The Yukon’s crime rate last year was the third-highest in Canada, behind the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

But although the territory’s rate jumped 14 per cent from 2012, it’s not a significant shift when you look at the big picture, says a Yukon Bureau of Statistics information officer.

“It’s been in that range pretty steady over the past 12 years,” Gary Brown said in an interview Tuesday.

“Historically, the territories have always been higher than Canada. We’re almost always third.”

The 2013 police-reported crime rate for the Yukon was 25,741 incidents per 100,000 people, only about a two per cent increase from 2004’s rate.

The territory’s small population can magnify rates, said Brown.

For instance, three murders in 2014 after three years of none means next year’s report of the homicide rate will jump.

“Over the last 30 years, our average number of homicides has been about 1.6 per year, so with such tiny numbers, there’s a lot of volatility there,” Brown said.

It’s important to analyze Yukon crime stats over the long term for that reason, he said. Looking at the data from year to year won’t provide as revealing a picture.

The Statistics Canada figures divide up police-reported “incidents” into three categories: violent Criminal Code violations like homicide, robbery and sexual assault; property crime, including break and enter, fraud and theft; and “other,” such as counterfeiting, child porn, prostitution and disturbing the peace.

Last year in the Yukon, there were 1,509 violent incidents – the fourth-lowest rate in Canada.

The most frequently reported crimes were level 1 assault (the least violent of three types), with 807 occurrences, uttering threats at 241, and level 2 assault, involving a weapon or causing bodily harm, at 163.

The territory’s 2013 property crime rate – at 3,477 total incidents – is the second-lowest rate in the country.

Mischief was most commonly reported, with 1,914 occurrences, followed by theft under $5,000 at 976.

When it comes to “other” offences, the Yukon’s rate is the highest in the country, but the report notes that most of the territory’s crimes in this category are on the less serious end of the spectrum.

Disturbing the peace – meaning disorderly conduct or public intoxication – makes up 70 per cent of these “other” crimes in the Yukon, followed by administration of justice violations, like probation breaches or failing to attend court.