Perception vs. reality: the breakdown on how safe Canadian cities really are

A new Mainstreet/Postmedia  survey shows Canadians have no idea how safe cities really are across the country.

The focus of the survey was to ask Canadians to rank how safe they feel 15 major cities are.

Participants were given a miscellaneous order of cities and asked, “Thinking about the city of (city name), (province) would you say you consider it very safe, safe, somewhat safe, somewhat unsafe, or very unsafe?”

PERCEPTION vs. REALITY

Not one province, gender or age group came close to the  correct order of safest city to least safe city, although there were some common misperceptions.

Ottawa is widely viewed as the safest city in Canada with 72 per cent of respondents thinking that city is safe or very safe. Winnipeg overwhelmingly got a bad rap, with 56 per cent of respondents believing that city is unsafe.

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In reality, Ottawa is the third-safest city and Winnipeg sits mid-pack, just behind Calgary according to the Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index.

The latest crime statistics show Toronto is the safest city and Saskatoon is the least safe city in Canada.

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Manitobans, females, people between 50 to 64 and people over 65 were all close in their views on Saskatoon being the least safe city.

Interestingly, most provinces tend to rank their cities optimistically. Albertans believed Calgary is the seventh-safest city and Edmonton is the eighth safest. (They came in seventh and 13th respectively) Quebecers were the only province to believe that Quebec City is the safest city in the country (it ranks second safest).

ALBERTA BOUND

Calgary was widely viewed by Canadians to be less safe than it really is, and Edmonton was viewed to be more safe than it actually is.

Overall results placed Calgary as the 10th-safest city, which is three spots below where it really ranks in seventh place. Edmonton was thought to be the 11th safest city when in reality there are only two cities less safe than Alberta’s capital, Regina and Saskatoon.

A recent survey done by the Calgary Police Commission shows that Calgarians overwhelmingly feel safe.

According to the 2015 results, 95 per cent of Calgarians agree that Calgary is a safe city to live in.

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In recent years Calgary has shown the greatest increase in severe crime, with a 25 per cent increase in crime since 2014. Prince Edward Island has shown the greatest decrease in crime, with stats down 21 per cent. Crime rates in Saskatoon are largely unchanged over the same time period, up 2 per cent since 2014.

RESULTS

How Canadians ranked the cities, safest to least safe:

1. Ottawa
2. Charlottetown
3. Moncton
4. John’s
5. Quebec City
6. Regina
7. Halifax
8. Victoria
9. Vancouver
10. Calgary
11. Edmonton
12. Saskatoon
13. Montreal
14. Toronto
15. Winnipeg

Actual ranking of safest cities, according to Statistics Canada crime rates, and how crime rates have changed since 2014:

1. Toronto +2%
2. Quebec City 0
3. Ottawa -2%
4. Montreal -4%
5. P.E.I. -12%
6. Halifax -9%
7. Calgary +25%
8. Winnipeg +6%
9. St. John’s +3%
10. Victoria +10%
11. Moncton +21%
12. Vancouver +1%
13. Edmonton +12%
14. Regina +3%
15. Saskatoon +2%

The Mainstreet/Postmedia survey polled 4,231 Canadians.