Yes — and the statistic that says otherwise is a boundary artifact. Mimico-Queensway shows the highest assault rate of any Toronto neighbourhood, 4,209 per 100,000 in 2025. But 898 of the 1,005 assault records in that neighbourhood carry the location type “Jails / Detention Centres,” because the boundary includes the Toronto South Detention Centre on Horner Avenue.
Take those out and Mimico’s 107 remaining assaults work out to roughly 444 per 100,000 — well under Toronto’s 768. On break-and-enter, robbery and theft from vehicles, Mimico-Queensway came in below the city average in 2025 without any adjustment at all.
Why Mimico ranks first in Toronto for assault — and why that is misleading
If you search “Mimico crime rate” you will find pages ranking it as the worst neighbourhood in Toronto. They are copying a real number from a real dataset. They are just not checking what is inside the boundary.
The City of Toronto’s Mimico-Queensway neighbourhood runs north from the lake up across the Gardiner and the rail corridor to The Queensway, and west to the Horner Avenue employment lands. Sitting in those lands is the Toronto South Detention Centre, 160 Horner Avenue — a provincial jail. Toronto Police record an occurrence at the place it happened. An assault between inmates inside the institution is logged in Mimico-Queensway.
You can measure exactly how much that distorts things, because the Toronto Police Major Crime Indicators dataset publishes a location type for every occurrence. For records with a 2025 occurrence date in Mimico-Queensway:
| Location type of 2025 assault records | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Jails / Detention Centres | 898 | 89.4% |
| Apartment (including condo) | 29 | 2.9% |
| Single home or house | 22 | 2.2% |
| Streets, roads, highways | 21 | 2.1% |
| Everything else combined | 35 | 3.5% |
| Total | 1,005 | 100% |
Ninety per cent of the neighbourhood’s headline assault statistic never touched a Mimico street.
Mimico’s 2025 numbers, jail records removed
Here is the neighbourhood measured the way you actually care about it. The adjusted assault figure removes the 898 jail-located records; the other categories are unadjusted, because they were never distorted in the first place.
| 2025, per 100,000 residents | Mimico-Queensway | Toronto |
|---|---|---|
| Assault (as published) | 4,209 | 768 |
| Assault (jail records removed) | 444 | 768 |
| Break and enter | 133 | 190 |
| Robbery | 42 | 78 |
| Theft from a motor vehicle | 100 | 212 |
| Auto theft | 224 | 225 |
| Theft over $5,000 | 66 | 61 |
In plain counts, the whole neighbourhood outside the jail recorded 107 assaults, 54 auto thefts, 33 break-and-enters, 13 thefts over $5,000 and 10 robberies across the full year of 2025, among 24,090 residents. Ten robberies in a year in a neighbourhood that size is roughly half the city’s per-capita rate.
On the five main indicators combined, the as-published number puts Mimico-Queensway 1st of Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods — the highest rate in the city. Remove the jail records and it lands around 121st of 158, in the quieter third.
How Mimico compares to the neighbourhoods around it
Ranked by the five combined indicators for 2025 across all 158 Toronto neighbourhoods, where rank 158 is the lowest rate in the city:
| South Etobicoke neighbourhood | Assault | Break & enter | Robbery | Rank of 158 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humber Bay Shores | 456 | 95 | 15 | 139 |
| Stonegate-Queensway | 466 | 218 | 41 | 104 |
| Long Branch | 578 | 183 | 46 | 103 |
| Mimico-Queensway (jail removed) | 444 | 133 | 42 | ~121 |
| Alderwood | 508 | 202 | 70 | 80 |
| New Toronto | 903 | 184 | 77 | 47 |
| Toronto average | 768 | 190 | 78 | — |
Adjusted, Mimico sits in the middle of a group of south Etobicoke neighbourhoods that are all at or below the city average. Its immediate western neighbour New Toronto is the one place in the group with a materially higher assault rate — 118 recorded assaults among 13,064 residents in 2025, down from 166 in 2024.
What the data will not tell you about Mimico
I sell real estate here. I would be doing you a disservice if I stopped at a table.
- Mimico is two very different environments joined together. South of the rail corridor is a low-rise grid of older houses and the Lake Shore Boulevard West main street, plus the waterfront parks. North of the Gardiner is The Queensway — a wide commercial arterial with car dealerships, big-box retail and a growing wall of new condo towers. They feel nothing alike after dark.
- The underpasses and the rail crossings are the pinch points. Getting from the north side to the lake means going under the Gardiner and the tracks. Those crossings are the stretches worth walking yourself at night before you commit to an address, and they vary a lot block to block.
- Traffic, not crime, is the safety issue people actually raise with me. Lake Shore Boulevard West and The Queensway are both wide, fast arterials. If you have young children or you walk everywhere, the distance to the nearest signalised crossing matters more day to day than the assault rate does.
- Condo garages are where theft happens. Fifty-four auto thefts in a year in a neighbourhood adding towers steadily is not a crisis, but if you are buying in a building, ask property management directly about garage access control and incident history, and read the status certificate.
Is New Toronto safe?
New Toronto is the neighbourhood immediately west of Mimico, between Lake Shore Boulevard West and the lake. Its 2025 assault rate of 903 per 100,000 is above Toronto’s 768, and its combined ranking is 47th of 158. Its break-and-enter rate (184) is below the city average, and it recorded 10 robberies and 19 auto thefts across the year.
Two things are worth saying honestly about that. The counts are small enough that a handful of incidents swings the rate, and the trend is downward — assaults fell from 166 in 2024 to 118 in 2025. New Toronto also carries a concentration of social services and supportive housing along the Lake Shore, which is a land-use fact rather than a comment about anybody who lives there, and it is part of why a small neighbourhood generates more reported occurrences than its neighbours.
Thinking about a specific Mimico street or building?
Send me the address or the intersection. I will tell you what I know about that block — including the parts that never show up in a dataset, like which crossings are awkward at night and which buildings have had garage problems.
connect@jatindua.com · 437-987-1925 · Book a free consultation
Confidential. Reviewed personally and answered within 24 hours. I never share, sell or distribute your information.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mimico Toronto safe?
On the 2025 Toronto Police data, yes. Once the 898 assault records located inside the Toronto South Detention Centre are removed, Mimico-Queensway’s assault rate is about 444 per 100,000 against a Toronto average of 768. Its break-and-enter rate (133), robbery rate (42) and theft-from-vehicle rate (100) were all below the city averages without any adjustment.
Why does Mimico have the highest crime rate in Toronto?
It does not, in any meaningful sense. The City of Toronto’s Mimico-Queensway boundary includes the Toronto South Detention Centre at 160 Horner Avenue. Police log occurrences where they happen, so assaults inside the jail count toward the neighbourhood. They made up 89% of its 2025 assault records.
Is Mimico safe at night?
Generally yes — 10 robberies were recorded across the entire neighbourhood in 2025, roughly half the city’s per-capita rate. The parts worth checking for yourself are the Gardiner and rail underpasses between the Queensway side and the lakeshore side, because lighting and sightlines vary block to block. Walk your actual route after dark before you buy or sign a lease.
Is Mimico or New Toronto safer?
On 2025 rates, Mimico-Queensway, once jail records are excluded. Its adjusted assault rate of about 444 per 100,000 compares with New Toronto’s 903, and its robbery and break-and-enter rates are lower too. New Toronto’s counts are small enough to swing year to year, and its assaults fell from 166 in 2024 to 118 in 2025.
Are Mimico condos safe?
The neighbourhood’s condo-related risk is overwhelmingly property crime rather than violence — 54 auto thefts and 24 thefts from vehicles across 2025. When you are buying, ask property management about garage access control, fob auditing and incident history, and read the status certificate. Those answers vary far more between buildings than between neighbourhoods.
Where can I check Mimico crime statistics myself?
The Toronto Police Service Public Safety Data Portal at data.torontopolice.on.ca. Filter the Neighbourhood Crime Rates dataset to Mimico-Queensway, and use Major Crime Indicators if you want to see location types the way this page does. Both are free.
Sources
- Toronto Police Service — Neighbourhood Crime Rates (Open Data), 2025 figures for Mimico-Queensway and Toronto’s 158 neighbourhoods, accessed 9 August 2026.
- Toronto Police Service — Major Crime Indicators (Open Data), occurrence-level records with location type, used for the jail breakdown.
- Toronto Police Service Public Safety Data Portal.
- City of Toronto — Neighbourhood Profiles and boundaries.
Read next
- Is Etobicoke safe? The full neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood data
- Mimico condo and home guide · Mimico vs New Toronto
- M8V real estate guide: Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch
- Why buy a condo on The Queensway · The Park Lawn GO question
Looking at Etobicoke more broadly? Start with my Etobicoke community guide — the neighbourhoods, what each pocket is like, and where they sit relative to one another.
About the author — Jatin Dua, Etobicoke real estate agent
I am Jatin Dua, a Realtor with RE/MAX Quantum Realty, based at 799 The Queensway — about a ten-minute walk from the Mimico-Queensway boundary. I cover Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, Alderwood and the Queensway corridor closely.