Crime rates slightly increased in Nova Scotia last year, despite crime severity dropping both in the province and across the country, according to a July Statistics Canada report.
The crime rate, which tracks the volume of crime per capita regardless of severity, increased by one per cent in Nova Scotia. The 2025 rate of 6,147 incidents per 100,000 people is the highest the province has seen since 2012.
This provincial increase stands in contrast to the national crime rate, which dropped two per cent last year. Nova Scotia’s crime rate was also higher than the national rate of 5,585 incidents per 100,000 people.
Stark increases in minor crimes — including shoplifting and low-level assault — contributed to the rising crime rate, said Chris Giacomantonio, a criminologist and the director of the Clairmont Centre for Community Safety Research at Dalhousie University.
In Nova Scotia, the rate of shoplifting under $5,000 grew about 860 per cent over the last decade, including 23 per cent from 2024 to 2025. Giacomantonio attributes that increase to inflation and the high cost of living causing more wide-reaching financial strife.
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Nova Scotia also reported a lower crime rate than most provinces and territories. Only Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Quebec posted lower rates.
But Giacomantonio said he’s less concerned about how Nova Scotia measures up to other parts of the country than he is about the fact that the provincial crime rate is higher than it was a decade ago.
“Seeing it go back up should be of concern independent of whether or not other provinces are faring better or worse,” he said.
While the crime rate increased, Nova Scotia’s crime severity index dropped three per cent last year. The index measures both the number and relative seriousness of all police-reported crimes compared to population.
That discrepancy between a growing crime rate but a declining severity index is caused by an increase in minor crime and a decrease in major crime, Giacomantonio said.
Giacomantonio said both the crime rate and crime severity index matter when discussing public safety.
“What we think about as safety has to do with safety from serious crimes, but most serious harm, the most harmful crimes, tend to happen between people who know each other,” he said.
Despite crime severity decreasing, people are more likely to encounter minor crime in their day-to-day life, so a climbing crime rate could make people feel less safe.
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“Most people, they’re not at risk of higher-harm events most of the time, so their sense of safety is usually connected to how many bad things seem to be happening,” Giacomantonio said.
The Nova Scotia RCMP said it cannot speculate on factors influencing crime rate changes without conducting an in-depth analysis.
“The Nova Scotia RCMP remains focused on working with our policing and community partners to help keep Nova Scotians safe,” RCMP spokesperson Allison Gerrard stated to CBC News.
Nova Scotia performed slightly better on the crime severity index than Canada as a whole, despite the national rate dropping five per cent last year.
While the slight provincial decline in crime severity last year is a step in the right direction, Giacomantonio is alarmed by a sustained increase in violent incidents throughout Nova Scotia, which has grown 34 per cent since 2016.
“I think that should be of great interest to everyone, especially policymakers,” he said. “Sometimes it’s necessary to increase police presence, to increase prosecution, but that’s not effective long-term.
“There’s a lot of community-level intervention that is better at dealing with this kind of thing. And so, continuing to make those investments is going to continue to be really important.”
In an email to CBC News, Department of Justice spokesperson Adèle Poirier called the increase in overall crime “concerning,” and said the province is supporting community safety initiatives by investing more in policing.
“Nova Scotia needs a stronger, more consistent and more responsive public safety system — one that is driven by what communities actually need to be safe and feel safe,” the email said.
Crime rates are not a one-size-fits-all indication of safety, Giacomantonio said, and a slight provincial increase isn’t necessarily cause for alarm.
“The crime rate is only ever a signal, it’s never an explanation,” he said. “Your odds of experiencing a crime have more to do with the block you live on and how much money you make than they do with the crime rate overall.”
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