Manitoba's crime rate rises, 2nd worst among provinces

Manitoba still ranks near the top when it comes to crime rates across Canada.

Manitoba once again boaststhe second-highest crime rate among provinces, according toStatistics Canada data released on Wednesday.

Only Saskatchewan had a higher crime rate.

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The 2015 crime rate for Manitoba was8,161 crimes per 100,000 people. Saskatchewan's number is11,178.

The rate for all ofCanada was5,198.

Manitoba's crime severity index also went up in 2015, increasing eight per cent over 2014.

Nationally, the crime severity index,which measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime,grew five per cent in 2015.

The rise was primarily a result of more incidents of fraud (up 15 per cent), homicide (up 15 per cent),robbery (up five per cent) and break-and-enter (up four per cent), StatisticsCanada reported. Asignificantincrease in crimes inAlberta and smaller increases in British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan fuelled the higher national numbers.

This marks the firstrise in police-reported crime in12years, but the crime severity indexis still 31 per centlower thana decade earlier,Statistics Canada reported.

Generally,Canada's crime level has been on a downward trend since the early1990s, with the only other increase reported in2003.

The largest increases were reported in Alberta (18 per cent), New Brunswick (12 per cent), the Northwest Territories (10per cent) and Saskatchewan (10 per cent). Since the inception of thecrime severity index in1998, there have been only three other occasions when a provincial increase of10 per cent or more was seen,Statistics Canada said.

Reported criminal violations, Manitoba, 1998-2015

• 1998 131,558.
• 1999 132,849.
• 2000 134,399.
• 2001 141,768.
• 2002141,740.
• 2003 156,550.
• 2004 159,957.
• 2005 148,186.
• 2006 145,847.
• 2007 139,145.
• 2008 128,193.
• 2009 137,283.
• 2010 130,027.
• 2011121,719.
• 2012 121,815.
• 2013110,361.
• 2014 107,589.
• 2015 113,643.