While the province showed improvement in 2024, crime rates in Alberta are still trending well above the national average.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
New data released by the province shows Alberta’s rates of crime are notably higher than the national average.
According to a provincial report released last week, Alberta surpassed the Canadian average on key crime metrics including rates of violent crime and crime severity as of 2024.
The data in the report is composed of figures reported to Statistics Canada from police services in Alberta for the five-year span beginning in 2020 and ending in 2024. Across that period, Alberta consistently reported higher rates of overall Criminal Code violations than the national average.
While Alberta’s rate of violations declined over that timeframe to reach a five-year low in 2024, it remained 29.5 per cent higher than the national rate.
While Alberta saw 7,348.14 Criminal Code violations per 100,000 population, the Canadian average was 5,672.34.
The province reported higher incidences of both violent crimes and property crimes.
Alberta experienced violent crimes including homicide, assault, sexual assault and robbery at a 7.7 per cent higher rate than the national average.
The province also experienced notably higher rates of property crime, with Alberta’s rate per 100,000 population 33.5 per cent higher than the national rate in 2024.
Both Canada and Alberta saw incidences of property crime fall from 2023 to 2024, with Alberta’s falling faster than the national average.
Property crime rates improved by 9.84 per cent in the province last year, while nationally they were reduced by 5.09 per cent.
The Crime Severity Index, a metric used by Statistics Canada to measure the seriousness of crime, has improved substantially in Alberta over the past five years, but remains higher than the national average.
Alberta’s CSI fell from 109.01 in 2020 to 95.63 in 2024. In the same period, Canada’s CSI increased from 73.92 to 77.89, narrowing the gap between the provincial and national average from 35.09 to 17.74 per cent.
While crime rates across the province have slowly improved, Alberta courts have maintained a steady pace, consistently meeting or exceeding provincial benchmarks.
Lead times for the Alberta Court of Justice averaged 23 weeks for serious and violent matters, exceeding the Ministry of Justice target of 24 weeks. The lead time averaged at 20 weeks for all types of crime.
Court backlogs have also been steadily chipped away over the past five fiscal years, as more cases have been concluded than commenced in every jurisdiction across the province.
The southern region, including Lethbridge and Medicine Hat, saw the province’s highest clearance rate, indicating that local courts are keeping up with the incoming workload.
