Pardon Statistics

The average age of a pardon applicant is 42 years old.
Number of Pardons Granted:
- 24,846 in 2007-2008
- 86,000 in the last 5 years
- Since 1970, more than 350,000 Canadians have received pardons. Approximately 97 percent of these are still in force, indicating that the vast majority of pardon recipients remain crime-free in the community.
- In the past four years, the number of pardon applications received annually has increased by 110%.
The Board anticipates that application volumes will continue to rise and could eventually reach 50,000 per year. Factors contributing to growth in annual volumes of pardon applications include:
- Greater scrutiny by government, private and voluntary sectors of potential employees;
- Perceptions by Canadians of the increased value of a pardon for employment, travel;
- Active advertising campaigns by private sector organizations involved in pardons; and,
- The increasing number of people eligible to apply for a pardon – the current estimate is 1.5 million people which grows by 60,000 annually.

You are not alone, according to the most recent statistics available through Statistics Canada, there were more than 2.5 million convictions in 2007.

Most Common to Least Common	# of Crimes	% of Total
Theft $5,000 and under	591,356	22.94%
Assaults (level 1 to 3)	241,895	9.38%
Breaking and entering	235,768	9.15%
Motor vehicle theft	149,211	5.79%
Drug Offences	102,784	3.99%
Frauds	90,126	3.50%
Impaired driving & similar	81,170	3.15%
Dangerous Driving & similar	53,530	2.08%
Robbery	34,003	1.32%
Possession of stolen goods	33,465	1.30%
Sexual assault	21,883	0.85%
Theft over $5,000	17,742	0.69%
Weapon Charges & similar	14,712	0.57%
Other sexual offences	2,828	0.11%
Attempted murder	808	0.03%
Homicide	606	0.02%
All other criminal and federal offences	906,139	35.15%
Total Criminal Offences	2,578,028

Why not become one less statistic, learn how to apply for a pardon.