Quebec City

Is Quebec City safe?

Yes, very. Quebec City has some of the lowest crime of any city in North America. Statistics Canada counts 4 homicides across the Québec metro area in 2025, a rate of 0.45 per 100,000, against 1.12 in the Montreal area and 0.91 around Toronto. It has not had more than ten killings in any year since 2015.

Street crime is low too. The city police (SPVQ), which covers about 595,000 people in Quebec City and two neighbouring towns, recorded 126 robberies in 2025. For a visitor, the realistic risks are a fall on an icy street, a winter storm that cancels plans, or a bag left in a parked car. We score Quebec City 85, the highest of the North American cities we cover.

What the crime numbers show

The SPVQ annual report for 2025 lists two first-degree murders, one manslaughter and ten attempted murders. Recorded assaults fell for the second year in a row, to 4,899. Police launched a strategy in 2024, called PRESAP, against a rise in urban violence and handgun crime, and say it has led to arrests and searches that cut access to handguns.

One measure keeps Quebec City from a perfect score. Its violent crime severity index was 81 in 2025, close to Vancouver and above Toronto's 72. Statistics Canada's index weights crimes by seriousness, and assaults, threats and sexual offences push it up even when killings are rare.

Two attacks stand out in the city's recent history. In January 2017 a gunman killed six people at evening prayers in the city's Islamic Cultural Centre. On Halloween night 2020, a man armed with a sword killed two people and wounded five in Old Québec, near the Château Frontenac. Both were isolated attacks, and killings have stayed rare since.

Theft and car break-ins

Property crime is the lowest of any large Canadian metro. The non-violent crime severity index was 45 in 2025, against 50 in Montreal and 85 in Vancouver. SPVQ recorded 6,027 thefts, 1,457 break-ins and 585 vehicle thefts in the year, a small number for a city of this size.

Pickpocketing is not a common complaint in Old Québec, but crowds at the summer festival and on the Dufferin Terrace give thieves cover. Keep your phone out of a back pocket and do not leave bags or luggage in sight in a car, which is the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary's main crime advice for Canada.

Walking around at night

The walled city, the Petit-Champlain quarter, the Old Port and the bars along Grande Allée are busy in the evening. Gallup's 2025 survey found that 75% of Canadians feel safe walking alone at night where they live. No official advice singles out any part of Quebec City, and the robbery rate, about 21 per 100,000 residents in 2025, is about a quarter of Toronto's.

Ice, cold and steep streets

The old town is built on a cliff above the St. Lawrence, and its streets and stairways are steep. From November to April, the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns, winter storms with freezing rain and blizzards are frequent across Canada. On icy slopes, a fall is the most likely way to get hurt. Wear boots with real grip, use handrails on the stairs down to Petit-Champlain, and take the funicular when the steps are glazed. Snow and ice can slide off roofs in a thaw: keep out of pavement areas fenced off below them.

If you drive, the FCDO advises snow tyres and emergency supplies in the car. In town, you can do without one.

Air, roads and earthquakes

The roads are among the safer ones we track. SPVQ recorded 11 fatal crashes in 2025, up from 5 in 2023 and 6 in 2024, about 1.2 per 100,000 people a year on average. The police count crashes rather than deaths, so a crash that killed two people counts once. Serious-injury crashes rose to 52, and impaired-driving offences rose to 814, so take extra care crossing at night.

Air quality is usually good but has weak spots. The provincial monitoring network measured annual PM2.5PM2.5Tiny airborne particles 2.5 micrometres across or smaller. They reach deep into the lungs and are the air pollutant most linked to early death.More in the glossary of 7.9 to 10.1 µg/m³ at Quebec City stations in 2023, a year of record wildfire smoke. Over 2020–2022, two city stations broke the Canadian annual standard: Henri IV, beside a motorway, and École Les Primevères, where residential wood heating fills the air on winter nights. Tap water is safe.

Earthquakes are the hazard few visitors think about. The Charlevoix Seismic Zone, about 100 km downstream, is the most active in eastern Canada according to Natural Resources Canada, with an earthquake every day and a half on average, almost all of them tiny. It has produced five quakes of magnitude 6 or more since 1663, the last in 1925.

How to stay safe in Quebec City

• Stay inside the walls, in Petit-Champlain or in Saint-Roch, and walk: the centre is small.
• In winter, pack boots with grip and clothes for deep cold, and check the forecast for freezing rain before day trips.
• Leave nothing in a parked car, and use a hotel garage if you have one.
• Buy travel insurance with medical cover: the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns that treatment in Canada can be very expensive for visitors.

For entry rules and the rest of the country, see our Canada page.

How we scored it

Violent crime (93) is the strongest factor, with one of the lowest homicide ratesHomicide rateThe number of people killed on purpose each year for every 100,000 residents. It is the most comparable crime figure between countries.More in the glossary on the continent; we take two points off the top band for a violent crime severity index above Toronto's. Traffic safety (88) is also strong. Natural hazards (76) are the weakest factor because of long, icy winters and the Charlevoix earthquake zone, and health and environment (84) loses points for wood smoke and wildfire haze.