Haiti saw a murder rate of ** per 100,000 inhabitants, making it the most dangerous country for this kind of crime worldwide as of 2025. 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. 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.

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.

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.

The graph illustrates the murder rate in the United States from 1985 to 2026. The x-axis represents the years, labeled with two-digit abbreviations from '85 to '26, while the y-axis shows the annual murder rate per 100,000 individuals. Throughout this 42-year period, the murder rate fluctuates between a high of 10.66 in 1991 and a low of 4.7 in 2014. Overall, the data reveals a significant downward trend in the murder rate from the mid-1980s, reaching its lowest point in the mid-2010s, followed by slight increases in the most recent years.

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 Europe, the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania had the highest and third highest homicide rates respectively in 2023. Latvia had the highest rate at over four per 100,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, the lowest homicide rate was found in Liechtenstein, with zero murders The most dangerous country worldwide Saint Kitts and Nevis is the world's most dangerous country to live in in terms of murder rate. The Caribbean country had a homicide rate of 65 per 100,000 inhabitants. Nine of the 10 countries with the highest murder rates worldwide are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Whereas Celaya in Mexico was listed as the city with the highest murder rate worldwide, Colima in Mexico was the city with the highest homicide rate in Latin America, so the numbers vary from source to source. Nevertheless, several Mexican cities rank among the deadliest in the world when it comes to intentional homicides. 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 countries such as Ukraine or the DR Congo. A different definition of murder in these circumstances could change the rate significantly.

Number, rate and percentage changes in rates of homicide victims, Canada, provinces and territories, 1961 to 2024.

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

In 2025, the highest homicide rate among 21 Latin American and Caribbean countries surveyed was in Haiti, with around 68 murders committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Ecuador came in second, with a homicide rate of 50.9. In the same year, the lowest rate was recorded in El Salvador, with a homicide rate of 1.3 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 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.

This dataset provides annual homicide rates per 100,000 population for 13 countries and the global average from 1970 to 2025. It is compiled from UNODC Homicide Statistics, Our World in Data, and national crime reports, with historical estimates for years where official data is unavailable.

It enables cross-country comparison, trend analysis, visualization, and predictive modeling of global violent crime patterns. Ideal for data scientists, researchers, social scientists, and policy analysts studying crime trends and public safety.

Countries included: USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Pakistan, South Africa, Colombia, UAE

Data Frequency: Yearly (Jan–Dec) Unit: Homicide per 100,000 population

Source Links:

• UNODC Homicide Statistics
• Our World in Data Homicide Dataset

Objective: Analyze yearly homicide rates across countries, identify trends, and visualize global patterns.

Sections / Flow

Introduction Overview of homicide as a global social metric. Countries: USA, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Pakistan, South Africa, Colombia, UAE

Data Loading & Cleaning Load Excel dataset. Inspect columns, missing values, and data types Exploratory Analysis Global homicide trend over 1970–2025. Compare selected countries (line plots). Identify highest/lowest homicide rates per country.

Visualization Line plots with highlights for peaks. Heatmap of correlations between countries Optional: Choropleth map for spatial view.

Insights & Summary Bullet points with key trends (rising, falling, steady). Optional: brief forecast or discussion on social implications. Optional Enhancements Rolling averages (5-year) to smooth trends Interactive country selection with ipywidgets. Forecast with simple ARIMA for one or two countries.

Tags / Keywords Homicide, Global Crime Statistics, Time-Series, 1970-2025, Cross-Country Analysis, UNODC, Data Science, Python Visualization

The average for 2017 based on 23 countries was 2.3 homicides per 100,000 people. The highest value was in the Philippines: 8.4 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.

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.

Historical dataset showing U.S. murder/homicide rate per 100K population by year from 1990 to 2021.

The average for 2017 based on 9 countries was 11.9 homicides per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Brazil: 30.5 homicides per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Chile: 4.3 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 2024, the District of Columbia had the highest rate of murder and non-negligent manslaughter in the United States with a rate of 25.5 murders or non-negligent manslaughters per 100,000 inhabitants. Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, and Tennessee rounded out the top five states with the highest murder rates.

In 2025, Pietermaritzburg in South Africa ranked as the world's most dangerous city with a crime rate of 82 per 100,000 inhabitants. Five of the 10 cities with the highest crime rates worldwide are found in South Africa. The list does not include countries where war and conflict exist. South Africa dominates crime statistics When looking at crime rates, among the 10 most dangerous cities in the world, half of them are found in South Africa. The country is struggling with extremely high levels of inequality, and is struggling with high levels of crime and power outages, harming the country's economy and driving more people into unemployment and poverty. Crime in Latin America On the other hand, when looking at murder rates, Latin America dominates the list of the world's most dangerous countries. Violence in Latin America is caused in great part by drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and gang wars.

Number, percentage and rate (per 100,000 population) of homicide victims, by gender (all genders; male; female; gender unknown) and Indigenous identity (total; Indigenous identity; non-Indigenous identity; unknown Indigenous identity), Canada, provinces and territories, 2014 to 2020.

Review annual reports on homicides from the MA Violent Death Reporting System (MAVDRS).

Data Collection

The Washington Post collected data on more than 52,000 criminal homicides over the past decade in 50 of the largest American cities.

The data included the location of the killing, whether an arrest was made and, in most cases, basic demographic information about each victim.

Reporters received data in many formats, including paper, and worked for months to clean and standardize it, comparing homicide counts and aggregate closure rates with FBI data to ensure the records were as accurate as possible.

In some cases, departments provided only partial information about the homicides, so reporters consulted public records, including death certificates, court records and medical examiner reports, to fill in the gaps. The data is more specific than the federal homicide data gathered annually by the FBI from police agencies nationwide.

The Post mapped each homicide, identifying arrest rates by geography in each city, sharing the analysis with the local police department prior to publication.

Definitions

When possible, The Post followed definitions used in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. In that program, homicides include murder and non-negligent manslaughter but exclude suicides, accidents, justifiable homicides and deaths caused by negligence.

The Post considered a homicide to be closed by arrest when police reported that to be the case.

Cases were counted as closed without arrest if they were reported by police to be “exceptionally cleared.” Those are cases in which there is sufficient evidence but an arrest is not possible, for example, if the suspect has died.

All other cases were classified as having no arrest.

Mass shootings or terrorist attacks in the cities of Las Vegas, Dallas, the District and San Bernardino, Calif., were included on the maps but not factored into annual local arrest rates.

The Cities

The 50 police departments were selected based on the size of the city and their violent crime reported to the the FBI in 2012, the middle of the survey period. Most departments provided a decade of data, ending in 2017. New York City, however, provided only two years.

Mapping Methodology

To explore the geography of homicide arrests, The Post created grids of almost 2 million uniformly sized squares over the cities. A kernel density analysis was used to estimate the arrest rate for each square based on the homicides and arrests in its vicinity.

Because the shading takes into account homicides inside of a square and nearby, a square may contain no homicides but be shaded.

The methodology is commonly used by police departments to visualize crime patterns. The algorithm was taken from the CrimeStat Spatial Statistics Program from the National Institute of Justice.

Areas shaded in orange are places where fewer than one-third of the homicides resulted in an arrest. The overall arrest average for these areas nationally was 14 percent.

Areas shaded in blue are where two-thirds or more of the homicides resulted in an arrest. The national arrest rate for these areas was 89 percent.

Maps may also include zones with high concentrations of killings, outlined in orange or blue. Unsolved zones, outlined in orange, had more than eight killings and an arrest rate of less than 30 percent. Zones outlined in blue had more than eight killings and an arrest rate of greater than 70 percent.

To provide information about homicides in your area, send us an email at unsolved@washpost.com. To explore the data further, download it from GitHub.

Links

Read the story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/investigations/where-murders-go-unsolved/ See the maps: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/investigations/unsolved-homicide-database/