Domestic Homicide Statistics Canada [2026]

In 2024, Statistics Canada 2025 recorded 788 homicide victims across Canada; 187 of those deaths (roughly 1 in 4) involved a family member as the accused. Of those, 100 were intimate partner homicides — the highest count since the early 2010s. This post compiles domestic homicide statistics across Canada: rates, gender splits, provincial variation, and a 15-year trend line. The abuse research hub covers the wider family violence data series.

What counts as domestic homicide in Canada

“Domestic homicide” is a colloquial umbrella term used in media and advocacy. Statistics Canada does not publish a figure under that name. The agency tracks two official categories. Family homicide covers any killing where the accused was a spouse, parent, child, sibling, or extended family member. Intimate partner homicide is a subset covering current and former spouses, common-law partners, and dating partners only.

Statistics Canada’s 2024 family violence Daily release defines family violence to include biological, step, adoptive, and foster parents; children; siblings; and extended family (grandparents, in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins). Intimate partner violence is the narrower category: current and former legally married spouses, common-law partners, and dating partners only. When counting “domestic homicide” from official data, readers should specify which category they mean. The family count (187 in 2024) is nearly double the intimate partner count (100 in 2024).

Justice Canada’s HELP Toolkit adds a legal-context dimension: intimate partner violence encompasses psychological, physical, sexual, financial, and harassment-related abuse within intimate relationships, including former partners. This definition informs how homicide risk is assessed in family court proceedings, even though Statistics Canada collects and publishes homicide data separately through the annual Homicide Survey.

Statistics Canada’s Juristat analytical series also tracks “gender-related homicide”: killings of women and girls believed to be motivated by gender. Between 2011 and 2021, Statistics Canada 2023 identified 1,125 gender-related homicides of women and girls, an average of 102 per year. An intimate partner was responsible for 66% of those killings and a non-spousal family member for 28%.

Key domestic homicide statistics at a glance

• Canada’s national homicide rate fell 4% in 2024 to 1.91 per 100,000 population, the lowest since 2016. Yet intimate partner homicides rose sharply from 72 to 100 victims in the same year, per Statistics Canada 2025.
• In 2024, there were 187 family homicide victims (0.45 per 100,000) and 100 intimate partner homicide victims (0.27 per 100,000). Family homicides represented 24% of all 788 homicides recorded that year, per Statistics Canada 2025.
• Since 2018, police-reported family violence increased 17% and intimate partner violence increased 14%. The 2024 totals: 142,724 family violence victims and 128,175 intimate partner violence victims across all offence types, per Statistics Canada.
• Over the decade from 2014 to 2024, 963 people were killed by an intimate partner in Canada; 79% were women and girls, per Statistics Canada 2025.
• 60% of intimate partner homicides involved a prior history of family violence, per Justice Canada’s HELP Toolkit citing Statistics Canada’s 2008–2018 Homicide Survey data — lethal domestic violence is rarely the first incident in a relationship.
• The rural intimate partner homicide rate in 2024 was 0.41 per 100,000 — nearly double the urban rate of 0.21, per Statistics Canada 2025.

Victims by relationship type and gender

The gender gap in intimate partner homicide is pronounced. In 2024, Statistics Canada 2025 recorded 100 intimate partner homicide victims: 81 women (81%) and 19 men (19%). The female count rose from 53 in 2023 to 81 in 2024 — a 53% single-year increase and the highest since at least 2009. Men’s count remained stable at 19.

For police-reported intimate partner violence overall (all offence types), women and girls accounted for 78% of victims in 2024. Their rate was 553 per 100,000 women and girls aged 12 and older — 3.5 times the male rate of 158 per 100,000, per Statistics Canada 2025. Peak victimization age was 30 for women and 38 for men.

The table below shows how victims of gender-related homicides (2011–2021) broke down by relationship to the accused, drawn from Statistics Canada’s Juristat analysis:

Source: Statistics Canada 2023, Juristat gender-related homicide analysis, 1,125 victims.

Children and youth (aged 17 and under) faced a family violence rate of 345 per 100,000 in 2024, up 26% since 2018. Girls comprised 60% of those victims; a parent was the primary accused in 61% of cases. Senior women aged 65 and older faced family violence at 98 per 100,000 in 2024, representing 57% of senior victims. A child of the victim was the accused in 36% of those cases, per Statistics Canada.

For more on the broader pattern of intimate partner violence rates, age cohorts, and under-reporting, the domestic abuse statistics Canada post covers the full police-reported IPV series.

Intimate partner homicide trends over time

The table below tracks intimate partner homicide rates per 100,000 population for women and men in Canada, drawn from Statistics Canada’s longitudinal chart covering 2009 to 2024:

Source: Statistics Canada 2025, Victims of family homicide and intimate partner homicide by type of violence, gender and year, Canada, 2009–2024.

The 2024 figure of 0.44 per 100,000 women represents the sharpest single-year increase in the 15-year series. Men’s rate has stayed consistently lower, ranging from 0.08 to 0.19 across the same period, and stood at 0.10 in 2024.

Family homicide rates for women traced a similar arc: the rate peaked at 0.57 per 100,000 in 2015, fell to 0.42 in 2020, and reached 0.56 per 100,000 in 2024. Men’s family homicide rate ranged from 0.27 to 0.44 across the same period, reaching 0.34 in 2024, per Statistics Canada 2025.

Between 2014 and 2024, 963 people in Canada were killed by an intimate partner. Women and girls represented 79% of those victims. The annual average was roughly 87, rising to 100 in 2024 — the highest count since the early 2010s, per Statistics Canada 2025.

Post-separation risk warrants attention. According to Justice Canada citing Statistics Canada data from 2007–2011, the post-separation effect is sharp. A woman’s risk of being killed by a legally separated spouse was nearly six times the risk from a legally married spouse. Separation is itself a period of elevated danger, not safety.

Among gender-related homicides of women from 2011 to 2021, 48% involved a known prior history of intimate partner or family violence. A further 32% of accused cited anger, frustration, or despair as a primary motive — three times the 12% rate in non-gender-related homicides, per Statistics Canada 2023.

Domestic homicide rates by province

Overall homicide rates (which include domestic killings) vary sharply by province. Manitoba and Saskatchewan have led all provinces in every recent year. The table below shows 2024 provincial rates from Statistics Canada’s provincial homicide rate table:

Source: Statistics Canada 2025, Rate of homicides by province and territory, 2015–2024.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan each recorded rates more than three times the national average of 1.91 in 2024. Saskatchewan’s police-reported intimate partner violence rate of 714 per 100,000 and Manitoba’s 607 per 100,000 are also the two highest provincial IPV rates in the country, per Statistics Canada.

Notable year-over-year shifts: New Brunswick’s overall homicide rate nearly doubled from 1.08 to 2.11, and Nova Scotia’s rose from 1.33 to 2.32. Both now exceed Alberta, which fell 20% from 2.50. British Columbia dropped 27% and Quebec fell 11%.

The rural-urban gap reinforces the provincial picture. Rural intimate partner homicide rates in 2024 ran at 0.41 per 100,000 — nearly double the 0.21 rate in urban areas. Reduced access to shelter, policing, and support services in less-populated regions is consistent with the elevated rates seen in the Prairie provinces and northern territories.

Indigenous women and elevated risk

In 2024, Indigenous people represented 30% of all homicide victims in Canada while comprising approximately 5% of the total population. The homicide rate for Indigenous people was 10.84 per 100,000 — more than 8 times the rate for non-Indigenous Canadians. The number of Indigenous women victims rose from 50 to 71 between 2023 and 2024, per Statistics Canada 2025.

The longitudinal picture is stark. Between 2009 and 2021, 490 Indigenous women and girls were killed in Canada, at a homicide rate of 4.27 per 100,000 — versus 0.73 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous women. In 81% of those cases, the accused was known to the victim: 35% were an intimate partner, 24% an acquaintance, and 22% a family member. Statistics Canada’s 2023 Juristat analysis found that 86% of the accused were also Indigenous (a pattern StatsCan contextualizes alongside structural factors including geographic isolation, poverty, and historically underfunded community services).

Among gender-related homicides between 2011 and 2021, Indigenous women and girls accounted for 21% of all victims (233 of 1,125 total) despite representing only 5% of Canada’s female population. Their 2021 rate of 1.72 per 100,000 was three times the overall rate for women and girls (0.54 per 100,000). Indigenous victims were younger: 23% were aged 18–24, double the share for non-Indigenous victims. Statistics Canada 2023 also found gender-related homicides of Indigenous women were 2.5 times more likely to occur in rural areas.

Statistics Canada’s 2022 Juristat on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women covers the period 2015 to 2020. Indigenous women faced a homicide rate of 3.8 per 100,000 — more than five times the 0.7 per 100,000 rate for non-Indigenous women. During this period, Indigenous women represented 24% of all female homicide victims while comprising roughly 5% of Canada’s female population. Lifetime intimate partner violence prevalence among Indigenous women stood at 44%, compared to 25% for non-Indigenous women, per Statistics Canada’s 2018 Survey on Safety in Public and Private Spaces.

The elder abuse statistics post covers data on how older Indigenous women experience heightened family violence risk, including caregiver-related abuse rates that are absent from the homicide series.

What these numbers mean for survivors and families

Intimate partner homicides spiked from 72 to 100 victims in 2024 (women’s count up 53% in one year). That increase runs counter to the downward trend in the overall homicide rate, which hit its lowest point since 2016.

Physical assault was the primary offence type in 72% of police-reported intimate partner violence incidents in 2024. A weapon was present in 16% of IPV incidents overall — but in 25% of incidents where the victim was male and 14% where the victim was female. Nearly half of all victims (47%) were living with the accused at the time of the offence, per Statistics Canada 2025.

Among women who experienced intimate partner violence in Canada, 37% reported being afraid of their partner, compared to 9% of male victims. Approximately 45% of spousal violence victims reported the abuse continued after the relationship ended, with nearly half reporting the violence increased in severity post-separation, per Justice Canada 2024.

Women’s lifetime exposure to intimate partner violence in Canada stands at 44%, and men’s at 36%, per Justice Canada’s HELP Toolkit. Among particularly vulnerable groups: Indigenous women (61%), women identifying as sexual minorities (67%), and women with disabilities (53% reporting psychological abuse). At 44% women’s lifetime prevalence, IPV sits in the background of a large share of adult family relationships — not only those in active crisis.

Of gender-related homicide accused from 2011 to 2021, 21% died by suicide after the killing — seven times higher than the 3% rate in non-gender-related homicides. A further 32% had a suspected or known mental or developmental disorder, per Statistics Canada 2023. The accused-suicide rate is relevant to risk assessment in active intimate partner violence situations where lethality appears imminent.

As licensed PIs operating across Ontario, we see this pattern directly: clients arrive after a period of escalating threats, needing documented evidence for protection orders or custody proceedings. Domestic violence investigations can establish a record when self-reporting has failed or been dismissed. City-level IPV data for those navigating the family court system in the GTA sits in the domestic abuse statistics Toronto post.