Image Credit: RCMP handout

New crime data shows that Coldstream had the least crime in the Thompson-Okanagan region in 2022.

That number one ranking showed up on two data scales. One is the number of crimes per 100,000 population (crime rate). The other ranks how serious those crimes are based on the severity of the sentences they trigger (Crime Severity Index).

And it’s complicated even more by having some data calculated by municipality while other data is based on census metropolitan areas (which refers to the entire Central Okanagan Regional District as Kelowna). For the purpose of this article, only individual municipalities are considered.

What is clear is that Coldstream does best on both scales.

It had a crime rate of 2,725 per 100,000 population, ranking it at 178 out of 183 municipalities in BC. That means it had almost the fewest crimes per capita of any community in BC.

By contrast, Penticton had the highest number of crimes per 100,000 in the Thompson-Okanagan at 20,589, ranking it as the ninth worst in BC.

It’s the eleventh time out of the last 17 years that Penticton had the highest crime rate of the region’s five largest cities. In most of the other years, it came in second.

READ MORE: Penticton most crime ridden city in Thompson-Okanagan and much of B.C.

On the Crime Severity Index Coldstream again outperformed the other communities in the region with a rating of 30.9.

Penticton, at the other end of the ranking, scored 189.4, the highest of any of the region’s five largest cities for six consecutive years.

Only Merritt did worse than Penticton for Thompson-Okanagan communities with a Crime Severity Index of 219.8.

In BC, Fort St. James had the highest crime rate at 30,784 per 100,000 population along with the highest Crime Severity Index at 320.9.

Metchosin, a small community south of Victoria, scored almost the best on both scales with a crime rate of 1,614 per 100,000 and a Crime Severity Index of 14.9. Lytton had a crime rate of just 1,396 per 100,000

Thompson-Okanagan Crime Severity Index
(Percentage change from 2021 in brackets.)
The lower the number, the less severe the crimes.

• 30.9 – Coldstream (1.6%)
• 38.3 – Lumby (-30.2%)
• 48.2 – Spallumcheen (-34.4%)
• 54.3 – Armstrong (28.6%)
• 59.1 – Logan Lake (3.4%)
• 60.4 – Lake Country (-.25%)
• 66.4 – Peachland (11.6%)
• 78.6 – Sicamous (3%)
• 80.1 – Summerland (13.5%)
• 88.6 – Salmon Arm (1%)
• 90.6 – West Kelowna (5.7%)
• 92.0 – Enderby (.69%)
• 96.9 – Osoyoos (-22.5%)
• 100.1 – Princeton (5.7%)
• 148.3 – Vernon (2.4%)
• 150.7 – Kelowna (6.5%)
• 156.7 – Kamloops (11.4%)
• 189.4 – Penticton (-7.2%)
• 219.8 – Merritt (2.3%)

Crime Rate per 100,000.
The higher the ranking, the less crime.

• 2,725 – Coldstream (178)
• 2,988 – Lumby (176)
• 3,783 – Peachland (166)
• 3,917 – Spallumcheen (162)
• 4,245 – Armstrong (158)
• 4,951 – Lake Country (139)
• 5,396 – Summerland (129)
• 6,045 – West Kelowna (107)
• 6,071 – Enderby (106)
• 6,132 – Logan Lake (104)
• 6,562 – Penticton (102)
• 6,819 – Sicamous (98)
• 7,982 – Osoyoos (73)
• 8,322 – Salmon Arm (69)
• 8,847 – Princeton (65)
• 13,678 – Kelowna (37)
• 14,207 – Vernon (35)
• 15,461 – Kamloops (30)
• 17,448 – Merritt (21)
• 20,589 – Penticton (9)

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