Report Highlights: The CDC reports murder rates using death certificate information in all 3,144 U.S. counties. Murder rates vary widely between states.
- Murder rates in the U.S. increased by 17% from 2018 to 2021.
- Washington, D.C., has the highest murder rate at 30 per 100,000 in 2023.
- Louisiana and Mississippi have the second and third highest murder rates, with over 18 homicides per 100,000 people (2018–2023).
- Idaho, New Hampshire, Utah and Wyoming had the lowest murder rates between 2018 and 2023 (fewer than 2.5 per 100,000).
Related Studies: Urban Violent Crime & Legal Gun Ownership | Gun Deaths in the US | Defensive Gun Use Statistics.
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Understanding Murder Rates in the U.S.
Homicides in the U.S. are compiled in the CDC WONDER database. Individual homicides are reported based on death certificate data in all 3,144 U.S. counties.
To accommodate for various population sizes, we use per capita rates to calculate the rate of homicides in a state (states with larger populations have more homicides, but that doesn’t mean people are more likely to be murdered in those places). The per capita rates in this article compare the numbers of homicides per 100,000 people in each state.
Murder rates in the U.S. increased by 17% from 2018 to 2023. 2021 was the deadliest year since 1994 (when there were 8.5 murders per 100,000 people). In 2021, there were 7.8 murders out of every 100,000 people in the U.S. All states in the U.S. exhibited an increase in homicides that year. 1, 8
States With the Highest Murder Rates
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C. represent the top five highest murder rates in the U.S.
- Between 2020 and 2023, Washington, D.C., had the highest homicide rate at 30 per 100,000 (higher than Belize, Ecuador or Mexico). 7
- Louisiana and Mississippi exhibited an average of 18 murders per 100,000 between 2020 and 2023.
- Alabama and New Mexico rounded out the top five with murder rates of 14 and 13 per 100,000, respectively.
In total, 23 states and Washington, D.C., had homicide rates higher than the national average between 2020 and 2023. 1
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