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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Readers of Maclean's magazine might have noticed the March 4 issue, which ranked the most dangerous cities in Canada - with no mention of the North.

In a separate article on March 26 - titled "Northern blight" - the magazine reasoned it could not include Northern Canada in its rankings because the population is too small to figure into the national statistics.

The article did, however, refer to the North - specifically the cities of Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit - as "Canada's most violent region."

The magazine's annual crime rankings in Canada uses data from Statistics Canada in 2007 - the most recent data available.

Sexual assaults nationally are 65 per 100,000 population, while in the NWT there are 492.5 reported sexual assaults per 100,000 people - eight times the national average. The territory also has nine times the average of assaults compared to the rest of Canada and more than three times as many drug offences.

"It is a shocking number," said Lyda Fuller, executive director of the YWCA in Yellowknife, of the number of reported sexual assaults.

She said the numbers may be so much higher in the North because communities are much smaller and isolated.

The North has "communities without any RCMP and are hard to get out of," she said.

She said she was not aware if the provinces have prevention programs in place that might contribute to a decrease in sexual assaults.

Yellowknife Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the statistics should be looked at in perspective.

"When you've got a smaller-than-average population rate, it screws up the representation," he said, noting the article points out in Whitehorse the rate of aggravated assault is 138 per cent above Canada's average and is based on only six cases.

"I'm not saying it's something to be ignored," said Van Tighem. "We are challenged by substance abuse and domestic violence."

He said the city and territory are raising awareness and working toward safer communities through the homelessness coalition and family violence awareness week.