. The 2025 crime rate, which measures crime relative to the population, fell 5 per cent in the Montreal census metropolitan area compared to the year before. The StatsCan numbers released on Wednesday also show that the Crime Severity Index (CSI), which measures the volume of crime relative to the population and the relative severity of crimes, also decreased in the Montreal area. Montreal’s CSI dropped to 61.3 last year, a 5 per cent decrease from the previous year, and well below the national average of 75, which also marked a 5 per cent decrease. All census metropolitan areas in Quebec studied by StatsCan saw the CSI drop in 2025, except for Drummondville, Que., which recorded a 4 per cent jump. Saguenay, Que., was among the cities that saw the sharpest decreases in the rate of severe crime, falling 13 per cent to 49.3. Decreases were also recorded in Toronto (7 per cent), Ottawa (6 per cent), and Halifax (6 per cent). At the provincial level, Quebec’s CSI was 61.6 per cent in 2025, which is 5 per cent lower than 2024, according to Statistics Canada. The province’s crime rate also fell 4 per cent to 3,673 — below the national average of 5,585. Warren Silver, a Statistics Canada analyst, told CTV News that almost every province and territory saw a decrease in crime last year in nearly every category, and 2025 marked the second year in a row that the crime rate in Canada had dropped. However, he said a two-year drop in crime stats is too small of a sample to determine any downward trends across the country. While most types of crimes saw a drop across Canada, shoplifting was up for the fifth consecutive year, spiking 11 per cent from the year before, according to the data.
