Violent crime rate on P.E.I. far and away lowest in Canada

If you're worried about becoming a victim of violent crime, P.E.I. is the place for you.

The Island has the lowest score on Statistics Canada's violent crime severity index in 2015 by a large margin — at 40.82 it was just 55 per cent of the national average (74.48). The next lowest rate is in Ontario, at 59.23.

P.E.I. also had the second largest drop in the index — 14.15 per cent — just slightly behind Nunavut at 14.5 per cent. Nationally the rate was up 5.65 per cent.

Homicide rates are also the lowest in the country. The 10-year average from 2006-15 (there are so few homicides on P.E.I. that annual rates vary widely), shows a homicide rate on P.E.I. of 0.628 per 100,000, which is 37 per cent of the national average.

Manitoba had the highest rate. At 4.13 per 100,000 from 2006-15 it was more than 6.5 times the rate on the Island.

The 10-year homicide rate also fell significantly on P.E.I., down 14.3 per cent, as compared to a drop of 10.6 per cent nationally.

About the violent crime severity index

Statistics Canada's violent crime severity index tracks reported crimes and assigns them different weights based on actual sentences handed down by the courts.

The index was set at 100 for Canada in 2006.