Vancouver

Is Vancouver safe?

Yes, with two caveats a visitor should know about. Violence is low by North American standards: Statistics Canada counts 47 homicides in the Vancouver metro area in 2025, a rate of 1.52 per 100,000, about a tenth of Chicago's. But property crime is high, and a few blocks of the Downtown Eastside, a short walk from Gastown, have the most visible drug crisis in Canada.

The second caveat is geology. Vancouver sits above the Cascadia subduction zone, and Natural Resources Canada calls the Pacific coast the most earthquake-prone region of the country. We score Vancouver 77, below Toronto (84), mainly for theft, street disorder and earthquake risk.

What is going on in the Downtown Eastside?

Hastings Street around Main Street, and a few blocks either side, is where homelessness, mental illness and the overdose crisis are concentrated. You will see people using drugs in the open, tents and makeshift stalls selling goods. British Columbia ran a pilot from January 2023 that decriminalised carrying small amounts of hard drugs. Use in public spaces was banned again in 2024, and the province let the pilot end on 31 January 2026, with Premier David Eby saying it "did not work".

For visitors, the risk is mostly theft, aggressive behaviour and the odd fight, not targeted attacks. Police data show it, though: District 2, which includes the Downtown Eastside, recorded 9 of the city's 15 non-festival homicides in 2025 and 711 weapons offences. In 2025 the police ran Task Force Barrage, a six-month crackdown across the Downtown Eastside, Gastown and Chinatown. In its first three months, police reported violent crime in the Downtown Eastside down 13% and robberies down 35% compared with 2024.

Practical rule: Gastown's Water Street is fine, Hastings is not a street to stroll down, and Chinatown is best visited in daylight.

The Lapu-Lapu festival attack

On the evening of 26 April 2025, a driver ploughed a vehicle into the crowd at the Lapu-Lapu Day street festival in the Sunset on Fraser neighbourhood, killing 11 people aged 5 to 65. Police ruled out terrorism, and a 30-year-old man was charged with murder. Those 11 victims account for the jump in the city's homicide count from 11 in 2024 to 26 in 2025. Without them, Vancouver's 2025 homicide rateHomicide 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 was about 2 per 100,000.

It was a single act, not a sign of wider danger, but it is why we do not score violent crime higher.

Theft and car break-ins

This is where Vancouver falls behind other Canadian cities. Statistics Canada's non-violent crime severity index for the metro area was 85 in 2025, compared with 49 for Toronto and 50 for Montreal. Vancouver police recorded 13,317 thefts and 5,390 thefts from cars, about a third of those car thefts in District 1, which covers downtown, the West End and Stanley Park.

What this means for you:

• Leave nothing in a parked car, including in the boot of a hatchback where it can be seen.
• Watch phones and bags on crowded SkyTrain trains and platforms.
• Lock bikes with a solid U-lock, or use a bike-share dock rather than the street.

Scams aimed at tourists are rare.

Where to stay and walk at night

Most of the city's violence is concentrated in police District 2, which includes the Downtown Eastside, so the neighbourhoods where visitors usually stay are a different picture. Statistics Canada does not survey night safety by city, but Gallup's 2025 report found 75% of Canadians feel safe walking alone at night, below the 89% in Denmark. Police also recorded 1,220 weapons offences across the city in 2025, up 45%, and 711 of them were in District 2.

Traffic is less of a worry. Vancouver police counted 20 traffic deaths in 2025, about 2.7 per 100,000 residents. Dark, wet winter evenings are when pedestrians get hit, so wear something light and cross at signals.

Earthquakes, heat and smoke

The Juan de Fuca plate lies about 70 km beneath Vancouver and is locked against North America, building strain that will one day release as a very large subduction earthquake. Geological evidence shows these strike every 300 to 800 years. Smaller but damaging crustal quakes hit southwestern British Columbia about once a decade on average.

The weather has also turned deadly. During the heat dome of late June 2021, 619 people died from extreme heat in British Columbia, according to the BC Coroners Service. Summer wildfire smoke can push the air quality index into the high-risk range, even though annual fine particle levels are low: Canada averaged 6.7 µg/m³ in 2024, according to IQAir. Tap water is safe, and hospitals are good but expensive for visitors without insurance. For entry rules and the rest of the country, see our Canada page.

How we scored it

Violent crime (84), traffic safety (86) and health (87) are solid, held down a little by the 2025 festival attack and wildfire smoke. Theft (64) is the weakest crime factor because Vancouver's property crime is far above other Canadian cities, and walking at night (72) reflects the Downtown Eastside. Natural hazards (64) score lowest because of the earthquake risk, which is real but rare compared with the everyday risks of theft. Compare San Francisco, which faces similar earthquake and street disorder problems.