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Statistics Canada has reported that Canada's national crime rate declined for the third straight year in 2007. StatsCan attributes the drop to a decrease in counterfeiting and property offences such as break-ins and vehicle thefts.

The data shows a seven per cent drop in the national crime rate. StatsCan also says there were fewer serious violent offences like homicides, attempted murders, sexual assaults and robberies.

The overall crime rate peaked in 1991 and then began to decline. In 2007, police reported 594 homicides, down slightly from 606 in 2006, following a long-term downward trend that began in the mid-1970s.

Last year nearly 30,000 robberies were reported;, a five per cent decline from 2006, while the number of robberies committed with a firearm declined 12 per cent from the previous year to its lowest point in more than 30 years.

Serious assaults, including those with a weapon, remained unchanged in 2007 after rising in each of the previous seven years.

All provinces and territories, except Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon saw the rates drop. Crime rates remained highest in the western provinces.

Saskatchewan, again, reported the highest overall crime rate as well as the highest violent crime rate.

Among youth aged 12 to 17, the overall crime rate tapered off slightly in 2007 after rising the year before as non-violent offences fell and violent crime rates remained stable.