Auto123.com - Helping you drive happy

Car theft rate drops again across Canada

|
Get the best interest rate
Alex Law
City rates vary widely
City rates vary widely

Like crime in general across the country, auto theft was down again in 2004, according to crime rate reports released by Statistics Canada today.

Notwithstanding that good news for the country, the car theft rate varies wildly from province to province and city to city.

In total, police forces across the country reported nearly 170,000 stolen motor vehicles last year, which is a decrease of four percent. Since its peak in 1996, the car theft rate has declined every year but two.

Looked at another way, this means there was a stolen car for 530 for every 100,000 Canadians, or about one theft for every 200 people.

Cars accounted for just over half of all vehicle thefts, StatsCan reports, while trucks, including vans and sport utility vehicles, comprised a further 34 percent. The rate of stolen cars dropped four percent, while truck thefts fell two percent.

Ontario (-12 percent) and British Columbia (-6 percent) reported the largest declines in vehicle thefts, while Newfoundland and Labrador (+52 percent), Nova Scotia (+24 percent) and Manitoba (+23 percent) recorded the largest increases. Manitoba continued to have the highest rate among the provinces, primarily due to the high rate of thefts in Winnipeg.

Measuring the auto theft per 100,000 people by census metropolitan areas (CMA), the findings are:

Winnipeg: 1,932
Abbotsford: 1,529
Regina: 1,351
Vancouver: 1,104
Edmonton: 1,018
Montreal: 663
London: 611
Saskatoon: 590
Halifax: 540
Hamilton: 540
Sherbrooke: 526
Greater Sudbury: 489
Kitchener: 459
Calgary: 457
Windsor: 455
Trois Rivieres: 367
St. Catharines/Niagara: 354
Saguenay: 337
Victoria: 336
St. John's: 325
Toronto: 325
Thunder Bay: 323
Ottawa: 316
Gatineau: 304
Quebec: 277
Kingston: 233
St: John: 135
Alex Law
Alex Law
Automotive expert