It’s amazing the difference a year makes.

However, with statistics — no matter what people may want them to say — one must be cautious.

But still, a year ago at this time, Toronto was sitting at a frightening 37 homicides and people were wondering if there could be 75 killings in 2016.

The year ended with 74 — 40 by gun.

By contrast, 2015 had 55 homicides — 27 by firearm.

There was a huge spike in murder in 2016 — we lost moms, dads, newborns, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandmothers.

It was ugly.

A year later, the contrast is interesting.

As of June 1, 2017, Toronto’s crime rate is not being talked about. It’s not news when the airplane lands safely.

So far, Toronto has had 19 homicides — 18, or 48% fewer than a year ago — and 15 of this year’s murders have been committed with a gun.

“One homicide is one too many but it’s certainly on a better track,” said Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash. “But we have a long way to go.”

Still, it’s better than last year.

While it’s difficult to determine the root causes of murders and make plans to prevent them, there are some things police can do.

“We work hard on the intelligence and community side of it and use strategic deployments,” said Pugash.

Social media and public tips are big factors.

“The public is very helpful,” he said. “And our investigators in all our major crime units are tenacious. They never give up.”

But Toronto Police is not celebrating encouraging numbers.

It’s a wise approach.

For example, last year at this time, many were talking about the murder spike as an anomaly. But one could make the same argument about going the other way with this year’s numbers.

Just look at the statistics. For example, this year there have been 143 shooting occurrences compared to 153 at the same time last year. There have been 210 shooting victims in 2017 compared to 217 in 2016.

Last year at this time, there had been 77 shooting victims wounded or killed. This year the number is 72.

The truth is, Toronto’s shooting activity is pretty close to the same as it was a year ago. One bad day or weekend, it will be the same.

“Every shooting is a quarter inch from a murder,” said Staff-Insp. Mike Earl, of the Toronto force’s holdup squad. “We are just lucky we have the kind of EMS people we have in this city or who knows what those numbers would look like.”

It means we have no idea what 2017’s shooting numbers could look like following the summer season.

But credit where credit is due — to the Toronto Police, the paramedics and emergency room people at the hospitals.

Everybody is chipping in and responding to what was an unacceptable 2016. Fingers crossed in hopes there are many fewer homicides and much less violent crime in 2017.