Is Thunder Bay safe?
Thunder Bay is among the highest-crime places of its size. It ranks safer than 3% of Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people on reported crime per person, based on Statistics Canada figures for 2025.
MkaeSense Safety IndexOut of 100. Higher is safer. Ranked 121 of 125 Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people, where 1 is safest.
How Thunder Bay compares
Every dot is one of the 125 Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people. Further right means more thefts per person.
Thunder Bay's theft rate of 37.2 per 1,000 residents is higher than 100% of Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people. The Ontario average is 13.6 and the Canadian average is 13.7.
Year by year
Rate per 1,000 residents each year, compared with Ontario and Canada.
When and how often cases are solved
Five-year change
Break-ins per 1,000 residents, 2020 to 2025.
Cases cleared in 2025
Share of reported offences police marked as cleared, usually by an arrest or charge.
Nearby places
Safety Index for the closest places we cover. Higher is safer.
Protect your home in Thunder Bay
Picked for Thunder Bay's biggest gap against the Canadian average: thefts.
Common questions
Is Thunder Bay a safe place to live?
Thunder Bay is among the highest-crime places of its size. Its MkaeSense Safety Index is 3 out of 100, which means it ranks safer than 3% of Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people on reported crime per person. Safety also varies a lot between neighbourhoods, so check the area you're looking at.
How common are break-ins in Thunder Bay?
Police recorded 361 break-ins in 2025, or 2.9 per 1,000 residents. The Canadian rate was 2.6 per 1,000.
Is car theft a problem in Thunder Bay?
There were 194 vehicle thefts in 2025, 1.6 per 1,000 residents, against 2.0 per 1,000 nationally. That is higher than 63% of Canadian police services covering 25,000+ people.
How is the Safety Index calculated?
We rank each place against others in the same country by its rate per person of violent crime (half the weight) and of property crime: break-ins, car theft and theft (the other half). The index is the share of places with a higher combined score. Where a police service did not report car thefts, its property crime is ranked on break-ins and theft only. It uses police-reported crime only, which depends on how often residents report. Full method, sources and a worked example.
Source: Statistics Canada, Table 35-10-0180, Incident-based crime statistics by police service, 2025. Coverage is the Thunder Bay, Ontario police service area. Rates per 1,000 residents and the Safety Index are MkaeSense calculations. Police-reported crime does not include crimes that were never reported. MkaeSense is not affiliated with any police service.