Tiny Nunavut still leads Canada in homicide rates

Though Canada’s national homicide rate continued to fall in 2013, Nunavut, the smallest jurisdiction in Canada by population, still suffers from the highest homicide rate in the country, Statistics Canada reported Dec. 1.

Nunavut counted four homicide victims in 2013, one fewer than the five counted in 2012 and two fewer than the seven counted in 2011.

The years 2009 and 2010 each saw six homicides.

That adds up to 28 Nunavut homicide victims for the five-year period stretching from the start of 2009 to the end of 2013.

And expressed as a per-capita ratio, Nunavut’s homicide rate for 2013 stood at 11.24 per 100,000, the highest in the country.

Canada’s rate, on the other hand, stood at 1.44 per 100,000, the lowest national homicide rate since 1966, Statistics Canada said.

It’s also higher than in the Northwest Territories, which recorded only two homicides in 2013, down from five in 2012.

As for Yukon, that territory’s homicide rate in 2013, as in 2012 and 2011, was zero — Yukon recorded no homicides over those three years.

Yukon also saw only one homicide in 2010 and two in 2009.

And Prince Edward Island, with a population of about 145,000, recorded only one homicide in 2013 and zero in 2012.

Of Canada’s big cities, Montreal recorded the lowest homicide rate: only 1.08 per 100,000.

Toronto’s homicide rate was also low, at 1.34 per 100,000.

And in Quebec, the homicide rate fell sharply.

There, the absolute number of homicides fell from 108 in 2012 to 68 in 2013, giving a rate of only .83 per 100,000, the lowest Quebec homicide rate since 1961, when reporting began.

Homicide rates tend to be highest — generally — in the West and the North, Statistics Canada said, with “modest increases” in six provinces.

Canada-wide, the absolute number of homicides fell from 543 in 2012 to 505 in 2013 — the lowest number since 1966.

Of those, 68, 14 fewer than the previous year, were intimate partner homicides committed by a spouse or former spouse of the victim.

Most victims — 84 per cent — of intimate partner homicide victims in 2013 were female, Statistics Canada said.

Since 2003, about three of every four homicides have been solved by police, and about seven in every 10 of those are solved in seven days or less.

And people who died by homicide are far more likely to be killed by someone they know than by a stranger, Statistics Canada said.

About 87 per cent, or nine out of 10 homicide victims are killed by an acquaintance (45 per cent), a family member (33 per cent) or someone they knew through a criminal relationship (nine per cent.)