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• Police-reported crime in Canada continues to decline. Both the severity and the volume of crime dropped in 2009, continuing the general decrease seen over the past decade.

• There were approximately 43,000 fewer crimes reported to police in 2009. Three property crimes accounted for the majority of this drop: 17,000 fewer motor vehicle thefts, 10,000 fewer mischief offences and 5,000 fewer break-ins.

• Canada's Crime Severity Index (CSI), a measure of the seriousness of police-reported crime, decreased 4% in 2009 and was 22% lower than in 1999. The crime rate, a measure of the volume of crime reported to police, also dropped in 2009, down 3%. The crime rate was 17% lower than a decade ago.

• Violent crime in Canada is also declining, but to a lesser extent than overall crime. Both the violent Crime Severity Index and the violent crime rate declined slightly in 2009, down 1%. The violent CSI dropped for the third consecutive year, and was 6% lower than a decade earlier, a much smaller decline than for the overall CSI.

• Most violent crimes declined in 2009, including homicide, serious assaults, sexual assaults and robbery. However, increases were reported in attempted murder, extortion, firearms offences and criminal harassment.

• Police reported 610 homicides in 2009, 1 less than the previous year. Despite annual fluctuations, the homicide rate has been relatively stable for the past decade and well below the peak rate seen in the mid-1970s.

• Impaired driving offences increased for the third year in a row. Police reported 89,000 impaired driving offences in 2009, an increase of 3% in the rate. About 2% of these offences were drug-impaired driving.

• Drug offences declined 6%, mainly due to a 21% drop in cocaine offences. Cannabis offences, which account for about two-thirds of all drug crimes, remained relatively stable in 2009.

• Data from a new youth Crime Severity Index show that youth crime severity has generally been declining since 2001, including a 2% drop in 2009. However, while the youth violent CSI was stable from the previous year; it was 10% higher than a decade earlier.

• Between 2008 and 2009, the CSI declined or remained stable in all provinces and territories with the exception of small increases in Manitoba and Nunavut. The largest declines in crime severity occurred in British Columbia and Alberta.

• The Northwest Territories and Nunavut continued to report the highest CSI values in the country. Among the provinces, the highest CSI values were reported in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, while the lowest were in Prince Edward Island, Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.

• Despite a 12% decrease, Regina reported the highest CSI among all census metropolitan areas in 2009, followed by Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Kelowna. Toronto reported the third lowest CSI, behind only Guelph and Québec.

• Although crime was down in most areas of the country in 2009, some metropolitan areas did show an increase in crime severity. The largest of these were in Saguenay, Greater Sudbury and Kitchener.

• Manitoba reported the highest homicide rate among the provinces for the third consecutive year. With 9 homicides in 2009, Abbotsford–Mission had the highest homicide rate among all 33 census metropolitan areas for the second year in a row.