How Montreal's Homicide Rate Compares To The Past 4 Years

Last week, the SPVM reported two new homicides, marking Montreal's 20th and 21st homicides of 2021. The city's 19th homicide occurred just a couple of weeks prior.

For context, we can look at homicide rates from previous years. The following chart was compiled using Statistics Canada data.

MTL Blog

The number of homicide victims over the past four years has been fairly consistent and works out to an average of 45.

Since it's September, we're around 3/4 — 75% — through the year. Using the average, we would expect there to be about 33 or 34 homicides by September, so 21 homicides is actually below what one might expect.

That said, anything can happen in a matter of months and monthly rates may vary.

The other thing we can consider is changes to Montreal's population from one year to the next. The homicide rate takes this into account, measuring the number of homicides per 100,000 people. However, the City of Montreal's most recent population count is from 2020 when it recorded 2,069,849 people.

In 2020, Montreal's homicide rate (0.97) was almost on par with that of St. John's, Newfoundland (0.96). Montreal's homicide rate was lower than that of Toronto (1.62), Vancouver (1.64), Calgary (2.53), and Edmonton (3.19). It was slightly higher than that of Ottawa (0.90).

The country's overall homicide rate in 2020 was 1.95.