Toronto crime declining fast and murder rate is now 10x lower than this major city

Crime was all anyone in Toronto could talk about for much of the early 2020s, but that "Gotham" narrative has been all but forgotten in 2025, as major crimes have plummeted across the city.

The latest Toronto Police data shows just how much major crime in the city has declined since last year, with the force's Major Crimes Indicators portal revealing fewer homicides, auto thefts, and declines in almost every other major crime category in 2025.

Here's how far every category of major crime has declined in 2025 compared to the same period last year.

Total major crimes

Total major crime indicators are down 10.3 per cent year-to-date, with the 38,885 major crimes reported in 2025 showing a decline of 4,454 incidents compared to the same time last year.

Homicides

Homicides have registered the most significant decline of any major crime category this year. The 35 homicides recorded in Toronto this year represent a massive 53.9 per cent drop in year-to-date homicides, which sat at 76 this time last year.

For reference, Chicago, a city with a comparable population, has witnessed over ten times this murder rate in 2025, with a staggering 359 homicides as of Nov. 3.

Toronto Police

Auto theft

After a meteoric spike in auto thefts in recent years, current data reveals that this category of major crime has registered the second-largest decline since last year. There have been 2,553 fewer auto thefts in Toronto compared to the same period last year, with the 5,805 auto thefts logged as of early November representing a 30.5 per cent drop from 2024's figure.

Robbery

Robberies saw the next largest decline from 2024, with year-to-date figures of 2,237 incidents in 2025 marking a 16.2 per cent drop over last year. On the same calendar date a year earlier, there had been 431 additional robberies than have been recorded in 2025.

Break and enter

Break-and-enter incidents declined from 5,759 at this point in 2024 to 5,042 in November 2025. This decline of 717 break-and-enters is 12.5 per cent lower than the year-to-date figure from last November.

Toronto Police

Sexual violence

Sexual violence has also been on the decline in Toronto this year, dropping 11.8 per cent from 2024's year-to-date figure by 358 incidents to the 2,685 recorded so far in 2025.

Theft over

However, not all crime categories were down. A 5.4 per cent increase in Theft Over charges saw 2025's year-to-date figure rise slightly by 87 incidents to 1,688.

Toronto Police

Assault

Assault, the most common major crime, representing over half of all incidents, has fallen 2 per cent in 2025 to 21,393 incidents, 441 fewer than the year-to-date figures from the same period a year earlier.

So, while Toronto hasn't quite shaken its reputation as Canada's most crime-plagued major city, data paints a very different picture about safety in the 416.