For the third year in a row, Prince George, B.C., leads Maclean’s annual crime ranking. Still, the news is not all bad for that city–its crime score was down from last year, when it was 114 per cent above the national average. As well, Canada’s national crime score is more than 25 per cent lower than it was a decade ago. On the flip side, Caledon, Ont., lost its crown as the safest city, a title held since the rankings began in 2008. Two murders within the area patrolled by its police force put its homicide rate 73 per cent above the national average. Nearby Wellington County took the safest title.

The rankings are based on analysis of Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index for the nation’s 100 largest cities and regions, along with municipal crime data for six offences: homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, breaking and entering, and auto theft. (The data, from 2011, is the most current comparable data on a cross-country scale. (Have a look at the full crime rankings, methodology and interactive tools here.)

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