Is Canada still a significantly safer place to live than the US?

Question

Is the violent crime rate significantly lower in Canada, or is it fairly similar now?

Answer 1

Hugely lower, but think of this. The entire population of Canada is about the same as Los Angeles county and the surrounding areas. So of course the numbers are a lot lower. Plus no guns, thank gawd

Answer 2

yes .....

Answer 3

The violent crime rate in Canada is higher than in the states.  The murder rate is lower but the chances of a person not involved in crimminal activities being murdered is close to the same as in the states.

Answer 4

It`s still safer in Canada.Crime would have to double or tripple before we would get close to there level of crime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...

Answer 5

According to Statistics Canada, in 2006, the overall crime rate in Canada is:

8,269 Crimes per 100,000 people

http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/legal0...

According to the US Bureau of Justice, in 2004, the overall crime rate in the US is:

3,980 Crimes per 100,000 people

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table...

While it's not comparing the same years, one can still assume that overall crime is less in the US.

Violent

Canada 951 crimes per 100,000

US 462 crimes per 100,000

by the same measures as above

In the Canadian stats violent crime is assumed to be:

Homicide

Attempted murder

Assault

Sexual assault

Other sexual assault

Robbery

Other crimes of violence

In US

Murder & non-negligent manslaughter

Forcible rape

Robbery

Aggravated assault

For violent crime the stats may not be comparing the same things however it's tough to say that Canada is safer in the violent crime category.

Murder however is lower in Canada.

Answer 6

Well, it depends on where you live in either country.  If you are comparing cities to cities then the answer would be yes in most cases.  For example, New York City despite its reputation is incredibly safe but there are others such as Detroit not nearly as safe as Canadian cities.

Ultimately, if you are comparing rural areas to rural areas then there won't be much difference.

And the other thing is that if you are injured in Canada the goverment will pay most of the bill but in the States you are on your own most of the time.  So, that would be a factor to consider as well.

Answer 7

I have no idea, being American and all, but I have heard they have free healthcare, and I think thats something that we should be looking at!

Answer 8

Still significantly lower overall. Of course it varies on location, just as it does in the States. i.e there's gonna be more crime in toronto than there would be in small town montana for example.

But if you were to compare a large canadian city to a US city of similar size say Toronto and Detroit, the canadian city 9/10 will be safer. There's more gun control in canada too and not many people own one. Also less gang related issues.

Do you ever hear of things like high school massacres in Canada and other mass killings?

Answer 9

It's not just crime rate, Canadians are usually more "quiet" : less guns, less tensions between communities, less racial historic, less religious tensions.  Usually more "Live and let live".  

The Canadian social way also give less place to poverty and inequalities, low incomes are generally higher than in USA.  That usually lower the robbery, frauds and social tensions also.  "Free" health care is just one dimension of that larger picture.  Note that "free" means you don't have to pay when you need it, but every day our taxes are higher than in USA.  

For the statistics, Canada is more accurate in terms of what they cover by violence crimes.  You have to get more violence in USA to get in the same stats...  Empiric experience is valid also : I never had trouble to be on the streets at night in Montreal, or most of Vancouver, I wouldn't be sure to do the same in downtown Toronto, Los Angeles or Mexico...

Last thing, in Canada maybe there are "only" 38 billions people, but it's still 4 times the Los Angeles county.  And as the north of the country is not really "popular" as it's too cold and too far, Southern cities compare mostly in population as many USA cities.

Answer 10

Violent crime rate is pretty low in Canada compared to the US.

The US rate is decreasing faster than Canada's.  But it was much higher to begin with, so that is to be expected.