THUNDER BAY - The city of Thunder Bay has once again earned the notorious title of murder capital of Canada, with a homicide rate five times the national average, and two times the next census metropolitan area.
According to data released by Statistics Canada in late July, in 2022 the city had 12.05 homicides per 100,000 people.
The national average in Canada last year was 2.25 homicides per 100,000 people.
The second-highest census metropolitan area was Winnipeg, with a homicide rate of 6.1 per 100,000 people in 2022, followed by the Greater Sudbury area at 5.83 and Abbotsford-Mission in British Columbia at 4.71.
The lowest homicide rate in the country was in Sherbrooke, Quebec with zero, followed by Oshawa with 0.57 and Ottawa-Gatineau with 0.58.
The homicide rate in Thunder Bay jumped to 12.05 in 2022 from 4.82 in 2021, which was the third-highest in the nation that year.
The drop in 2021 came after the city had the highest homicide rate in Canada in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In 2022, the Thunder Bay set a new record for the number of homicides in a year at 15. There have been three confirmed homicides so far in the city in 2023.
Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index report, released late last month, showed the overall crime rate in the city dropped in 2022, while the crime severity remained relatively unchanged from the previous year.
