Homicide Rate in Canada 2026 | Statistics & Facts

Canada’s Homicide Rate in 2026

Canada’s homicide rate has settled into a modest but genuine downward trend heading into 2026, with Statistics Canada confirming that the national rate fell for a second consecutive year to its lowest level since before the pandemic-era spike. Police services reported 788 homicides across the country in 2024, the most recent full year of confirmed data, working out to a national rate of 1.91 homicides per 100,000 population, down from 1.99 the year before. While this decline is encouraging, the picture underneath the national average remains sharply uneven, with some provinces posting double-digit percentage drops while others, like New Brunswick, saw their homicide rate nearly double in a single year.

This report lays out the most current, verified homicide statistics for Canada in 2026, sourced exclusively from Statistics Canada’s Homicide Survey. Readers will find figures on the national rate and trend, provincial and city-level breakdowns, the role of firearms and gangs, and the demographic groups most affected, including Indigenous peoples and women. Every number reflects the latest published federal data, giving policymakers, researchers, and the public a single reliable reference point on lethal violence in Canada today.

Statistics Canada tracks homicide through its dedicated Homicide Survey, which has collected detailed data on every police-reported homicide victim, accused person, and incident circumstance since 1961, making it one of the longest-running and most granular crime data series in the country. Because homicide is both rare and reliably reported compared with other crime types, researchers and international bodies widely treat it as the single most trustworthy indicator of a country’s overall level of violence, making this annual release one of the most closely watched criminal justice publications Statistics Canada produces each year.

Interesting Facts About Canada’s Homicide Rate in 2026

Before the detailed breakdown, here is a quick-reference table of standout figures defining Canada’s homicide landscape this year.

Key 2026 Canada Homicide Figures
Total Homicides (2024)              ████████████████████████████████████████ 788
National Rate (per 100,000)         ████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 1.91
Firearm-Related Homicides           ██████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 36%
Indigenous Share of Victims         ████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 30%
Intimate Partner Homicide Victims (Women) ████████████████████████████████░░ 81%

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide trends in Canada, 2024,” The Daily, December 2, 2025.

These figures confirm that Canada’s homicide rate remains below the 2-per-100,000 threshold for the second year running, a level Statistics Canada considers a meaningful marker given the rate briefly climbed above it during the pandemic years. With 788 total homicides in 2024, representing just 0.1% of all police-reported violent crimes, homicide remains a rare event relative to the broader crime picture, yet it carries outsized significance as the metric most closely watched by researchers and policymakers assessing community safety.

The demographic concentration of risk is striking: Indigenous peoples, who make up just 5% of Canada’s population, accounted for a full 30% of homicide victims in 2024, a rate more than eight times higher than for non-Indigenous Canadians, and this share actually rose four percentage points from 2023. Similarly, firearms were involved in 36% of all homicides, with handguns the most common weapon type, while women continued to bear the overwhelming brunt of intimate partner homicide, representing 81% of the 100 people killed by a current or former partner, a pattern also visible in the broader picture captured in our Canada Violent Crime Statistics coverage.

National Homicide Trends in Canada 2026

National Homicide Rate Trend (per 100,000)
2023    ████████████████████████████████████████ 1.99
2024    ██████████████████████████████████████░░ 1.91

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide trends in Canada, 2024,” December 2, 2025.

The national trend shows a modest but real improvement, with 8 fewer homicides recorded in 2024 compared with 2023, pushing the rate down 4% to 1.91 per 100,000. This marks the second consecutive year the national rate has remained below the 2.0 per 100,000 threshold, a level Statistics Canada frames as a meaningful psychological and statistical benchmark following the elevated rates seen earlier in the decade. Despite the overall improvement, one countervailing trend stood out: the number of youths under 18 accused of homicide rose to 72, up from 65 the year before, a detail that complicates an otherwise positive national picture.

Statistics Canada also tracks the criminal history of those accused, finding that 42% of individuals accused of homicide in 2024 had a prior record of committing or being accused of crimes against a person, a rate slightly lower than the 47% recorded in 2023. Roughly one-third of accused individuals between 2019 and 2024 were already under some form of justice system supervision, whether bail, remand, or probation, at the time of the offence, with the 2024 figure at 32%, down from a peak of 35% in 2023 but still well above the 25% low recorded in 2021.

The data also sheds light on victims themselves in the period before their deaths: approximately 1 in 20 homicide victims (5%, or 41 people) had been reported missing at the time they were killed, a detail Statistics Canada tracks as part of its broader effort to understand the circumstances surrounding lethal violence. Taken together with the supervision and prior-record figures, this data paints a picture of a justice system that, in a meaningful share of cases, had some prior contact with either the victim or the accused before the homicide occurred, information that continues to inform how police services and community organizations target prevention efforts.

Homicide Rates by Province in Canada 2026

Provincial Homicide Rate Change, 2024 (% change from 2023)
Newfoundland & Labrador   ███████████████████████████████████████ -51%
British Columbia          ████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░ -27%
Alberta                   ███████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ -20%
Quebec                    ███████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ -11%
New Brunswick             ███████████████████████████████████████ +95%

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide trends in Canada, 2024”; “Rate of homicides, by province and territory, 2015 to 2024.”

Provincial data for 2024 reveals a genuinely mixed picture, with four provinces posting declines while the remaining six saw increases. Newfoundland and Labrador recorded the sharpest improvement, its rate falling 51% as homicides dropped from eight to four, followed by British Columbia (–27%), Alberta (–20%), and Quebec (–11%). In absolute terms, Ontario recorded the most homicides of any province at 282, followed by Alberta (98), Quebec (97), and Manitoba (94).

The most dramatic increase occurred in New Brunswick, where the homicide rate nearly doubled, climbing from 1.08 to 2.11 per 100,000 as victim counts rose from 9 to 18, with eight of those victims killed by shootings, twice the number recorded in 2023. Nova Scotia also saw a substantial rise, from 1.33 to 2.32 per 100,000 as homicides increased from 14 to 25, driven partly by a notable jump in drug-trade-related homicides, which climbed from 2 to 7, and the province’s first occurrence in four years of three separate incidents involving multiple homicide victims, underscoring how volatile year-to-year homicide counts can be in smaller provinces, a volatility further explored in our broader Crime Statistics in Canada coverage.

Homicide Rates by City in Canada 2026

Highest Homicide Rates by Census Metropolitan Area, 2024 (per 100,000)
Thunder Bay      ████████████████████████████████████████ 6.08
Chilliwack       ███████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░ 4.75
Winnipeg         ██████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░ 4.66

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide trends in Canada, 2024,” December 2, 2025.

Thunder Bay recorded Canada’s highest homicide rate of any census metropolitan area in 2024 at 6.08 per 100,000, up from 5.41 the year before, followed by Chilliwack (4.75) and Winnipeg (4.66). These smaller and mid-sized cities consistently post rates far above the national average, a pattern Statistics Canada attributes to a combination of localized gang activity, drug-trade violence, and socioeconomic factors that concentrate risk more heavily than in Canada’s largest metros.

Encouragingly, 22 of the 42 census metropolitan areas tracked saw their homicide rates decline in 2024, with Moncton posting the single largest CMA-level drop at 81%. Among Canada’s three largest cities, however, the picture was mixed: only Vancouver experienced a decrease, while both Toronto and Montréal did not see their homicide rates fall, a divergence that highlights how national and even provincial trends can mask very different realities at the city level.

Firearms, Gangs, and Homicide Methods in Canada 2026

Homicide Methods and Gang Involvement, 2024
Firearm-Related               ████████████████████████████████████░░░░ 36%
Gang-Related                  ███████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 19%
Drug-Trade-Related (of gang)  ██████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░ 53%

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide trends in Canada, 2024,” December 2, 2025.

Firearms remained involved in more than one in three homicides (36%) in 2024, consistent with recent years, with handguns the dominant weapon type at 56% of firearm-related cases, followed by rifles and shotguns at 34%. Gang-related homicides, meanwhile, continued their decline, falling to 152 victims, down from 174 in 2023, and representing less than one-fifth (19%) of all homicides nationally, a share that pushed Canada’s gang-related homicide rate below 0.40 per 100,000 for the first time since 2016.

Within this gang-related category, the composition of violence shifted meaningfully: homicides tied specifically to illegal drug trade activities dropped from 120 in 2023 (69% of gang homicides) to just 80 in 2024 (53%), while firearm-related gang homicides fell from 132 to 110. This decline in drug-trade violence, occurring even as certain provinces like Nova Scotia saw localized increases, suggests that national gang-related trends can move in a different direction than what’s happening in specific regional pockets, a nuance worth keeping in mind alongside youth-involvement data tracked in Canada Youth Crime Statistics.

Indigenous, Racialized, and Intimate Partner Homicide Victims in Canada 2026

Overrepresentation Among Homicide Victims, 2024
Indigenous Share of Victims (vs 5% of population)   ██████████████████████ 30%
Racialized Share of Victims                         ████████████████░░░░░░ 29%
Women Killed by Intimate Partner (of IPV homicides) ██████████████████████ 81%

Source: Statistics Canada, “Homicide in Canada, 2024,” Catalogue no. 11-627-M.

Indigenous peoples remain severely overrepresented among Canada’s homicide victims, making up 3 in 10 victims (30%) while representing just 5% of the national population, a rate more than eight times higher than for non-Indigenous Canadians. This overrepresentation, which Statistics Canada explicitly links to the ongoing effects of colonization, systemic discrimination, and intergenerational trauma, worsened further in 2024: the number of Indigenous women killed rose from 50 to 71, and the overall Indigenous victim share climbed four percentage points from the previous year.

Racialized Canadians also accounted for a disproportionate 29% of all homicide victims (226 people), with Black victims representing the largest single group at 45% of racialized victims, followed by South Asian (22%) and Arab (9%) populations. Meanwhile, the intimate partner homicide data continued a troubling pattern consistent with domestic violence trends nationally: 81 women were killed by a current or former spouse or partner in 2024, a sharp jump from 53 the year before, while the number of male victims in this category remained stable, reinforcing that women continue to bear the overwhelming and disproportionate burden of lethal intimate partner violence in Canada.

Taken as a whole, this demographic data underscores that Canada’s modest national improvement in 2024 was not evenly shared. While the overall rate declined and several provinces saw meaningful drops, the risk faced by Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, and women in intimate partner relationships either held steady or worsened over the same period. Statistics Canada’s continued annual reporting on these specific demographic breakdowns, published alongside the broader Homicide Survey each December, remains the primary tool policymakers and community organizations use to identify where targeted prevention and support resources are most urgently needed heading into the next reporting cycle.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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