In 2024, there were approximately 1.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in El Salvador. Since 2015, when it stood at 103, the murder rate has been dropping annually in this Central American country. Crime current state The region has witnessed a substantial reduction in the number of homicides since 2015, resulting in the most common crimes becoming increasingly more centered on non-lethal offenses and material-related transgressions, which now pose the most prevalent threats. This shift is equally apparent across both genders, with the rate of femicides steadily declining, paralleling a consistent decrease in overall victimization rates. Consequently, El Salvador achieved the ranking of the third safest country within the Latin American homicide rate context. Notwithstanding these notable improvements, a lingering sense of caution endures among the populace, as nearly half of them remain apprehensive about the prospect of falling victim to criminal activities. Main economic problems Following an extended phase marked by elevated inflation, the region continues to grapple with challenges in its efforts to recover. The impact has been most pronounced on the prices of essential food items, rendering them increasingly unaffordable for a population where approximately 20 percent live under poverty conditions. Furthermore, the unemployment rate persists, with one out of every two individuals still seeking employment opportunities. A significant proportion, approximately 60 percent, remain apprehensive about job loss, recognizing the subsequent loss of their primary income source. In response, the government is envisaging an enhancement in both the employment rate and the GDP, albeit with a gradual recovery trajectory following the substantial downturn experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between June 2023 and May 2024, the most frequent crimes in El Salvador were thefts, with almost 7,000 cases. In total, the public prosecutors of El Salvador reported 15,620 high impact crimes, a considerable decrease when compared to the previous year. The number of offenses in some of the main categories of property crimes is significantly lower than in other years, for example, the number of thefts or robberies of vehicles transporting goods decreased by almost 60 percent in 2020 when compared with 2019. With these numbers, it is no surprise that the approval rate of the current government is over 85 percent. The falling homicide rate In 2015, the homicide rate in El Salvador was over 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest figures in the world. Nonetheless, during the past years, the rate dropped to less than 20 homicides. El Salvador lived through two of the highest days of violence, with over 74 homicides on March 25th and 26th, 2022. Two days after, El Salvador's government declared a state of emergency to counter gang activity and try to end the wave of violence. Once more, the population seems to back up the government, with over 75 percent of Salvadorans declaring that they feel safe with the current emergency state. The economic cost of violence Violence and crime are two of the main problems society faces in El Salvador and the Central American region. In addition to the lack of security, it also generates economic losses, the cost of violence accounted for over 8,849 million USD in 2022, which is over 15 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country, almost double the global average. This figure represents the expenditure of a country to deal with the outcome of violence, contain it, and prevent it from spreading and continuing.

Historical dataset showing El Salvador crime rate per 100K population by year from 1994 to 2021.

In 2024, there were a total of *** homicides in El Salvador. 2020 experienced the largest decrease, when compared with the previous year. Just a few years before, in 2016, more than ***** people were victims of murder in this Central American country.

In 2024, the highest homicide rate among 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries surveyed was in Haiti, with around 62 murders committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Trinidad and Tobago came in second, with a homicide rate of 46, while Honduras ranked seventh, with 25. In the same year, the lowest rate was recorded in El Salvador, with a homicide rate of 1.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. A violence-ridden region Violence and crime are some of the most pressing problems affecting Latin American society nowadays. More than 40 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world are located in this region, as well as one of the twenty countries with the least peace in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Despite governments’ large spending on security and high imprisonment rates, drug and weapon trafficking, organized crime, and gangs have turned violence into an epidemic that affects the whole region and a solution to this issue appears to be hardly attainable. The cost of violence in Mexico Mexico stands out as an example of the great cost that violence inflicts upon a country, since beyond claiming human lives, it also affects everyday life and has a negative impact on the economy. Mexicans have a high perceived level of insecurity, as they do not only fear becoming victims of homicide, but also of other common crimes, such as assault or rape. Such fear prevents people from performing everyday activities, for instance, going out at night, taking a taxi or going to the movies or the theater. Furthermore, the economic toll of violence in Mexico is more than considerable. For example, the cost of homicide and violent crime amounted to 2099.8 and 1778.1 billion Mexican pesos in 2023, respectively.

The average for 2017 based on 97 countries was 7.4 homicides per 100,000 people. The highest value was in El Salvador: 61.8 homicides per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Japan: 0.2 homicides per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 1990 to 2017. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In 2023, the victimization rate in El Salvador was slightly higher among men than women, with over ** percent of the population declaring being victims of a crime. For more insights about the victimization rate consider different countries: In 2018, in comparison to El Salvador, the rate in Guatemala was higher and in Chile it was considerably higher.

Over ****** cases of violence against women have been reported every year in El Savaldor between 2019 and 2022. In 2021, over ****** cases of this type of violence have been reported in the Central American country, the highest number in those four years.

Turks and Caicos Islands saw a murder rate of ***** per 100,000 inhabitants, making it the most dangerous country for this kind of crime worldwide as of 2024. Interestingly, El Salvador, which long had the highest global homicide rates, has dropped out of the top 29 after a high number of gang members have been incarcerated. Meanwhile, Colima in Mexico was the most dangerous city for murders. Violent conflicts worldwide Notably, these figures do not include deaths that resulted from war or a violent conflict. While there is a persistent number of conflicts worldwide, resulting casualties are not considered murders. Partially due to this reason, homicide rates in Latin America are higher than those in Afghanistan or Syria. A different definition of murder in these circumstances could change the rate significantly in some countries. Causes of death Also, noteworthy is that murders are usually not random events. In the United States, the circumstances of murders are most commonly arguments, followed by narcotics incidents and robberies. Additionally, murders are not a leading cause of death. Heart diseases, strokes and cancer pose a greater threat to life than violent crime.

This paper provides evidence showing how deportation policies can backfire by disseminating not only ideas between countries but also criminal networks, spreading gangs, in this case, across Central America, and spurring migration back to the US. In 1996, the US Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the members of large Salvadoran gangs developed in Los Angeles were sent back to El Salvador. Using variation in criminal deportations over time and across cohorts, combined with geographical variation in the US gangs’ location and deportees’ place of birth, I find that criminal deportations led to a large increase in Salvadoran homicide rates and gang activity, such as extortion and drug trafficking, as well as an increase in gang recruitment of children. In particular, I find evidence that Salvadoran children who were exposed at a young age to US gangs are more likely to be involved in gang-related crimes in adulthood. I also find some evidence that these deportations increased child migration to the US by increasing gang violence in El Salvador, potentially leading to more deportations.

This statistic presents the number of homicides registered in El Salvador in 2018, sorted by department. According to the source, there were a total of ***** homicides in the Central American country in 2018, of which almost one thousand were committed in the department of San Salvador, which comprises the Salvadorian capital city and its metropolitan area.

Several countries located in Central America and the Caribbean registered some of the highest homicide rates in the Latin American region in 2023. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ranked first, with around 51.32 homicides committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Jamaica came in second with 49.44 homicides per 100,000 people. The source defines intentional homicide as the unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. When it comes to the total case count, Brazil was the Latin American country with the largest number of homicide victims. Central America and the falling rates El Salvador was commonly named the murder capital of the world for a few years. The inability of previous governments to control organized crime and gangs resulted in the highest homicide rate in the world for a couple of years. Nonetheless, the current administration and the measures applied during the emergency state had an incredibly positive impact in terms of the security of the Salvadorean citizens. But not only El Salvador has seen a considerable reduction in its murder rate in Central America. Honduras and Guatemala are also two great examples of crime reduction, introducing new policies, institutions, and changes to their judicial system to achieve better results. The Caribbean is still ridden by crime Some islands in the Caribbean are not only known as tax heavens, as some nations in the region are considered the main enablers of tax evasion in the world, but also for being ridden by crime. Haiti is one example of the still-rising levels of criminality. As a country with precarious conditions and extreme food insecurity, the homicide rate has been on the rise for almost four consecutive years. Another one is Jamaica, at the top of the Latin American ranking, that has also seen an increase in the youth involved in organized crime due to lack of employment and economic conditions.

In September 2014, the Government of El Salvador created the Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Ciudadana y Convivencia (CNSCC), whose main objective is to promote and facilitate dialogue and agreement around public policies on justice, citizen security and coexistence. Through this space, the Plan El Salvador Seguro (PESS) was discussed and approved in 2015, which consists of five axes and hundreds of actions to confront violence and crime, guarantee access to justice and protection for victims of all types of crime. In the framework of the implementation of Axis 4 of the PESS (attention and protection of victims), and given the State's concern to determine the characteristics and impact of internal mobility due to violence in El Salvador, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP), in coordination with the Secretariat of Governance and Communications (SEGOB), promoted the realization of a profiling study on the dimension, tendencies and profiles of the people and families forced to diplace internally due to violence in recent years. For this effort, the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was requested. The study shows that in El Salvador internal mobility is a multi-causal phenomenon, with the economic and family reasons being predominant. With a significantly lower incidence, it is confirmed that acts of violence or crimes committed against the population are located as the third cause of internal mobility of the population in recent years. According to the information collected, in 1.1% of resident families at least one of its members was forced to change their usual place of residence within El Salvador as to avoid the effects of facts of violence.

El Salvador: Robberies per 100,000 people: Pour cet indicateur, The UN office on drugs and crime fournit des données pour la El Salvador de 2005 à 2015. La valeur moyenne pour El Salvador pendant cette période était de 91 robberies per 100,000 people avec un minimum de 77 robberies per 100,000 people en 2014 et un maximum de 108 robberies per 100,000 people en 2009.

The Central American nation with the highest prison occupancy rate, as of April 2025, was Guatemala, when the level stood at almost 300 percent of its official capacity. Nicaragua followed with 177.6 percent of occupancy level. The lowest prison occupancy rate was found in Belize, which, with 67 percent, was the only country whose prison system was not overcrowded. That year, El Salvador had the highest prison population rate in Central America.

Abstract

In September 2014, the Government of El Salvador created the Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Ciudadana y Convivencia (CNSCC), whose main objective is to promote and facilitate dialogue and agreement around public policies on justice, citizen security and coexistence. Through this space, the Plan El Salvador Seguro (PESS) was discussed and approved in 2015, which consists of five axes and hundreds of actions to confront violence and crime, guarantee access to justice and protection for victims of all types of crime. In the framework of the implementation of Axis 4 of the PESS (attention and protection of victims), and given the State's concern to determine the characteristics and impact of internal mobility due to violence in El Salvador, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP), in coordination with the Secretariat of Governance and Communications (SEGOB), promoted the realization of a profiling study on the dimension, tendencies and profiles of the people and families forced to diplace internally due to violence in recent years. For this effort, the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was requested. The study shows that in El Salvador internal mobility is a multi-causal phenomenon, with the economic and family reasons being predominant. With a significantly lower incidence, it is confirmed that acts of violence or crimes committed against the population are located as the third cause of internal mobility of the population in recent years. According to the information collected, in 1.1% of resident families at least one of its members was forced to change their usual place of residence within El Salvador as to avoid the effects of facts of violence.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Household and individual.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The survey's objective was to deliver representative data of households affected by internal displacement at national level. For this survey a stratified sample design was applied to take into account that the distribution of the displaced population is more concentrated in certain geographical areas of the country. The total number of internally displaced persons at the time of the survey was estimated at around 71,500 people. The total sample size was 430 internally displaced households (around 1,650 people).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face interview

Research instrument

The questionnaire included the following sections: household characteristics, dwelling, livelihoods, incidents and displacement, individual characteristics.

The number of burglaries registered in El Salvador increased significantly from 2010 to 2018, growing over five times. During 2022, the number of crimes was around 2,331 cases.

Between June 2023 and May 2024, the most frequent gender-based crime in El Salvador was sexual violence, with ***** cases.

In 2022, the feminicide rate per 100,000 women in El Salvador was estimated at approximately 1.60. Between 2014 and 2022, the figure dropped by around 2.10, though the decline followed an uneven course rather than a steady trajectory.

During December 2024, around 83 percent of respondents in El Salvador stated that they believe the criminality in the country has decreased in the last year. Some of the most common crimes in El Salvador are robbery, theft, and extortion.