The Black Death was the largest and deadliest pandemic of Yersinia pestis recorded in human history, and likely the most infamous individual pandemic ever documented. The plague originated in the Eurasian Steppes, before moving with Mongol hordes to the Black Sea, where it was then brought by Italian merchants to the Mediterranean. From here, the Black Death then spread to almost all corners of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. While it was never endemic to these regions, it was constantly re-introduced via trade routes from Asia (such as the Silk Road), and plague was present in Western Europe until the seventeenth century, and the other regions until the nineteenth century. Impact on Europe In Europe, the major port cities and metropolitan areas were hit the hardest. The plague spread through south-western Europe, following the arrival of Italian galleys in Sicily, Genoa, Venice, and Marseilles, at the beginning of 1347. It is claimed that Venice, Florence, and Siena lost up to two thirds of their total population during epidemic's peak, while London, which was hit in 1348, is said to have lost at least half of its population. The plague then made its way around the west of Europe, and arrived in Germany and Scandinavia in 1348, before travelling along the Baltic coast to Russia by 1351 (although data relating to the death tolls east of Germany is scarce). Some areas of Europe remained untouched by the plague for decades; for example, plague did not arrive in Iceland until 1402, however it swept across the island with devastating effect, causing the population to drop from 120,000 to 40,000 within two years. Reliability While the Black Death affected three continents, there is little recorded evidence of its impact outside of Southern or Western Europe. In Europe, however, many sources conflict and contrast with one another, often giving death tolls exceeding the estimated population at the time (such as London, where the death toll is said to be three times larger than the total population). Therefore, the precise death tolls remain uncertain, and any figures given should be treated tentatively.

The Black Death, possibly the deadliest and most well-known pandemic in human history, arrived in Europe from the Eurasian Steppes in 1347 and killed as much as 60 percent of the population within the next five years. While this outbreak eventually subsided, it was just the beginning of the Second Plague Pandemic; the bubonic plague was never really endemic to Europe, but was continuously re-introduced to Europe and the Mediterranean region via trade from Asia. Plague in the interim Following the Black Death, outbreaks of plague were sporadic, and varied in severity; however the lack of understanding and treatment meant that these outbreaks had incredibly high fatality rates and often decimated large portions of infected populations. For example, London lost up to one quarter of its population to plague epidemics in the 1560s, and again in the 1660s, while more than a century later Moscow and the surrounding region reportedly lost several hundred thousand people to plague within two years. Smaller and more isolated communities, such as in Cyprus, Iceland, and Malta were hit infrequently but severely; Iceland reportedly lost two thirds of its total population in a single pandemic in the early 1400s. Decline in Europe Over four centuries after its arrival in Europe, epidemics began to wean on larger scales. Ireland recorded its final epidemic in 1650, and the trend then continued across the states of mainland Europe in the next few decades. After plague disappeared from the German states in the 1680s, there were no more plague epidemics recorded in North or Western Europe. Despite this, it would be almost 160 years before plague disappeared from the Balkans and Turkey. As of 1841, the only part of Europe where plague was still endemic was along the Volga river in Russia; it was brought there by fisherman to the Caspian Sea from Persia and the Eurasian Steppe region.

The Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of bubonic plague that ravaged the Mediterranean and its surrounding area, between 541 and 767CE. It was likely the first major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, and possibly the earliest pandemic to have been recorded reliably and with relative accuracy. Contemporary scholars described the symptoms and effects of the disease in detail, and these matched descriptions of the Black Death and Third Pandemic, leading most historians to believe that this was bubonic plague. It was also assumed that the plague originated in sub-Saharan Africa, before making its way along the Nile to Egypt, and then across the Mediterranean to Constantinople. In 2013, scientists were able to confirm that Justinian's Plague was in fact Yersinia pestis (the bacteria which causes bubonic plague), and recent theories suggest that the plague originated in the Eurasian Steppes, where the Black Death and Third Pandemic are also thought to have originated from, and that it was brought to Europe by the Hunnic Tribes of the sixth century. Plague of Justinian The pandemic itself takes its name from Emperor Justinian I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) at the time of the outbreak, and who actually contracted the disease (although he survived). Reports suggest that Constantinople was the hardest hit city during the pandemic, and saw upwards of five thousand deaths per day during the most severe months. There are a multitude of sources with differing estimates for the plague's death toll, with most ranging between 25 and 100 million. Until recently, scholars assumed that the plague killed between one third and 40 percent of the world's population, with populations in infected regions declining by up to 25 percent in early years, and up to 60 percent over two centuries. The plague was felt strongest during the initial outbreak in Constantinople, however it remained in Europe for over two centuries, with the last reported cases in 767. Pre-2019 sources vary in their estimates, with some suggesting that up to half of the world's population died in the pandemic, while others state that it was just a quarter of the Mediterranean or European population; however most of them agree that the death toll was in the tens of millions. Historians have also argued about the plague's role in the fall of the Roman Empire, with opinions ranging from "fundamental" to "coincidental", although new evidence is more aligned with the latter theories. Challenging theories As with the recent studies which propose a different origin for the disease, one study conducted by researchers in Princeton and Jerusalem calls into question the accuracy of the death tolls estimated by historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2019, L. Mordechai and M. Eisenberg published a series of papers suggesting that, although the plague devastated Constantinople, it did not have the same impact as the Black Death. The researchers argue that modern historians have taken a maximalist approach to the death tolls of the pandemic, and have applied the same models of distribution to Justinian's Plague as they believe occurred during the Black Death; however there is little evidence to support this. They examine the content and number of contemporary texts, as well archaeological, agricultural and genetic evidence which shows that the plague did spread across Europe, but did not seem to cause the same societal upheaval as the Black Death. It is likely that there will be further investigation into this outbreak in the following years, which may shed more light on the scale of this pandemic.

Throughout the Common Era, Western Europe's population development fluctuated greatly. The population was very similar at the beginning and end of the first millennium, at around 25 million people. The largest decline in this period occurred in the sixth century, due to the Plague of Justinian, which the source claims to have killed around one third of the continent's population (although recent studies dispute this). Similarly, the population fell by almost 17 million throughout the 14th century, due to the Black Death.

Improvements in agriculture and infrastructure then saw population growth increase once more from the 15th century onwards, before the onset of the demographic transition saw a population boom throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Context

In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living, and was estimated to have reached 7,800,000,000 people as of March 2020. It took over 2 million years of human history for the world's population to reach 1 billion, and only 200 years more to reach 7 billion. The world population has experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the end of the Black Death in 1350, when it was near 370 million. The highest global population growth rates, with increases of over 1.8% per year, occurred between 1955 and 1975 – peaking to 2.1% between 1965 and 1970.[7] The growth rate declined to 1.2% between 2010 and 2015 and is projected to decline further in the course of the 21st century. However, the global population is still increasing[8] and is projected to reach about 10 billion in 2050 and more than 11 billion in 2100.

Content

Annual population growth rate for year t is the exponential rate of growth of midyear population from year t-1 to t, expressed as a percentage . Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship. Annual population growth rate. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship.

Statistical Concept and Methodology

Total population growth rates are calculated on the assumption that rate of growth is constant between two points in time. The growth rate is computed using the exponential growth formula: r = ln(pn/p0)/n, where r is the exponential rate of growth, ln() is the natural logarithm, pn is the end period population, p0 is the beginning period population, and n is the number of years in between. Note that this is not the geometric growth rate used to compute compound growth over discrete periods. For information on total population from which the growth rates are calculated, see total population (SP.POP.TOTL).

Acknowledgements

Derived from total population. Population source: ( 1 ) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2019 Revision, ( 2 ) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, ( 3 ) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, ( 4 ) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot ( various years ), ( 5 ) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and ( 6 ) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.

It was not until the Third Plague Pandemic where humans began to understand the relationship between bubonic plague, rats and their fleas. Today, we know that the most common way that plague spreads to humans is through the bites of infected fleas. During the Black Death, there were a variety of explanations for the plague's origin, such as punishment from God, bad air or poisoned wells; as the impact of the plague on humans and livestock were the most noticeable features of epidemics, the connection to rats was not established until much later. When the Third Pandemic spread through China, an increase in the number of dead rats was observed in Canton (Guangzhou), and again in Hong Kong during the outbreak of 1894. Investigations This prompted European scientists in Hong Kong to investigate this further as the plague progressed through 1902, and the experiment was repeated in 1903. The 1902 study showed that plague was at epidemic proportions among rats, and the number of dead rats observed correlated with the number of human plague cases. When the experiment was repeated in 1903, plague in rats was at a much lower level, however the correlation was much more noticeable. The conclusions drawn at the time were that the outbreaks peaked when the population of young rats was at its highest, but then declined as the weather cooled and rats were exterminated in larger numbers.

COVID-19 mortality rates increase rapidly with age, are higher among men than women, and vary across racial/ethnic groups, but this is also true for other natural causes of death. Prior research on COVID-19 mortality rates and racial/ethnic disparities in those rates has not considered to what extent disparities reflect COVID-19-specific factors, versus preexisting health differences. This study examines both questions. We study the COVID-19-related increase in mortality risk and racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 mortality, and how both vary with age, gender, and time period. We use a novel measure validated in prior work, the COVID Excess Mortality Percentage (CEMP), defined as the COVID-19 mortality rate (Covid-MR), divided by the non-COVID natural mortality rate during the same time period (non-Covid NMR), converted to a percentage. The CEMP denominator uses Non-COVID NMR to adjust COVID-19 mortality risk for underlying population health. The CEMP measure generates insights which differ from those using two common measures–the COVID-MR and the all-cause excess mortality rate. By studying both CEMP and COVID-MRMR, we can separate the effects of background health from Covid-specific factors affecting COVID-19 mortality. We study how CEMP and COVID-MR vary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and time period, using data on all adult decedents from natural causes in Indiana and Wisconsin over April 2020-June 2022 and Illinois over April 2020-December 2021. CEMP levels for racial and ethnic minority groups can be very high relative to White levels, especially for Hispanics in 2020 and the first-half of 2021. For example, during 2020, CEMP for Hispanics aged 18–59 was 68.9% versus 7.2% for non-Hispanic Whites; a ratio of 9.57:1. CEMP disparities are substantial but less extreme for other demographic groups. Disparities were generally lower after age 60 and declined over our sample period. Differences in socio-economic status and education explain only a small part of these disparities.

The region of present-day China has historically been the most populous region in the world; however, its population development has fluctuated throughout history. In 2022, China was overtaken as the most populous country in the world, and current projections suggest its population is heading for a rapid decline in the coming decades. Transitions of power lead to mortality The source suggests that conflict, and the diseases brought with it, were the major obstacles to population growth throughout most of the Common Era, particularly during transitions of power between various dynasties and rulers. It estimates that the total population fell by approximately 30 million people during the 14th century due to the impact of Mongol invasions, which inflicted heavy losses on the northern population through conflict, enslavement, food instability, and the introduction of bubonic plague. Between 1850 and 1870, the total population fell once more, by more than 50 million people, through further conflict, famine and disease; the most notable of these was the Taiping Rebellion, although the Miao an Panthay Rebellions, and the Dungan Revolt, also had large death tolls. The third plague pandemic also originated in Yunnan in 1855, which killed approximately two million people in China. 20th and 21st centuries There were additional conflicts at the turn of the 20th century, which had significant geopolitical consequences for China, but did not result in the same high levels of mortality seen previously. It was not until the overlapping Chinese Civil War (1927-1949) and Second World War (1937-1945) where the death tolls reached approximately 10 and 20 million respectively. Additionally, as China attempted to industrialize during the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), economic and agricultural mismanagement resulted in the deaths of tens of millions (possibly as many as 55 million) in less than four years, during the Great Chinese Famine. This mortality is not observable on the given dataset, due to the rapidity of China's demographic transition over the entire period; this saw improvements in healthcare, sanitation, and infrastructure result in sweeping changes across the population. The early 2020s marked some significant milestones in China's demographics, where it was overtaken by India as the world's most populous country, and its population also went into decline. Current projections suggest that China is heading for a "demographic disaster", as its rapidly aging population is placing significant burdens on China's economy, government, and society. In stark contrast to the restrictive "one-child policy" of the past, the government has introduced a series of pro-fertility incentives for couples to have larger families, although the impact of these policies are yet to materialize. If these current projections come true, then China's population may be around half its current size by the end of the century.

The Italian city of Venice was one of the largest cities in medieval and Renaissance era Europe. It was the center of the Republic of Venice, a maritime empire in the Mediterranean, and had one of Europe's largest ports for exotic goods (particularly from Asia), or luxury goods such as glassware. Impact of plague While its population was relatively small by modern standards, it is believed that Venice was among the five most populous cities in Western Europe in the given years between 1050 and 1650. The city's population did fluctuate over time due to devastating pandemics, and it is believed that Venice was one of the main points of entry for the Black Death in Europe. Venice was one of the hardest-hit cities during the Black Death; estimates fluctuate greatly across sources, but it is believed that the city lost around 40 percent of its population during the initial outbreak in the 1340s. Decline Furthermore, Venice lost roughly a third of its population during further plague pandemics (both introduced via war) in the 1570s and 1630s. Because of this, the population was kept fairly consistent across the given years between 1600 and 1800. The 18th century also saw the decline of the Venetian Empire, as other states gained power and influence in the Mediterranean. Venice also lost its importance as the entry point of exotic goods into Europe, as other European powers had already established their own maritime empires and trade routes across the globe. Eventually, the crumbling Venetian Empire fell to Napoleon in 1796, and its overseas territories were gradually taken by or split among various other powers. While the empire fell, the city itself continued to be a center for art and culture in Europe, and it has maintained this status until today. In 2021, Venice had a population of more than 250,000 people.

Following the arrival of Spanish colonizers in 1519, namely Hernando Cortes and his 600 conquistadors, the indigenous population of the Mexican valley saw a dramatic decline. In the first two years of conquest, thousands of indigenous Americans perished while fighting the European invaders, including an estimated 100,000 who died of violence or starvation during Cortes' siege of the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City), in 1520. However, the impact of European violence on population decline pales in comparison to the impact of Old World diseases, which saw the indigenous population of the region drop from roughly 22 million to less than two million within eight decades.. Virgin soil pandemics Almost immediately after the Spanish arrival, a wave of smallpox swept across the indigenous populations, with some estimates suggesting that five to eight million natives died in the subsequent pandemic between 1519 and 1520. This outbreak was not an isolated incident, with the entire indigenous population of the Americas dropping by roughly ninety percent in the next two centuries. The Mexican valley specifically, which was the most populous region of the pre-Columbian Americas, suffered greatly due to virgin soil pandemics (where new diseases are introduced to biologically defenseless populations). In the Middle Ages, the majority of Europeans contracted smallpox as children, which generally granted lifelong immunity. In contrast, indigenous Americans had never been exposed to these diseases, and their populations (of all ages) declined rapidly. Cocoliztli Roughly three decades after the smallpox pandemic, another pandemic swept across the valley, to a more devastating effect. This was an outbreak of cocoliztli, which almost wiped out the entire population, and was followed by a second pandemic three decades later. Until recently, historians were still unsure of the exact causes of cocoliztli, with most hypothesizing that it was a rodent-borne disease similar to plague or an extreme form of a haemorrhagic fever. In 2018, however, scientists in Jena, Germany, studied 29 sets of teeth from 16th century skeletons found in the Oaxaca region of Mexico (from a cemetery with known links to the 1545 pandemic); these tests concluded that cocoliztli was most likely an extreme and rare form of the salmonella bacterium, which caused paratyphoid fever. These pandemics coincided with some of the most extreme droughts ever recorded in North America, which exacerbates the spread and symptoms of this disease, and the symptoms described in historical texts give further credence to the claim that cocoliztli was caused by salmonella.

It is only in the past two centuries where demographics and the development of human populations has emerged as a subject in its own right, as industrialization and improvements in medicine gave way to exponential growth of the world's population. There are very few known demographic studies conducted before the 1800s, which means that modern scholars have had to use a variety of documents from centuries gone by, along with archeological and anthropological studies, to try and gain a better understanding of the world's demographic development. Genealogical records One such method is the study of genealogical records from the past; luckily, there are many genealogies relating to European families that date back as far as medieval times. Unfortunately, however, all of these studies relate to families in the upper and elite classes; this is not entirely representative of the overall population as these families had a much higher standard of living and were less susceptible to famine or malnutrition than the average person (although elites were more likely to die during times of war). Nonetheless, there is much to be learned from this data. Impact of the Black Death In the centuries between 1200 and 1745, English male aristocrats who made it to their 21st birthday were generally expected to live to an age between 62 and 72 years old. The only century where life expectancy among this group was much lower was in the 1300s, where the Black Death caused life expectancy among adult English noblemen to drop to just 45 years. Experts assume that the pre-plague population of England was somewhere between four and seven million people in the thirteenth century, and just two million in the fourteenth century, meaning that Britain lost at least half of its population due to the plague. Although the plague only peaked in England for approximately eighteen months, between 1348 and 1350, it devastated the entire population, and further outbreaks in the following decades caused life expectancy in the decade to drop further. The bubonic plague did return to England sporadically until the mid-seventeenth century, although life expectancy among English male aristocrats rose again in the centuries following the worst outbreak, and even peaked at more than 71 years in the first half of the sixteenth century.

The statistic shows the development of the world population from 1950 to 2050. The world population was around 7.38 billion people in 2015.

The global population

As shown above, the total number of people living on Earth has more than doubled since the 1950s, and continues to increase. A look at the development of the world population since the beginning of the Common Era shows that such a surge in numbers is unprecedented. The first significant rise in population occurred during the 14th century, after the Black Death had killed approximately 25 million people worldwide. Subsequently, the global population increased slowly but steadily until it reached record numbers between 1950 and 2000.

The majority of the global population lives on the Asian continent, as a statistic of the world population by continent shows. In around 100 years, it is estimated that population levels on the African continent will have reached similar levels to those we see in Asia today. As for a forecast of the development of the world population, the figures are estimated to have reached more than 10 billion by the 22nd century.

Growing population numbers pose an increasing risk to the planet, since rocketing numbers equal increased consumption of food and resources. Scientists worry that natural resources, such as oil, and food resources will become scarce, endangering the human race and, even more so, the world’s ecosystem. Nowadays, the number of undernourished / starving people worldwide has decreased slightly, but forecasts paint a darker picture.

The leading causes of death among the white population of the United States are cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Cardiovascular diseases and cancer accounted for a combined **** percent of all deaths among this population in 2022. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death among white people. Disparities in causes of death In the United States, there exist disparities in the leading causes of death based on race and ethnicity. For example, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis is the ***** leading cause of death among the white population and the ****** among the Hispanic population, but is not among the ten leading causes for Black people. On the other hand, homicide is the ******* leading cause of death among the Black population, but is not among the 10 leading causes for whites or Hispanics. However, cardiovascular diseases and cancer by far account for the highest share of deaths for every race and ethnicity. Diseases of despair The American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States has the highest rates of death from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol. Together, these three behavior-related conditions are often referred to as diseases of despair. Asians have by far the lowest rates of death due to drug overdose and alcohol, as well as slightly lower rates of suicide.

Infant mortality rates in the United States reveal significant disparities among racial and ethnic groups. In 2023, Black mothers faced the highest rate at nearly 11 deaths per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate for white mothers. This stark contrast persists despite overall improvements in healthcare and highlights the need for targeted interventions to address these inequalities. Birth rates and fertility trends While infant mortality rates vary, birth rates also differ across ethnicities. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women had the highest fertility rate in 2022, with about 2,237.5 births per 1,000 women, far exceeding the national average of 1,656.5. In 2023, this group maintained the highest birth rate at 79 births per 1,000 women. Asian women, by contrast, had a much lower birth rate of around 50 per thousand women. These differences in fertility rates can impact overall population growth and demographic shifts within the United States. Hispanic birth trends and fertility decline The Hispanic population in the United States has experienced significant changes in birth trends over recent decades. In 2021, 885,916 babies were born to Hispanic mothers, with a birth rate of 14.1 per 1,000 of the Hispanic population. This represents a slight increase from the previous year. However, the fertility rate among Hispanic women has declined dramatically since 1990, dropping from 108 children per 1,000 women aged 15-44 to 63.4 in 2021. This decline aligns with broader trends of decreasing fertility rates in more industrialized nations.

Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 1,173 civilians having been shot, 248 of whom were Black, as of December 2024. In 2023, there were 1,164 fatal police shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 6.1 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and 2024. Police brutality in the U.S. In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, police brutality has become a hot button issue in the United States. The number of homicides committed by police in the United States is often compared to those in countries such as England, where the number is significantly lower. Black Lives Matter The Black Lives Matter Movement, formed in 2013, has been a vocal part of the movement against police brutality in the U.S. by organizing “die-ins”, marches, and demonstrations in response to the killings of black men and women by police. While Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians.

Throughout the early modern period, the largest city in Italy was Naples. The middle ages saw many metropolitan areas along the Mediterranean grow to become the largest in Europe, as they developed into meeting ports for merchants travelling between the three continents. Italy, throughout this time, was not a unified country, but rather a collection of smaller states that had many cultural similarities, and political control of these cities regularly shifted over the given period. Across this time, the population of each city generally grew between each century, but a series of plague outbreaks in the 1600s devastated the populations of Italy's metropolitan areas, which can be observed here. Naples At the beginning of the 1500s, the Kingdom of Naples was taken under the control of the Spanish crown, where its capital grew to become the largest city in the newly-expanding Spanish Empire. Prosperity then grew in the 16th and 17th centuries, before the city's international importance declined in the 18th century. There is also a noticeable dip in Naples' population size between 1600 and 1700, due to an outbreak of plague in 1656 that almost halved the population. Today, Naples is just the third largest city in Italy, behind Rome and Milan. Rome Over 2,000 years ago, Rome became the first city in the world to have a population of more than one million people, and in 2021, it was Italy's largest city with a population of 2.8 million; however it did go through a period of great decline in the middle ages. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476CE, Rome's population dropped rapidly, below 100,000 inhabitants in 500CE. 1,000 years later, Rome was an important city in Europe as it was the seat of the Catholic Church, and it had a powerful banking sector, but its population was just 55,000 people as it did not have the same appeal for merchants or migrants held by the other port cities. A series of reforms by the Papacy in the late-1500s then saw significant improvements to infrastructure, housing, and sanitation, and living standards rose greatly. Over the following centuries, the Papacy consolidated its power in the center of the Italian peninsula, which brought stability to the region, and the city of Rome became a cultural center. Across this period, Rome's population grew almost three times larger, which was the highest level of growth of these cities.

In 1800, the population of modern day area of South Africa was approximately 1.44 million. Like most of the continent, the population of South Africa increased gradually through most of the 19th century, reaching 4.71 million by the start of the 20th century. Beginning in the 20th century however, the population would begin to rise exponentially as industrialization, advances in medicine and health, and the spread of vaccinations allowed for lower child mortality rates and increased life expectancy among adults. The population of South Africa would continue to rise exponentially for almost a century, going from just under 5 million at the start of the 1900s to almost 45 million by 2000. However, since the early 2000s, South Africa’s population growth has slowed, the result of a significant decrease in fertility rates in the country in recent years. In 2020, South Africa is estimated to have a population of 59.31 million.

In 2019, there were six deaths by homicide per 100,000 of the population in the United States, compared to 5.9 deaths by homicide in the previous year. This is an increase from 1950, when there were 5.1 deaths by homicide per 100,000 resident population in the United States. However, within the provided time period, the death rate for homicide in the U.S. was highest in 1980, when there were 10.4 deaths by homicide per 100,000 of the population in the United States.

Homicides in the United States

The term homicide is used when a human being is killed by another human being. Criminal homicide takes several forms, for example murder; but homicide is not always a crime, it also includes affirmative defense, insanity, self-defense or the execution of convicted criminals. In the United States, youth homicide has especially been seen as a problem of urban areas, due to poverty, limited adult supervision, involvement in drug and gang activities, and school failure. Both homicide rates and suicide rates in the U.S. among people aged 20 to 24 and teenagers aged 15 to 19 have vastly increased since 2001.

The rate of fatal police shootings in the United States shows large differences based on ethnicity. Among Black Americans, the rate of fatal police shootings between 2015 and December 2024 stood at 6.1 per million of the population per year, while for white Americans, the rate stood at 2.4 fatal police shootings per million of the population per year. Police brutality in the United States Police brutality is a major issue in the United States, but recently saw a spike in online awareness and protests following the murder of George Floyd, an African American who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Just a few months before, Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her apartment when Louisville police officers forced entry into her apartment. Despite the repeated fatal police shootings across the country, police accountability has not been adequate according to many Americans. A majority of Black Americans thought that police officers were not held accountable for their misconduct, while less than half of White Americans thought the same. Political opinions Not only are there differences in opinion between ethnicities on police brutality, but there are also major differences between political parties. A majority of Democrats in the United States thought that police officers were not held accountable for their misconduct, while a majority of Republicans that they were held accountable. Despite opposing views on police accountability, both Democrats and Republicans agree that police should be required to be trained in nonviolent alternatives to deadly force.

The United States military has a long history of ethnic minorities serving in its ranks, with black Americans having served as far back as the Revolutionary War. The Vietnam War took place during a period of changing race relations in the United States, with the Civil Rights Movement reaching its peak in the mid-1960s, and this too was reflected in the military. The Vietnam War was the first major conflict in which black and white troops were not formally segregated, however, discrimination did still occur with black soldiers reporting being subject to overt racism, being unjustly punished, and having fewer promotion opportunities than their white counterparts.

In the early phases of the war, black casualty rates were much higher than for other races and ethnicities, with some reports showing that black soldiers accounted for 25 percent of the casualties recorded in 1965. This declined substantially as the war progressed, however, the proportion of black service personnel among those fallen during the war was still disproportionately high, as black personnel comprised only 11 percent of the military during this era. A smaller number of other ethnic minorities were killed during the war, comprising two percent of the total.