Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest percentage increase in the country in the rate of homicide in 2021 over the previous year.

There were 788 homicides in Canada that year, 29 more than the previous year and the third consecutive increase according to figures from Statistics Canada.

Newfoundland and Labrador recorded eight murders in 2021, double the number from 2020. British Columbia at 24 percent and Ontario at 15 percent had the second and third highest percentage increase. The census metropolitan areas with the largest percentage increase in the rate from the previous year were Windsor at 101 percent, St. John’s at 100 percent, and London at 98 percent.

Newfoundland and Labrador recorded no murders involving gang activities, down from one in 2020. At the national level, the rate of gang-related homicides was the highest recorded in Canada since comparable data were first collected in 2005.