In 2023, there were approximately 2.4 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.

Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

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.

In 2023, there were a total of 154 homicides in El Salvador. 2020 experienced the largest decrease, when compared with the previous year. Just a few years before, in 2016, more than 5,000 people were victims of murder in this Central American country.

El Salvador crime rate per 100K population for 2021 was 18.17, a 14.76% decline from 2020.

• El Salvador crime rate per 100K population for 2020 was 21.31, a 44.19% decline from 2019.
• El Salvador crime rate per 100K population for 2019 was 38.18, a 28.38% decline from 2018.
• El Salvador crime rate per 100K population for 2018 was 53.31, a 15.68% decline from 2017.

Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

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 3,340 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.

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.

On March 16th 2025, Trump's administration deported 238 alleged members of the Venezuela criminal gang Tren de Aragua to the Terrorism Confinement Center (or CECOT) prison in El Salvador. According to official data, the United States will pay around six million U.S. dollars to El Salvador to imprison around 300 deportees from the U.S. for one year. Crime in El Salvador Nayib Bukele is one of the most beloved world leaders, with an approval rate of 93 percent as of July 2024, being crowned with the highest in Latin America. This comes not without a reason, as El Salvador used to be constantly ranked as one of the most violent countries globally due to gang violence, specifically, La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Mara Barrio-18. After a particularly violent couple of days in March 2022, Bukele’s administration called for an Emergency state, with massive incarceration of alleged gang members. The Central American country now ranks with the lowest homicide rate in the region. One of the largest prisons in the world, not without controversy El Salvador ranks by far as the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. As of February 2025, El Salvador's rate was 1,659 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, more than double when compared to Cuba – which ranks as the second place. The massive incarceration and the measures taken during the emergency state, various countries and international observers called out El Salvador for an approach lacking human rights. As the gang members were heavily mistreated and later on some of them, or their families, were charged 170 US dollars a month for food, clothing, and other services. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of such measures and with almost 90 percent of Salvadoreans feeling safer after the emergency state, Bukele secured a second office term in 2024 with more than 80 percent of the votes.

Saint Kitts and Nevis saw a murder rate of 65 per 100,000 inhabitants, making it the most dangerous country for this kind of crime worldwide as of 2023. Interestingly, El Salvador, which long had the highest global homicide rates, has dropped out of the top 20 after a high number of gang members have been incarcerated. Meanwhile, Celaya 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.

El Salvador SV: Intentional Homicides: per 100,000 People data was reported at 108.600 Ratio in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 64.200 Ratio for 2014. El Salvador SV: Intentional Homicides: per 100,000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 64.200 Ratio from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2015, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 139.132 Ratio in 1995 and a record low of 37.200 Ratio in 2003. El Salvador SV: Intentional Homicides: per 100,000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s El Salvador – Table SV.World Bank: Health Statistics. Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.; ; UN Office on Drugs and Crime's International Homicide Statistics database.; Weighted average;

In 2020, the victimization rate in El Salvador was slightly higher among men than women, with over 20 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 20,000 cases of violence against women have been reported every year in El Savaldor between 2019 and 2022. In 2021, over 25,000 cases of this type of violence have been reported in the Central American country, the highest number in those four years.

7.9 (cases per 100,000 population) in 2022. “Intentional homicide” is defined as unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person

In 2022, the feminicide rate per 100,000 women in El Salvador decreased by 0.8 percentage points (-33.33 percent) compared to 2021. In 2022, the rate thereby reached its lowest value in recent years. For more insights about the feminicide rate per 100,000 women consider different countries like Bolivia or Ecuador.

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: Thefts 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 160 thefts per 100,000 people avec un minimum de 123 thefts per 100,000 people en 2014 et un maximum de 191 thefts per 100,000 people en 2006.

Several countries located in Central America and the Caribbean registered some of the highest homicide rates in the Latin American region in 2022. Jamaica ranked first, with around 53.34 homicides committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines came second, with 40.41 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 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, 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.

Between June 2023 and May 2024, the most frequent gender-based crime in El Salvador was sexual violence, with 8,984 cases.

In 2022, 5,277 cases of sexual offenses were reported in El Salvador. The victims' households were the most common site for the crimes, with over 2,800 cases reported. Open spaces also registered a high number of sexual offenses, with 1,223 reported cases in 2022.

In 2023, the percentage of the population aged over 18 who is very afraid of being a victim of crime in El Salvador decreased by 16 percentage points (-57.14 percent) compared to 2020. Therefore, 2023 marks the lowest percentage of population during the observed period. For more insights about the percentage of the population aged over 18 who is very afraid of being a victim of crime consider different countries: In 2023, in comparison to El Salvador, the percentage of population in Panama as well as in Honduras was considerably higher.