14 July 2006

Murder, she wrote...

Maybe it's the tit for tat bloodshed in the Middle East, or maybe just the four homicides in the GTA (that's the Greater Toronto area for the rest of the bootless & unhorsed) last night, but my thoughts are turning to murder.

Homicide statistics for Canada can be found at the Statistics Canada website
The nation-wide average for 2003 was 1.73 homicides per 100,000. Ranking all of the Provinces and Territories by murder rate for the year 2003 results in the following table:

PROVINCE/TERRITORY

PER 100,000
(1) Nunavut 10.21
(2) Northwest Territories 9.55
(3) Saskatchewan 4.12
(4) Manitoba 3.70
(5) Yukon 3.22
(6) British Columbia 2.24
(7) Alberta 2.00
(8) Ontario 1.45
(9) Quebec 1.34
(10) New Brunswick 1.07
(11) Newfoundland 0.96
(12) Nova Scotia 0.85
(13) Prince Edward Island 0.73

What's interesting here is how you're much less likely to get snuffed as you slide further south and east. Now, I don't want to be sloppy or unscientific, but the least likely place in the land to be murdered may be Tignish, Prince Edward Island (which doesn't preclude having your lights punched out in a fight at Karaoke night at the local Legion, but statistically... you're probably gonna live).