Kamloops overtakes Kelowna as city with Canada's highest crime rate

Kamloops has knocked Kelowna off its perch, but not in a good way.

The city and its surrounds have the highest crime rate in Canada.

Kelowna held that title two years running, in 2021 and 2022.

But in 2023, according to Statistics Canada data released today, Kamloops came in considerably ahead of its rival to the south.

It registered 13,116 police-reported crimes per 100,000 people.

Kelowna, meanwhile, saw its rate fall below 10,000 for the first time in two years, with 9,423 crime reports per 100,000 people.

Kamloops did not show up in previous data since it only recently became a census metropolitan area (CMA) tracked by StatCan.

Elsewhere in Canada, Red Deer came second in the rankings with 12,765 crimes per 100,000 people.

It was followed by Chilliwack (11,615) and Nanaimo (10,500).

Sherbrooke in Quebec – which is about twice the size of the Kamloops CMA and a similar size to the Kelowna CMA – came bottom of the list with 3,202.

Canada’s overall rate was 5,843, up 2.5 per cent on 2022.

Violent crime was also up nationally, by 0.4 per cent, while youth crime surged 12.7 per cent.

Non-violent crime increased by 3.1 per cent.

Kelowna RCMP said in a public bulletin today that break and enters at businesses were down 27.9 per cent in 2023.

Crimes related to the making and distribution of child sexual abuse material, however, were up 83.1 per cent.

Fraud (36 per cent), shoplifting under $5,000 (4.6 per cent) and sexual assault (29.9 per cent) were also up.

“I am proud of our efforts and pleased with the steady decrease in 2023 crime across many areas of violent and non-violent crime,” Kara Triance, superintendent of the Kelowna/Central Okanagan RCMP detachment, said in a press release.

“Our police professionals will continue to tackle crime drivers relentlessly, serving the public with commitment and professionalism. We value our partnerships in our communities, and together, we will continue to strive to achieve significant changes by addressing the root causes of criminality.”

To see StatCan’s full dataset, head here.