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Greater Sudbury in top third of Maclean's list of most dangerous Canadian cities

Sudbury's Crime Severity Index saw a spike of 20 points from a year ago
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The Maclean's Magazine list of the most dangerous places to live in Canada ranked Greater Sudbury 75th out of 237 cities that were reported.

Sudbury ranks in the top third nationwide, and among Ontario cities on the list, Greater Sudbury is 12th out of 87 cities.

The report ranks communities according to the Crime Severity Index (CSI), a Statistics Canada measure of all police-reported crime, which takes into consideration both the volume and seriousness of offences. 

The 2017 data, the most current available, was released July 23, 2018.

Sudbury comes in with a homicide rate of 0.61, and an assault rate of 350.46 (incidents per 100,000 people), significantly below the national average of 430.68. In most of the categories measured in the report, Sudbury falls below the national average, with the exception of sexual assault, break and enters, and fraud.

Greater Sudbury's sexual assault rate of 70.48 ranks a fair margin above the national average of 56.56. Break and enters are one of the more common crimes in Greater Sudbury, with a rate 572.98, compared to the national average of 438.51.

In respect to fraud, Sudbury's reported rate was 393.51, above the national average of 299.05.

Sudbury does, however, have a significantly lower rate of impaired driving (99.44) than the national average of 194.31.

Last year's list had Sudbury ranked at the bottom of the list as far as the most dangerous cities Ontario. The Nickel City took a significant jump this year, largely due to a 20 point jump in the Crime Severity Index from 64 a year ago, to 84 in 2018.

Kenora and area tops the list for Crime Severity Index in Ontario with 110, followed by Belleville (108), and Windsor and Timmins in a tie at 95. Our Northern Ontario neighbours Sault Ste. Marie ranked ninth most dangerous city in Ontario with a CSI of 89, and Thunder Bay 10th most dangerous in Ontario with a CSI of 88, while North Bay and Callander came in at 18th in the province with a CSI of 73.

In terms of safety nationally, head east, as Amherst, NS is the first city east of Manitoba to hit the list at 25th in the country. The rest of the top 25 cities are all in central and western Canada.

North Battleford, SK once again tops the list as the most dangerous city in Canada with a Crime Severity Index of 372.

Thompson, MB (former home of Sudbury.com reporter Matt Durnan) ranked number two on the list with a Crime Severity Index of 333, followed by Wetaskiwin, AB at 258.

You can get the full list with detailed crime stats here.