As of 2021, Black men had the highest firearm homicide rate in the United States, with ***** homicides by firearm per 100,000 of the population. In comparison, Black women had a firearm homicide rate of **** per 100,000 of the population. In that year, the risk of gun homicide was lowest among Asian people across all genders.

In 2023, there were 5.4 homicides by firearm per 100,000 residents in the United States. This is a slight decrease from the previous year, when the rate of firearm homicides stood at 5.9 per 100,000 of the population.

The statistic shows the rate of firearm homicide deaths per 100,000 of population in the United States from 1990 to 2020. In 2020, about 5.9 of every 100,000 people were killed by a firearm in the United States.

In recent years, gun violence in the United States has become an alarmingly common occurrence. From 2016, there has been over ****** homicides by firearm in the U.S. each year and firearms have been found to make up the majority of murder weapons in the country by far, demonstrating increasing rates of gun violence occurring throughout the nation. As of 2025, Mississippi was the state with the highest gun violence rate per 100,000 residents in the United States, at **** percent, followed by Louisiana, at **** percent. In comparison, Massachusetts had a gun violence rate of *** percent, the lowest out of all the states. The importance of gun laws Gun laws in the United States vary from state to state, which has been found to affect the differing rates of gun violence throughout the country. Fewer people die by gun violence in states where gun safety laws have been passed, while gun violence rates remain high in states where gun usage is easily permitted and even encouraged. In addition, some states suffer from high rates of gun violence despite having strong gun safety laws due to gun trafficking, as traffickers can distribute firearms illegally past state lines. The right to bear arms Despite evidence from other countries demonstrating that strict gun control measures reduce rates of gun violence, the United States has remained reluctant to enact gun control laws. This can largely be attributed to the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which states that citizens have the right to bear arms. Consequently, gun control has become a highly partisan issue in the U.S., with ** percent of Democrats believing that it was more important to limit gun ownership while ** percent of Republicans felt that it was more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns.

The average for 2017 based on 35 countries was 1.7 homicides per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Russia: 9.2 homicides per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Luxembourg: 0.3 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 the United States, Black people have higher rates of gun homicide than White people across all age groups. As of 2022, gun homicide rates were highest among Black people aged between 15 and 24 years, at ***** gun homicides per 100,000 of the population. In comparison, there were only **** gun homicides per 100,000 of the White population within this age range. However, the risk for gun homicide was greatest among all adolescents and adults between the ages of 15 to 44 in that year. The impact of guns on young Americans In the last few years, firearms have become the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers aged one to 19 years old, accounting for more deaths than car crashes and diseases. School shootings also remain on the rise recently, with the U.S. recording ** times as many school shootings than other high-income nations from 2009 to 2018. Black students in particular experience a disproportionately high number of school shootings relative to their population, and K-12 teachers at schools made up mostly of students of color are more likely to report feeling afraid that they or their students would be a victim of attack or harm. The right to bear arms Despite increasingly high rates of gun-related violence, gun ownership remains a significant part of American culture, largely due to the fact that the right to bear arms is written into the U.S. Constitution. Although firearms are the most common murder weapon used in the U.S., accounting for approximately ****** homicides in 2022, almost **** of American households have at least one firearm in their possession. Consequently, it is evident that firearms remain easily accessible nationwide, even though gun laws may vary from state to state. However, the topic of gun control still causes political controversy, as the majority of Republicans agree that it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while Democrats are more inclined to believe that it is more important to limit gun ownership.

Number and rate (per 100,000 population) of homicide victims, Canada and Census Metropolitan Areas, 1981 to 2024.

Number, percentage and rate (per 100,000 population) of homicide victims, by racialized identity group (total, by racialized identity group; racialized identity group; South Asian; Chinese; Black; Filipino; Arab; Latin American; Southeast Asian; West Asian; Korean; Japanese; other racialized identity group; multiple racialized identity; racialized identity, but racialized identity group is unknown; rest of the population; unknown racialized identity group), gender (all genders; male; female; gender unknown) and region (Canada; Atlantic region; Quebec; Ontario; Prairies region; British Columbia; territories), 2019 to 2024.

The United States had, by far, the highest homicide rate of the G7 countries between 2000 and 2023. In 2023, it reached 5.76 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, a decrease from 6.78 in 2021. By comparison, Canada, the G7 nation with the second-highest homicide rate, had 1.98 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023. Out of each G7 nation, Japan had the lowest rate with 0.23 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

This statistic shows the number of gun deaths in the United States annually as an average from the years 2012 to 2014, by race per 100,000 population. On average, there were 20 deaths per 100,000 people annually among to the black population of the United States. The corresponding rate among the white population was nearly half at 11.2 gun deaths per 100,000 people annually.

Rate: Firearm-related Deaths per 100,000 Persons (age adjusted)

Definition: Deaths with a firearm-related injury as the underlying cause of death. ICD-10 codes: W32-W34 (unintentional), X72-X74 (suicide), X93-X95 (homicide), Y22-Y24 (undetermined intent), Y35.0 (legal intervention)

Data Sources:

1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Compressed Mortality File. CDC WONDER On-line Database accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/cmf-icd10.html

2) Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health

2) Population Estimates, State Data Center, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development

Victims of gang-related homicides (total number of homicide victims; number of homicide victims - unknown gang-relation; number of homicide victims - known gang relation; number of gang-related homicide victims; percentage of gang-related homicide victims; rate (per 100,000 population) of gang-related homicide victims), Canada and regions, 1999 to 2024.

From 2013 to 2019, the United States had a gun homicide rate of **** per 100,000 residents, the most out of any other G7 country. In comparison, Canada had a gun homicide rate of **** per 100,000 residents while France had a gun homicide rate of *** per 100,000 residents.

Data tables relating to offences involving weapons as recorded by police and hospital episode statistics.

State-level firearm suicide proxy (FSS) for household gun ownership 1949-2020. Unlike most gun prevalence measures that are representative at the national or regional level, this proxy represents household gun ownership trends at the state level and is not reliant on self-reported data that are prone to social desirability bias. This extended proxy represents the longest-ranging dataset of state-level gun ownership rates to date. This dataset also includes historic data on firearm homicide and homicide counts and rates per 100,000 residents.

Introduction: Firearm legality and ownership have been contentious topics in American culture, due to the well-documented, yet preventable, health and safety risks. States vary in the amount of firearm ownership, as well as firearm mortality and injury rates. Objectives: The primary aim of this project is to compare two states, New Jersey and Texas, on the likelihood of firearm violence occurring to each state's citizens. The variables of gun ownership, firearm mortalities, and firearm injuries are compared and visualized to understand if living in one state is safer than living in the other. Methods: Data analysis focused on connecting and comparing the two states with variables pointing to firearm safety/danger. Line graphs compare the two states and firearm injuries and mortalities over a sixteen-year period as well as number of firearms per state. Scatterplots show a correlation, if any, between number of firearms and injuries/mortalities in the two states. Results: Texas had a consistently higher mortality rate by firearms (excluding suicides) for each year of the seventeen years. Texas also led in firearm injuries from the years 2000-2010, 2012, and 2014-2016, but not in 2011 and 2013. New Jersey consistently has a lower mortality rate (3.5 and under per 100,000) and lower gun ownership (.11 and under per household). Texas’ data has both a higher mortality rate (between 3.8 and 4.8 per 100,000) and a higher gun ownership rate (.34 to .40 per household). With a few exceptions from the years 2011 and 2013, the state data points are clustered to show the relationship between gun ownership and firearm injuries to be high/high for Texas and low/low for New Jersey. Conclusions: From the years 2000-2016 it is, on average, 20% less likely that one will be injured by a firearm and 30% less likely that one will be killed by a firearm if one were to live in New Jersey instead of Texas, causing the conclusion that it is safer to live in New Jersey than in Texas.

ABSTRACT: Objective: To describe the notifications of interpersonal and self-inflicted firearm violence in adolescents and to identify the factors associated with the notification of this event. Methodology: Cross-sectional study analyzing data from Sinan from 2011 to 2017, in adolescents aged 10-19 years, injured by firearms. The χ2 test was used to verify the gender ratio difference. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were performed between the logarithm of the firearm notification rate and each independent variable, in a sample of large municipalities. Results: There were 30,103 reports of firearm violence in adolescents, of which (74.7%) were males aged 15-19 years (83.8%). Among girls, violence is more common at home, with a known perpetrator, and with physical and sexual violence combined. The death rate by firearms was higher in Fortaleza, Maceió, João Pessoa, Salvador and Natal, ranging from 105.88 to 71.73 per 100 thousand. Higher notification rates of firearm violence were associated with higher firearm death rates and greater coverage of health facilities. Conclusion: Firearm violence is a major public health problem in adolescents. Attacks on the disarmament statute and the loosening of gun possession and ownership directly confront the present and future of children and adolescents.

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.

Firearm deaths continue to be a major public health problem, but the number of non-fatal firearm injuries and the characteristics of patients and injuries is not well known. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, with support from the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, leveraged an existing data system to capture lethal and non-lethal injuries, including patients treated and discharged from the emergency department and collect additional data on firearm injuries that present to trauma centers. In 2020, Missouri had the 4th highest firearm mortality rate in the country at 23.75/100,000 population compared to 13.58/100,000 for the US overall. We examined the characteristics of patients from Missouri with firearm injuries in this cross-sectional study. Of the overall 17,395 patients, 1,336 (7.7%) were treated at one of the 11 participating trauma centers in Missouri during the 12-month study period. Patients were mostly male and much more likely to be Black and uninsured than residents in the state as a whole. Nearly three-fourths of the injuries were due to assaults, and overall 7.7% died. Few patients received post-discharge services.

This dataset supports the manuscript Lawful Handgun Licensing, Population Density, Poverty, Police Staffing, and Violent Crime: A Two-Cohort Comparison of U.S. Jurisdictions (2023–2024). It contains processed violent crime counts, rates per 100,000, population denominators, poverty statistics, and police staffing levels for two cohorts of U.S. jurisdictions. Cohort A includes counties with high levels of licensed handgun ownership (Brevard FL, Macomb MI, Genesee MI, Sumner TN, Sullivan TN, Pierce WA). Cohort B includes restrictive licensing jurisdictions (New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston). The package includes: County/city-level violent crime counts for homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault (2023–2024). Population denominators (2024 Census estimates). Derived violent crime rates per 100,000. Poverty measures and law enforcement officer staffing rates. Python replication script to regenerate tables and figures used in the study. Accessed data sources: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Major Cities Chiefs Association, NYPD annual tables, FDLE FIBRS, Michigan MICR, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, and U.S. Census QuickFacts. Data pulled on August 27, 28, and 30, 2025.