Canada Has More Violent Crime Than the U.S.

Most people compare crime between Canada and the United States by looking only at murder rates. The U.S. has a higher homicide rate, about 4 per 100,000 people compared to Canada's 1.91 per 100,000. But murders are a tiny part of all violent crime.

This new analysis from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) argues that looking at total violent crime tells a very different story.

Why Police Reports Can Mislead

Both countries track crimes in two ways: crimes reported to police and surveys asking people directly about being victimized. Many crimes never reach police reports.

In 2019, Canadians reported only 29% of violent crimes to police, while Americans reported 41%. By 2024, the U.S. reporting rate reached 48%.

Because Americans report more often, official police numbers make the U.S. look more dangerous even if actual crime is similar.

If both countries had identical violence levels, America's higher reporting rate would make its crime appear 41% worse than Canada's on paper alone.

What Victim Surveys Reveal

To get past this problem, CPRC researchers compared survey data rather than police records. In the U.S., they used the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In Canada, they used Statistics Canada's General Social Survey (GSS) from 2019, the most recent available.

The findings were striking. According to these surveys, Canada's total violent crime rate in 2019 was 295% higher than the U.S. rate in 2024.

Even after removing rape and sexual assault from both sides (because the countries measure them differently), Canada's rate remained 175% higher.

Robbery rates, which are measured very similarly in both nations, were 268% higher in Canada. Property crime also favored the U.S.: burglary was 259% higher in Canada, and motor vehicle theft was 412% higher. Only one category—”other household theft”—was lower in Canada, by about 19%.

Historical Patterns Confirm This Gap

This difference is not recent. An earlier survey called the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) asked the same questions in both countries using identical definitions back in 2000.

It found that 7% of Canadians experienced violent crime versus 5% of Americans—a 40% gap favoring the U.S. That survey program was later discontinued.

Definition Differences Work Against the U.S.

There are measurement differences that actually make comparisons harder.

Canada's GSS counts a broader range of sexual assaults, including unwanted touching. The U.S. NCVS includes threats without physical contact, which Canada excludes.

Since most violent crime involves assault, the U.S. method tends to inflate its own numbers. Yet Canada still shows much higher rates despite this built-in disadvantage for American figures.

Sexual Assault Reporting Disparity

Sexual assault reporting differs dramatically. According to the Canadian GSS, only 6% of sexual assaults are reported to police. In contrast, the U.S. NCVS found victims reported 34% of rapes and sexual assaults in 2019.

Using a direct calculation dividing police-recorded crimes by survey estimates yields even lower real-world reporting rates, especially in Canada. Burglary remains the exception, with nearly matching reporting rates (45% Canada, 44% U.S.).

The Bottom Line

Key Conclusions

• When measuring total violent crime through victim surveys, Canada's rate far exceeds the U.S. rate.
• Police-reported crime creates a misleading picture because Americans report incidents much more frequently.
• Homicides remain the clearest cross-country comparison—with higher rates in the U.S.—but represent less than 0.2% of violent crime in both nations.
• These patterns hold across decades and multiple crime types including robbery, assault, burglary, and vehicle theft.
• The CPRC notes that definition biases work against finding large Canadian advantages, suggesting the real gap may be even bigger than shown.

The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.