Canada saw a significant rise in police-reported cases of terrorism and child pornography in 2014, even as serious crime rates fell to their lowest rate since 1969.

Overall, Statistics Canada calculated a 2.1 per cent decline in the severity of crime in 2014, along with a 3.7 per cent decline in the severity of violent crime. However, Internet-related crimes against children rose significantly last year, when compared to 2013.

The rate of police-reported cases of child pornography, excluding trafficking of child porn, shot up by 41 per cent over 2013. There were 4,020 reported cases of child pornography last year, up from 2,818 the year before. That rise included a similar spike in the rate of reported cases of luring a child via computer. The rate shot up by 38 per cent, with 1,190 cases reported in 2014.

Canada also saw a sharp 39 per cent rise in the rate of terror-related cases, fuelled by a series of high-profile domestic terror attacks in 2014. Those numbers were boosted by new anti-terror laws aimed at preventing people from travelling overseas to join terror groups like the Islamic State. The most common new charge was for leaving Canada to participate in the activities of a terrorist group, with 14 total charges laid under the Criminal Code.

In addition to those numbers, StatsCan reported a more than eight per cent rise in identity fraud, a 16 per cent spike in extortion cases and a six per cent rise in sexual violations against children.

Those increases were offset by an overall decline in the number of reported sexual assaults against adults. The rate of aggravated sexual assaults (level 3) fell by almost 22 per cent, followed by a 14 per cent drop in the rate of sexual assault involving a weapon or bodily harm (level 2) and a minor decline in sexual assault (level 1) rates.

Youth crime rates went down in 2014, although the number of attempted murder cases went up by 37 per cent for that age group. StatsCan says the overall homicide rate among youth is now at its lowest rate since 1984, down 38 per cent from last year.

The Canada-wide homicide rate remained virtually unchanged.

Overall, StatsCan says police-reported crime relative to the population fell by three per cent, with 1.8 million Criminal Code incidents reported last year (excluding traffic offences).

It’s the 11th straight time the relative crime rate has gone down.