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

Measuring homicides across the world helps us understand violent crime and how people are affected by interpersonal violence.

But measuring homicides is challenging. Even homicide researchers do not always agree on whether the specific cause of death should be considered a homicide. Even when they agree on what counts as a homicide, it is difficult to count all of them.

In many countries, national civil registries do not certify most deaths or their cause. Besides lacking funds and personnel, a body has to be found to determine whether a death has happened. Authorities may also struggle to distinguish a homicide from a similar cause of death, such as an accident.

Law enforcement and criminal justice agencies collect more data on whether a death was unlawful — but their definition of unlawfulness may differ across countries and time.

Estimating homicides where neither of these sources is available or good enough is difficult. Estimates rely on inferences from similar countries and contextual factors that are based on strong assumptions. So how do researchers address these challenges and measure homicides?

In our work on homicides, we provide data from five main sources:

The WHO Mortality Database (WHO-MD)1 The Global Study on Homicide by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)2 The History of Homicide Database by Manuel Eisner (20033 and 20144) The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)5 The WHO Global Health Estimates (WHO-GHE)6 These sources all report homicides, cover many countries and years, and are frequently used by researchers and policymakers. They are not entirely separate, as they partially build upon each other.

THIS DATASET WAS LAST UPDATED AT 7:11 AM EASTERN ON DEC. 1

OVERVIEW

2019 had the most mass killings since at least the 1970s, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings Database.

In all, there were 45 mass killings, defined as when four or more people are killed excluding the perpetrator. Of those, 33 were mass shootings . This summer was especially violent, with three high-profile public mass shootings occurring in the span of just four weeks, leaving 38 killed and 66 injured.

A total of 229 people died in mass killings in 2019.

The AP's analysis found that more than 50% of the incidents were family annihilations, which is similar to prior years. Although they are far less common, the 9 public mass shootings during the year were the most deadly type of mass murder, resulting in 73 people's deaths, not including the assailants.

One-third of the offenders died at the scene of the killing or soon after, half from suicides.

About this Dataset

The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings database tracks all U.S. homicides since 2006 involving four or more people killed (not including the offender) over a short period of time (24 hours) regardless of weapon, location, victim-offender relationship or motive. The database includes information on these and other characteristics concerning the incidents, offenders, and victims.

The AP/USA TODAY/Northeastern database represents the most complete tracking of mass murders by the above definition currently available. Other efforts, such as the Gun Violence Archive or Everytown for Gun Safety may include events that do not meet our criteria, but a review of these sites and others indicates that this database contains every event that matches the definition, including some not tracked by other organizations.

This data will be updated periodically and can be used as an ongoing resource to help cover these events.

Using this Dataset

To get basic counts of incidents of mass killings and mass shootings by year nationwide, use these queries:

Mass killings by year

Mass shootings by year

To get these counts just for your state:

Filter killings by state

Definition of "mass murder"

Mass murder is defined as the intentional killing of four or more victims by any means within a 24-hour period, excluding the deaths of unborn children and the offender(s). The standard of four or more dead was initially set by the FBI.

This definition does not exclude cases based on method (e.g., shootings only), type or motivation (e.g., public only), victim-offender relationship (e.g., strangers only), or number of locations (e.g., one). The time frame of 24 hours was chosen to eliminate conflation with spree killers, who kill multiple victims in quick succession in different locations or incidents, and to satisfy the traditional requirement of occurring in a “single incident.”

Offenders who commit mass murder during a spree (before or after committing additional homicides) are included in the database, and all victims within seven days of the mass murder are included in the victim count. Negligent homicides related to driving under the influence or accidental fires are excluded due to the lack of offender intent. Only incidents occurring within the 50 states and Washington D.C. are considered.

Methodology

Project researchers first identified potential incidents using the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR). Homicide incidents in the SHR were flagged as potential mass murder cases if four or more victims were reported on the same record, and the type of death was murder or non-negligent manslaughter.

Cases were subsequently verified utilizing media accounts, court documents, academic journal articles, books, and local law enforcement records obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Each data point was corroborated by multiple sources, which were compiled into a single document to assess the quality of information.

In case(s) of contradiction among sources, official law enforcement or court records were used, when available, followed by the most recent media or academic source.

Case information was subsequently compared with every other known mass murder database to ensure reliability and validity. Incidents listed in the SHR that could not be independently verified were excluded from the database.

Project researchers also conducted extensive searches for incidents not reported in the SHR during the time period, utilizing internet search engines, Lexis-Nexis, and Newspapers.com. Search terms include: [number] dead, [number] killed, [number] slain, [number] murdered, [number] homicide, mass murder, mass shooting, massacre, rampage, family killing, familicide, and arson murder. Offender, victim, and location names were also directly searched when available.

This project started at USA TODAY in 2012.

Contacts

Contact AP Data Editor Justin Myers with questions, suggestions or comments about this dataset at jmyers@ap.org. The Northeastern University researcher working with AP and USA TODAY is Professor James Alan Fox, who can be reached at j.fox@northeastern.edu or 617-416-4400.

Number and percentage of homicide victims, by type of firearm used to commit the homicide (total firearms; handgun; rifle or shotgun; fully automatic firearm; sawed-off rifle or shotgun; firearm-like weapons; other firearms, type unknown), Canada, 1974 to 2018.

Age-adjusted death rate of residents due to homicide, New Jersey.

Rate: Number of homicides per 100,000 persons (age-adjusted).

Definition: Deaths where homicide is indicated as the underlying cause of death. Homicide is defined as death resulting from the intentional use of force or power, threatened or actual, against another person, group, or community. ICD-10 Codes: X85-Y09, Y87.1 (homicide)

Data Sources:

(1) Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health http://www.state.nj.us/health/chs/

(2) National Center for Health Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau. Vintage 2009 bridged-rate postcensal population estimates http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/bridged_race.htm as of July 23, 2010

(3) 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

Number of homicide victims, by method used to commit the homicide (total methods used; shooting; stabbing; beating; strangulation; fire (burns or suffocation); other methods used; methods used unknown), Canada, 1974 to 2024.

Homicide & Legal Intervention death rates by county, all races (includes Hispanic/Latino), all sexes, all ages, 2019-2023. Death data were provided by the National Vital Statistics System. Death rates (deaths per 100,000 population per year) are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population (20 age groups: <1, 1-4, 5-9, ... , 80-84, 85-89, 90+). Rates calculated using SEER*Stat. Population counts for denominators are based on Census populations as modified by the National Cancer Institute. The US Population Data File is used for mortality data. The Average Annual Percent Change is based onthe APCs calculated by the Joinpoint Regression Program (Version 4.9.0.0). Due to data availability issues, the time period used in the calculation of the joinpoint regression model may differ for selected counties. Counties with a (3) after their name may have their joinpoint regresssion model calculated using a different time period due to data availability issues.

This data collection resulted from the project "Linked Homicide File for 1990-1999," which was conducted by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS), Epidemiology and Prevention for Injury Control Branch, for the purpose of studying homicide and providing evidence for the development of strategies to reduce homicide in California. The researchers combined the strengths of law enforcement reporting and medical reporting in one dataset. The homicide data contain information on victims and circumstances of the 34,542 homicides investigated by law enforcement agencies in California for the period 1990 to 1999. The data are Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), which are received monthly by the Department of Justice from all local California law enforcement agencies as part of the national Uniform Crime Reporting program (UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS [UNITED STATES]: SUPPLEMENTARY HOMICIDE REPORTS, 1976-1999 [ICPSR 3180]). The researchers linked the SHRs to the CDHS vital statistics mortality data, which contain the death records provided by the medical examiner or coroner of each county after investigation of the death. Variables include total number of offenders involved, weapon used in the homicide, county of the victim's residence, location and date of the incident, date of death, cause of death, date of arrest for the suspect, and whether supplemental homicide report matched the death record. Demographic data include age, sex, and race of the victim and the suspect, relationships between the suspect and the victim, and the victim's marital status.

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California counties based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in each California county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to residents of each California county (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in each county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

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.

This table contains data on the rate of violent crime (crimes per 1,000 population) for California, its regions, counties, cities and towns. Crime and population data are from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Uniform Crime Reports. Rates above the city/town level include data from city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity. Ten percent of all deaths in young California adults aged 15-44 years are related to assault and homicide. In 2010, California law enforcement agencies reported 1,809 murders, 8,331 rapes, and over 95,000 aggravated assaults. African Americans in California are 11 times more likely to die of assault and homicide than Whites. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the About/Attachments section.

Homicide Dataset in Brazil

This dataset provides information on homicides in Brazil from 1989 to 2022. All sets have 4 columns:

• cod: Brazilian state code
• nome: Name or acronym of the state
• período: Year of counting
• valor: Number of homicides in the year

The main datasets are:

• homicidios.csv: Contains the total number of homicides in the country
• homicidios-por-armas-de-fogo.csv: Contains the number of homicides by firearm

The other datasets are subdivisions of these sets, such as the number of deaths of men, women, young people and other divisions.

The data comes from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and is available at: IPEA Atlas of Violence.

The dataset shows the homicide data for the city of Baltimore from the years of 2007 all the way till present and updated almost monthly. Baltimore ranks 2nd on the highest murder rates in the United States, only second to St. Louis in Missouri. The data is obtained through the website, Baltimore Sun Homicide News through a Creative Commons License. The data shows details such as cause of death, police district in which the homicide occurred, and the name, age, gender and race of the victim, and more.

Mortality rate from firearms includes homicides, suicides, accidental deaths, deaths by law enforcement, and deaths for which intent was undetermined. Mortality rate is based on the location of residence and has been age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. ICD 10 codes used to identify firearm deaths are W32-W34, X72-X74, X93-X95, Y22-Y24, Y35.0, and U01.4. Single-year data are only available for Los Angeles County overall, Service Planning Areas, Supervisorial Districts, City of Los Angeles overall, and City of Los Angeles Council Districts.Violence is a public health crisis in the US, with gun violence being a major driver. In the US, the age-adjusted homicide rate from firearms is more than 20 times higher than in the European Union or in Australia. Significant disparities by age, sex, and race and ethnicity exist, with young adults (ages 15-34 years), males, and Black individuals most disproportionately impacted. Firearm-related suicides disproportionately impact older, White men. Comprehensive prevention strategies should work to address underlying physical, social, economic, and structural conditions known to increase risk.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.

This dataset describes drug poisoning deaths at the U.S. and state level by selected demographic characteristics, and includes age-adjusted death rates for drug poisoning. Deaths are classified using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD–10). Drug-poisoning deaths are defined as having ICD–10 underlying cause-of-death codes X40–X44 (unintentional), X60–X64 (suicide), X85 (homicide), or Y10–Y14 (undetermined intent). Estimates are based on the National Vital Statistics System multiple cause-of-death mortality files (1). Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000 U.S. standard population for 2000) are calculated using the direct method. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 U.S. census. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years before 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Death rates for some states and years may be low due to a high number of unresolved pending cases or misclassification of ICD–10 codes for unintentional poisoning as R99, “Other ill-defined and unspecified causes of mortality” (2). For example, this issue is known to affect New Jersey in 2009 and West Virginia in 2005 and 2009 but also may affect other years and other states. Drug poisoning death rates may be underestimated in those instances. REFERENCES 1. National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System: Mortality data. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm. CDC. CDC Wonder: Underlying cause of death 1999–2016. Available from: http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/ucd.html.

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California as a whole based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to California residents (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

This table contains the number of persons died as a result of murder or manslaughter, where the crime scene is located in the Netherlands. The victims can be residents or non-residents of the Netherlands. The data can be split by location of the crime, method, age and sex. The criterion is the date of death, the date of the criminal act can be in the previous year. Since 2014 the figures cannot be split by both sex and age for the location and method variables, due to small numbers and the distribution this split could lead to disclosure of individual information. Since 2013 Statistics Netherlands is using Iris for automatic coding for causes of death. This improved the international comparison of the data. The change in coding did cause a considerable shift in the statistics. Since 2013 the (yearly) ICD-10 updates are applied. However for murder and manslaughter no changes in coding have taken place. The ICD-10 codes that belong to murder and manslaughter are X85-Y09.

Data available from 1996 to 2018

Status of the figures: All figures are final.

Changes as of July 29th 2020: This table has been stopped and has been replaced by the table 'Deaths; murder and manslaughter, crime scene in The Netherlands' (see paragraph 3).

When will new figures be published? Not applicable anymore.

This feature layer contains 2022 County Health Rankings data for Texas. Includes measures of health factors (e.g., uninsured, child poverty, physical inactivity) & health outcomes (e.g., life expectancy, low birth weight).

Dataset Description:

This dataset contains crime statistics in India, categorized by State/Union Territory (STATE/UT) and District (DISTRICT) on a yearly basis (YEAR). It provides insights into various criminal activities reported across different regions of India.

Columns:

1. STATE/UT: The State or Union Territory where the crime was reported.
2. DISTRICT: The district within the State/UT where the crime was reported.
3. YEAR: The year when the crime was reported.
4. MURDER: Number of reported cases of murder.
5. ATTEMPT TO MURDER: Number of reported cases of attempted murder.
6. CULPABLE HOMICIDE NOT AMOUNTING TO MURDER: Number of reported cases of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
7. RAPE: Number of reported cases of rape.
8. CUSTODIAL RAPE: Number of reported cases of custodial rape.
9. OTHER RAPE: Number of reported cases of rape other than custodial rape.
10. KIDNAPPING & ABDUCTION: Number of reported cases of kidnapping and abduction.
11. KIDNAPPING AND ABDUCTION OF WOMEN AND GIRLS: Number of reported cases of kidnapping and abduction of women and girls.
12. KIDNAPPING AND ABDUCTION OF OTHERS: Number of reported cases of kidnapping and abduction of others.
13. DACOITY: Number of reported cases of dacoity.
14. PREPARATION AND ASSEMBLY FOR DACOITY: Number of reported cases related to preparation and assembly for dacoity.
15. ROBBERY: Number of reported cases of robbery.
16. BURGLARY: Number of reported cases of burglary.
17. THEFT: Number of reported cases of theft.
18. AUTO THEFT: Number of reported cases of auto theft.
19. OTHER THEFT: Number of reported cases of other theft.
20. RIOTS: Number of reported cases of riots.
21. CRIMINAL BREACH OF TRUST: Number of reported cases of criminal breach of trust.
22. CHEATING: Number of reported cases of cheating.
23. COUNTERFIETING: Number of reported cases of counterfeiting.
24. ARSON: Number of reported cases of arson.
25. HURT/GREVIOUS HURT: Number of reported cases of hurt/grievous hurt.
26. DOWRY DEATHS: Number of reported cases of dowry deaths.
27. ASSAULT ON WOMEN WITH INTENT TO OUTRAGE HER MODESTY: Number of reported cases of assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty.
28. INSULT TO MODESTY OF WOMEN: Number of reported cases of insult to modesty of women.
29. CRUELTY BY HUSBAND OR HIS RELATIVES: Number of reported cases of cruelty by husband or his relatives.
30. IMPORTATION OF GIRLS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES: Number of reported cases of importation of girls from foreign countries.
31. CAUSING DEATH BY NEGLIGENCE: Number of reported cases of causing death by negligence.
32. OTHER IPC CRIMES: Number of reported cases of other IPC crimes.
33. TOTAL IPC CRIMES: Total number of reported IPC crimes.