New statistics show N.S. crime rates have decreased over the past year

New crime numbers released by Statistics Canada on Monday show a decrease in both violent and non-violent criminal activity in Nova Scotia in the past year, in line with an overall downturn in crime in the province over the past decade.

Here are some highlights from the data:

•In 2016, there were 52,604 criminal incidents in Nova Scotia and 14,945 individuals charged.

•Halifax has seen a 46 per cent decrease in crime rate since 2006. Crime rate is a traditional method that has been used to measure police-reported crime in Canada since 1962 and is generally expressed as a rate per 100,000 population.

• Nova Scotia had a homicide rate of 1.37 per 100,000 people in 2016, the third-lowest figure in the country.

• Nova Scotia was one of seven provinces that saw an overall decrease in Crime Severity Index (CSI) from 2015 to 2016. Nova Scotia saw a decrease of three per cent while Halifax saw a decrease of four per cent. CSI was developed as a new way to measure crime that accounts for not just the volume of crime in a given area, but also the relative seriousness.

• Crimes that contributed the most to the overall change in CSI in the province were breaking and entering, mischief, and robbery.

• Crimes that contributed the most to the change in CSI in Halifax between 2015 and 2016 were breaking and entering and robbery.

• Crimes that contributed the most to a three per cent decrease in violent CSI in Nova Scotia between 2015 and 2016 were robbery and attempted murder. There was a 16 per cent decrease in robberies in the province from 2015 to 2016.

• Non-violent CSI was down by just over two per cent from 2015 to 2016 in Nova Scotia.

• Most provinces and territories reported decreases in youth violent CSI. Nova Scotia was one of four exceptions with an increase of 25 per cent. The increase in Nova Scotia was primarily due to an increase in homicides (from zero in 2015 to two in 2016) and attempted murders (from one in 2015 to eight in 2016).

• Youth CSI overall was up just over eight per cent in Nova Scotia from 2015 to 2016.

• Increases in total fraud were reported by 28 of 33 metropolitan areas. Halifax was one of the only exceptions to the national increase with a decrease of one per cent.