The Most Dangerous Cities, Towns And Rural Places in Alberta February 2023

These rankings show the places with the highest crime rates in February 2023.   At the end of the post is a list of 124 communities and where they ranked from the worst property crime levels to the lowest.

All rankings are done on a per 1,000 resident basis to help make an equal comparison.

Rankings only show the most recent month. In my opinion, looking at the most recent monthly totals is the most helpful for someone concerned if crime is an issue near where they live. Data further back than one month tends to be less and less relevant with what is happening currently.

Wait! The most current crime data is now from July 2023 not February. To see the latest you may want to visit - The Highest Crime Rates In Alberta – July 2023

Cities With The Highest Crime in February

Here is a chart showing the six cities with the highest reported crime rate in the province.

Cold Lake had the highest crime rate in February.  Total property crimes were 63.Edmonton was #2 with 3039 property crimes.Calgary was #3 with 3364 property crimes.Leduc was #4.Red Deer was #5.Wetaskiwin was #6.

The median level of property crimes for the 16 cities in Alberta that publish data was 1.97 crimes per 1,000 residents.

The total property crimes for all cities, counties, and towns that the RCMP oversee in February was 2702 property crimes.  Edmonton at 3039 crimes and Calgary at 3364 property crimes had more in each city than rest of the province had combined.  Since the levels of crime is so much higher in these two cities it is best to compare crime between the two.

The Edmonton Region Overall Had Higher Crime in February

Once again the Edmonton area overall has a higher crime rate.  Here is a chart showing the highest locations in the Edmonton Capital Region.

Leduc County was #1.  It is very unusual for a rural area to reach such a high crime level. 
Edmonton was #2
Leduc was #3
Fort Saskatchewan was #4
Spruce Grove was #5
Stony Plain was #6

Here is the Calgary region over the same time period.

Calgary was #1
Rocky View County was #2
Airdrie was #3
Crossfield was #4
Stoney Nakoda First Nation was #5
Chestermere was #6

All of the regions around Calgary had less than 1.5 crimes per 1,000 residents.  All of the regions around Edmonton had more than 1.5 crimes per 1,000 residents.

The Highest Property Crime In Alberta In February

Here is a Chart showing the 6 highest crime locations in the province.

Bonnyville was #1
High Prairie was #2
Smoky Lake County was #3
Barrhead was #4
Lac La Biche County was #5
Valleyview was #6

Towns With The Highest Crime

These six towns had the highest property crime rates in February.

These locations were Bonnyville, High Prairie, Barrhead, Valleyview, Peace River and St Paul.

Seeing the crime rate on a town level helps ratepayers in these communites be aware there is a clear risk to their valuables.  On a per resident basis, these communities experience some of the most frequent property crime in the province.

Rural Crime

Smoky Lake County, Lac La Biche County, Leduc County, Samson Cree Nation, the MD of Opportunity and Lac Ste Anne County had the highest rural crime rates in the province.

Ranking By Region

Below are the highest crime locations for seven other regions across Alberta.  Those regions are Central Alberta, Badlands,  Southern,  Eastern, Grande Prairie, Peace River and the Rockies.

Central

The communities most impacted by property crime were Barrhead, Samson Cree Nation, Alberta Beach, Lac Ste. Anne County, Red Deer, and Wetaskawin.

Eastern

The communities most impacted were Bonnyville, Smoky Lake County, Lac La Biche County, Cold Lake, MD of Opportunity, St Paul.

Southern Alberta - Badlands

The Southern Alberta and Badlands regions have the lowest crime rates in the province.

Grande Prairie - Peace River

The communities with the highest rate of property crime were High Prairie, Valleyview, Peace River, Beaverlodge, Grande Prairie, and Wembley.

Rockies

Crime Rates and Ranking Across Alberta

These are the 124 places we rank from the highest crime to the lowest.  There is the ranking, the name of the Municipality, the crimes per 1,000 residents, and the total reported crimes.

Unfortunately, several of the top 10 places have not changed much month after month.

Ranking | Municipality| Crimes per 1,000 Residents| Reported Crimes 

The Highest 25%

1 Bonnyville 6.56 42
2 High Prairie 5.85 15
3 Smoky Lake County 5.60 23
4 Barrhead 5.32 23
5 Lac La Biche County 4.82 37
6 Valleyview 4.78 8
7 Leduc County 4.35 60
8 Samson Cree Nation 4.15 14
9 Cold Lake 4.02 63
10 Peace River 3.47 23

11 MD of Opportunity 3.46 11
12 St Paul 3.41 20
13 Castor 3.23 3
14 Vegreville 3.15 18
15 Wainwright 3.03 19
16 Edmonton 3.01 3039
17 Alberta Beach 2.95 3
18 Lac Ste. Anne County 2.75 30
19 Calgary* 2.71 3364
20 Beaverlodge 2.64 6

21 Leduc 2.64 90
22 Slave Lake 2.56 17
23 Athabasca 2.54 7
24 Red Deer 2.46 248
25 Wetaskiwin 2.45 31
26 Hinton 2.44 24
27 Bruderheim 2.26 3
28 Westlock 2.23 16
29 Thorhild County 2.15 7
30 Wood Buffalo 2.00 143

The second highest quartile

31 Fort Saskatchewan 1.99 54
32 Improvement District No. 9 1.99 233
Grande Prairie 1.98 127
34 Spruce Grove 1.97 74
35 Drayton Valley 1.94 14
36 Flagstaff County 1.87 7
37 County of Westaskawin 1.79 20
38 Stony Plain 1.72 31
39 Vermilion River County 1.69 14
40 Brooks 1.68 25

41 Cardston 1.67 6
42 Whitecourt 1.65 16
43 Sylvan Lake 1.63 26
44 Edson 1.55 13
45 Athabasca County 1.52 12
46 Sundre 1.47 4
47 Yellowhead County 1.46 16
48 Sturgeon County 1.45 29
49 Stettler 1.44 8
50 Olds 1.42 13

51 Parkland County 1.40 45
52 Brazeau County 1.39 10
53 Nanton 1.38 3
54 Ponoka 1.36 10
55 Red Deer County 1.33 26
56 Rocky View County 1.32 52
57 Wembley 1.32 2
58 MD of Greenview 1.31 12
59 Bon Accord 1.31 2
60 Airdrie 1.28 95

The Safest 50%

61 Banff 1.27 10
62 O'Chiese 1.27 1
63 Big Lakes County 1.23 7
64 St. Albert 1.23 84
65 St. Paul County 1.16 7
66 Lethbridge County 1.16 12
67 County of Barrhead 1.11 7
68 Crossfield 1.11 4
69 Delburne 1.09 1
70 Redcliff 1.08 6

71 Devon 1.06 7
72 Blackfalds 1.05 11
73 Lacombe County 1.05 14
74 Northern Sunrise County 1.02 2
75 Ponoka County 1.02 10
76 Strathmore 1.02 14
77 Stoney Nakoda First Nation 1.01 4
78 Strathcona County 0.99 97
79 Morinville 0.96 10
80 County of Grande Prairie 0.94 21

81 Camrose County 0.94 8
82 Chestermere 0.92 19
83 Calmar 0.92 2
84 Wheatland County 0.91 8
85 Rocky Mountain House 0.89 6
86 MD of Bonnyville 0.85 11
87 Woodlands County 0.84 4
88 Lamont County 0.80 3
89 Claresholm 0.79 3
90 Clearwater County 0.76 9

The Safest 25%

91 Black Diamond 0.73 2
92 Okotoks 0.72 22
93 Crowsnest Pass 0.72 4
94 Canmore 0.71 10
95 Foothills County 0.66 15
96 Drumheller 0.63 5
97 Cochrane 0.62 20
98 Mountain View County 0.61 8
99 Fox Creek 0.61 1
100 Penhold 0.57 2

101 Coaldale 0.57 5
102 Beaver County 0.51 3
103 Innisfail 0.50 4
104 Westlock County 0.42 3
105 Three Hills 0.33 1
106 County of Forty Mile 0.28 1
107 Mackenzie County 0.27 3
108 High River 0.26 6
109 Jasper 0.22 1
110 Beaumont 0.19 4

111 Didsbury 0.15 2
112 Taber 0.12 1
113 Alix 0.00 0
114 Bashaw 0.00 0
115 Bassano 0.00 0
116 Bentley 0.00 0
117 Berwyn 0.00 0
118 Bow Island 0.00 0
119 Bowden 0.00 0
120 Eckville 0.00 0

121 High Level 0.00 0
122 Onoway 0.00 0
123 Sexsmith 0.00 0
124 Stettler County 0.00 0

Congratulations to all those communities that experience zero property crimes in January.  From Alix to Stettler County, these are some of the top places to live in Alberta based on property crime levels.

Where These Charts and Data Came From

There are over 300 Municipalities in Alberta counting Villages and Reserves. We gather all the RCMP data, Calgary Police Service Data and Edmonton Police Service data that is publicly available. The goal is to report on the major areas and trends, not every single village.

Of the 300 RCMP reported areas this report covers 124 of the larger ones. The crimes are then compared to the population to get the crimes per 1,000 residents.

This method helps make the easiest comparison between locations. This method is also what the FBI uses to look at crime across America.

Calgary*

Calgary data is only available as recent as December 2022.

Calgary Property Crime Data
Commercial Robbery 20
Property Crimes 3746
Fraud (402)
Total 3364

Edmonton

Break and Enter Commercial 204
Break and Enter Residential 259
Graffiti 18
Mischief - Property 439
Property Damage 2
Robbery Commercial 18
Theft of Motor Vehicle 409
Theft Over $5000 100
Theft Under $5000 1590
Grand Total 3039

Notes About The Data

Independent police services like the Lethbridge Police Service, the Lacombe Police Service, The Medicine Hat Police service do not seem to report the property crime rates publicly.

If there is a way to access data for these and any other police services please let me know.

Hythe property crime was included in the County of Grande Prairie's count.  Grande Cache property crime was included in the MD of Greenview's count.

Due to the difficulties in collecting this data some locations in Alberta may not be included.