Crime reported to police across the country dropped again last year, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.Crime reported to police across the country dropped again last year, according to a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday. (CBC)

The volume and severity of crime reported to police across the country dropped again last year, continuing the downward trend seen over the past decade, reports Statistics Canada.

Nearly 2.2 million crimes were reported to police in 2009, about 43,000 fewer than in 2008, according to a report released Tuesday.

Car thefts, break-ins and mischief cases accounted for most of the decline.

Total Crime Severity Index of selected Canadian cities
City 2009 % change from 2008
Regina 143.7 -12
Saskatoon 132.1 -5
Winnipeg 127.2 +2
Edmonton 115.1 -7
Vancouver 109.6 -8
Halifax 97.2 +1
Saint John 96.4 -6
Victoria 92.2 -10
St. John's 90.6 +4
Montreal 89.6 -2
Calgary 78.4 -7
Windsor 71.1 -5
Ottawa 67.0 -2
Toronto 61.9 -4
Quebec City 61.0 -4
(Source: Statistics Canada, Police-reported crime statistics )

The crime rate, which is a measure of the volume of crime reported to police, fell three per cent last year and was 17 per cent lower than a decade ago.

The crime severity index (CSI), which measures the seriousness of incidents reported, declined four per cent last year and was down 22 per cent from 1999.

Violent crimes, from harassing phone calls to homicide, accounted for about one in five crimes in 2009. The report said violent crime is declining but to a lesser extent than overall crime.

There were about 165,000 youth age 12 to 17 accused of a criminal offence in 2009, a slight drop from 2008. Both the numbers and the seriousness of youth crimes have generally been declining since 2001.

The drop in police-reported crime severity was consistent across the country, with only Manitoba and Nunavut reporting increases.

Police-reported crime was most serious in the territories and the western provinces, which has been the case for the past decade. Crime-severity values in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories were twice as high as in the provinces.

Saskatchewan reported the highest crime severity index among the provinces, followed by Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta.

Among census metropolitan areas (CMAs), police-reported crime severity was highest in Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. Calgary was the only western CMA below the national average.

The Toronto CMA reported a four per cent decline in crime severity in 2009. Its CSI was third lowest, behind Guelph and Quebec City.

Statistics Canada started using the Crime Severity Index in this report to rank each jurisdiction not only by the number of crimes it has, but by how serious those crimes are. More weight is given to bigger offences in calculating the CSI, with the total divided by the population.

With files from The Canadian Press