Nanaimo 12th Most Dangerous City ?

Nanaimo Ranked #12 Most Dangerous City

MacLeans magazine has released the findings of their study comparing 100 Canadian cities with populations of 10,000 or more based on the incidence of crime per capita. Of the 100 cities studied, Nanaimo ranks a surprising #12, and what is even more surprising is that sleepy old Victoria actually ranks as #2.

The methodology employed by MacLeans is explained as:

Maclean’s obtained annual crime data from Statistics Canada for municipal police services serving the nation’s 100 largest populations, each encompassing a city or town of at least 10,000 people. Using 2010 rates per 100,000 people for six crimes—homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, vehicle theft, robbery plus breaking and entering—in each area, Maclean’s calculated the percentage difference from the national rate. The overall crime score ranking for the 100 communities was created in consultation with StatsCan, using its Crime Severity Index (CSI) score and calculating the percentage difference from the national CSI score. Maclean's calculated the ratios by dividing population of the area by the raw number of crimes. Maclean's uses the names of the individual police services as used by Statistics Canada as the "city" name; some are edited for space.

The method of ranking cities comes down to the per centage a community is either above or below the Canadian average. For example the worst is Prince George with a ranking 113.7% above the national average and the best is Caledon with a ranking 59.3% below the national average.

Nanaimo comes in at #12 with an average ranking 50.1% above the national average. Statistics are tricky things and sometimes can make something appear worse than it is in reality. For example, if you were to ask the average Nanaimo citizen if they felt they were living in the 12th worst city for crime in Canada, I think most people would think you were smoking crack. The idea that sleepy old Victoria, the home of the newly wed and the nearly dead is the 2nd most dangerous city in Canada seems difficult to reconcile also.

The same study shows that Nanaimo's rate has improved nearly 27% since the 2005 statistics were evaluated. I would imagine the local police force will be conflicted in how they would apply these stats, on the one hand if they want to add more police, the fact we rank #12 most dangerous would indicate more police are needed. On the other hand if we rank #12, you might well ask if our police are doing a very good job??

If you consider that Victoria is ranked as #2, a reasonable person could conclude that Canada must be the safest place on the planet to live!

To quote a 19th century Prime Minister "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."