Toronto may be Canada's biggest urban centre but new statistics show crime is a lot less serious in this city than in the country's other major metropolitan areas.

In analyzing crime rates and the severity of the crimes in Canada's urban centres, the report concludes that crime was less serious overall in Toronto in 2007 than it was in the country's other major cities, Montreal and Vancouver.

In fact, the entire country seems to be getting less severe, according to a 2007 Police-Reported Crime Severity Index (PRCSI). The stats show that police-reported crime in Canada in 2007 is less serious overall than it was 10 years ago.

The index for overall crime was 94.6 in 2007 compared to 119.1 in 1998. This means that crime severity decreased by about 20 per cent during the last decade. The 10-year decline can be accounted to a 40 per cent drop in break-ins.

The PRCSI measures the severity of crimes that are reported to police. Crime severity is expressed as a number on an index for which 2006 is the base year at 100.

"Each offence is assigned a weight and more serious crimes are assigned higher weights, or relative importance" says the report, posted on the Statistics Canada website. "Changes in more serious crimes, such as break-ins and robberies, drive changes in the index."

Serious crime in Regina

Toronto scored a 65.6 on the PRCSI, which is well below the national average of 94.6, the report says. The city had the lowest ranking out of all 27 census metropolitan areas.

Vancouver, in comparison, had an index of 128.5, which was well above the national average.

However, overall crime severity was highest in Regina, with an index value of 189 -- about twice the number of the national average.

Saskatoon and Winnipeg followed closely behind.

"The seriousness of police-reported crime in Saskatoon has also declined in recent years, while in Winnipeg crime severity has remained relatively stable," the report says.

But violence in Canada is not just limited to the western regions of the country.

Saint John, Halifax and St. John's all had overall index values that placed above the national average.

According to the report, people who live in northern and western Canada generally report crime at a higher rate than those living in the eastern and central regions of the country. There is typically also a higher rate of crime severity in the northern and western regions.

British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan had a much higher crime severity index than the rest of Canada, ranking above the national average.

While Ontario and Quebec scored the lowest-police-reported crime rates in years, it is Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick that saw the lowest crime-severity index values.

However, Ontario and Quebec saw the largest declines in their PRCSI.

Here are other interesting findings from the report:

• The severity of crimes reported to police fell in every year except for 2003. In that year, an increase in robberies and break-ins drove the index up.
• The Police-Reported Crime Rate also dropped during the past 10 years but not to the extent that the crime-severity index dropped. The volume of crimes reported to police fell by 15 per cent compared with a 21 per cent decline in the severity of the crimes reported.
• The severity index fell due to a decrease in several serious crimes, such as break-ins (-16 per cent) and robberies (-11 per cent), while an increase in reported incidents of mischief kept the Police-Reported Crime Rate stable.