The Peterborough area had one of the lowest crime severity rates of major centres in Canada in 2017 and its crime rate continued a decline that has been going on for at least five years, Statistics Canada reported Monday.

The agency released its annual police-reported crime statistics on Monday, reporting that the national crime rate rose 1 per cent to 5,334 crimes per 100,000 people while the Crime Severity Index, which is based on both the volume and severity of reported crime, rose 2 per cent to 72.9 nationally.

Opposite to the national trend, Peterborough saw downward movement in both the crime rate and the Crime Severity Index in 2017 compared to 2016.

Peterborough's Crime Severity Index was 53.4 for 2017, down 3 per cent from 2016. Only six of Canada's 33 census metropolitan areas had lower rates in 2017: Barrie at 45.3, Quebec City at 48.5, Toronto at 48.7, Ottawa at 50.8, Sherbrooke at 51.9 and Trois-Rivieres at 53.1.

Peterborough's crime rate for 2017 was 4,172 crimes per 100,000 people, down 2 per cent from 2016. That was the 12th lowest crime rate of the 33 census metropolitan areas. Toronto had the lowest rate at 3,115.

Apart for a slight rise in 2016, the all-reported-incident crime rate has been dropping steadily over the last five years in the Peterborough area: the rate was 4,938 per 100,000 people in 2013, 4,890 in 2014, 4,674 in 2015, 4,682 in 2016 and 4,542 in 2017.

There were 178 incidents deemed unfounded in the Peterborough area in 2017, about 3 per cent of the incidents reported, Statistics Canada found.

The Peterborough census metropolitan area includes the city, the four surrounding townships of Cavan Monaghan, Selwyn, Douro-Dummer and Otonabee-South Monaghan, plus Curve Lake and Hiawatha first nations. Peterborough Police cover the city, Cavan Monaghan and the Lakefield part of Selwyn, Anishnabek Police serve the two First Nations and Peterborough County OPP covers the other rural areas.