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.

Context

1 in 4 mass shooting victims were children and teens. In the years between 2009 and 2020, the horrific scenes of mass shootings have haunted the nation’s collective conscience.US states with weaker gun laws and higher gun ownership rates have higher rates of mass shootings. Mass shooting is defined as any incident in which four or more people are shot and killed, excluding the shooter. The number of mass shootings that plague this country is far too high, and the counts are just a small fraction of the lives left forever changed after the tragedy of a mass shooting. So here is the data for list of mass shootings in United States from 2018 - 2022.

Content

This dataset has five csv files of years 2018 - 2022. Each data contains following attributes - Date : The date on which the mass shooting incident happened - State : The state where the incident took place - Dead : total number of people died in mass shooting - Injured: total number of people who got injured in mass shooting- - Total : total of dead and injured people - Description : description/short report of the incident which may include information like gender/place etc. Data for 2022 Mass shootings will be updated every 15 days!

Acknowledgements

This data was scraped from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States using BeautifulSoup.

Image banner by Wall Street Journal

Inspiration

• EDA and Viz.
• Which state has highest number of mass shootings
• Contextual analysis of the description column
• Trend of mass shooting in past years
• Number of people killed/injured on an average in a month.

Check out my other works

• Datasets
• Notebooks

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.

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 dataset about murders by country is extracted from Flourish visualisation. If you want to know more about Flourish click here.

Context

I often hear my fellow Americans say things like "There's no way I'm going to Europe given all of the terrorism" despite living in a country with mass shootings on a nearly daily basis. I was curious as to what the facts said - are Americans in more danger from other Americans vs Europeans from terrorists. This is the dataset for the terror half of the question.

Content

This dataset contains information about worldwide terrorism events back to 1970, including location, circumstances, number of casualties, weapons used, etc. For a full description reference the codebook: https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/downloads/Codebook.pdf

Acknowledgements

This open-source dataset is provided courtesy of the University of Maryland START (https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/).

National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2016). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd

Inspiration

Besides comparing to US gun violence, I'd like to correlate terrorism in countries/regions with other factors (economics, internet spread, etc.).

Global Export of Rifles, Sporting, Hunting or Target-Shooting by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Global Import of Rifles, Sporting, Hunting or Target-Shooting by Country, 2023 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, female (per 100,000 female) and country Qatar. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, female are estimates of unlawful female 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, female (per 100,000 female)" stands at 0.9824 as of 12/31/2022, the highest value since 12/31/2008. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 94.81 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 94.81.The 5 year change in percent is 565.86.The 10 year change in percent is 381.86.The Serie's long term average value is 0.51. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is 92.70 percent higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2017, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is +565.86%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2005, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is -35.79%.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male) and country Lebanon. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, male are estimates of unlawful male 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male)" stands at 5.60 as of 12/31/2020, the highest value since 12/31/2014. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 105.16 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 105.16.The 3 year change in percent is 69.80.The 5 year change in percent is 40.68.The 10 year change in percent is 103.35.The Serie's long term average value is 4.09. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is 36.73 percent higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2018, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is +134.39%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2012, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is -13.20%.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male) and country Bahamas, The. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, male are estimates of unlawful male 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male)" stands at 62.03 as of 12/31/2022, the highest value since 12/31/2016. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 4.25 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 4.25.The 3 year change in percent is 32.06.The 5 year change in percent is 0.5157.The 10 year change in percent is 12.88.The Serie's long term average value is 41.30. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is 50.17 percent higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/1993, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is +210.08%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2015, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2022, is -11.24%.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional_Homicides_Per_100000_People and country Grenada. Indicator Definition: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.The statistic "Intentional Homicides Per 100000 People" stands at 13.67 per cent mille as of 12/31/2023, the highest value since 12/31/2020. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 6.82 percentage points compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percentage points is 6.82.The 3 year change in percentage points is 1.63.The 5 year change in percentage points is 3.29.The 10 year change in percentage points is 8.38.The Serie's long term average value is 9.22 per cent mille. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is 4.45 percentage points higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percentage points from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2011, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is +10.10.The Serie's change in percentage points from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2008, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is -0.762.

As of June 19, 116 school shooting incidents were recorded in K-12 schools in the United States in 2025. Within the provided time period, the greatest number of K-12 school shootings was recorded in 2023, at 350. The source defines a school shooting as every time a gun is brandished, fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims (including zero), time, day or the week, or reason, including gang shootings, domestic violence, shootings at sports games and after hours school events, suicides, fights that escalate into shootings, and accidents.

This dataset represents the location and characteristics of major (Group A) crime against persons such as homicide, shooting, robbery, aggravated assault etc. within the City of Baltimore. Data is updated weekly. This dataset contains crime data starting 1/1/2022 through present.Note: The way the Baltimore Police Department collects and reports data on crimes has changed, effective Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI has mandated that all law enforcement agencies across the country make the transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to improve the overall quality, accuracy and timeliness of crime data collected.For more information, visit: https://www.baltimorepolice.org/nibrs If you have any questions or need to report an issue for this dataset, please use this feedback form to submit your response, and the Open Baltimore support team will contact you.DATA DICTIONARY:

    Field Name
    Description

  CCNumberUnique identifier for the record.
  CrimeDateTimeDate and time when the crime occurred.
  DescriptionType of crime incident reported.
  CrimeCodeCode assigned to categorize the crime type.
  WeaponIndicates if a weapon was involved in the crime incident.
  ShootingIndicates if a shooting of a firearm was involved in the crime incident.
  PostPolice post (sub-unit of geography under districts) under the current mapping scheme.
  GenderSex or gender of the victim.
  AgeAge of the victim.
  RaceRace of the victim.
  EthnicityEthnicity of the victim.
  Old_DistrictPolice district under the previous mapping scheme.
  New_DistrictPolice district under the current mapping scheme.
  Inside_OutsideIndicates whether the crime occurred indoors or outdoors.
  NeighborhoodNeighborhood where the incident occurred.
  LocationAddress or general location where the incident occurred.
  LongitudeLongitude of the incident's geographic location.
  LatitudeLatitude of the incident's geographic location.
  GeoLocationConcatenation of the Latitude and Longitude fields.
  PremiseTypeType of premise where the incident occurred (residence, business, vacant building).
  Total_IncidentsTotal number of incidents occurring for the reported crime.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male) and country Seychelles. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, male are estimates of unlawful male 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male)" stands at 24.17 as of 12/31/2014, the highest value at least since 12/31/2006, the period currently displayed. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 14.76 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 14.76.The 3 year change in percent is 12.92.The 5 year change in percent is 5.61.The 10 year change in percent is 33.97.The Serie's long term average value is 16.72. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2014, is 44.52 percent higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2012, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2014, is +258.64%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2014, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2014, is 0.0%.

Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 1,173 civilians having been shot, 248 of whom were Black, as of December 2024. In 2023, there were 1,164 fatal police shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 6.1 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and 2024. Police brutality in the U.S. In recent years, particularly since the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, police brutality has become a hot button issue in the United States. The number of homicides committed by police in the United States is often compared to those in countries such as England, where the number is significantly lower. Black Lives Matter The Black Lives Matter Movement, formed in 2013, has been a vocal part of the movement against police brutality in the U.S. by organizing “die-ins”, marches, and demonstrations in response to the killings of black men and women by police. While Black Lives Matter has become a controversial movement within the U.S., it has brought more attention to the number and frequency of police shootings of civilians.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male) and country North Macedonia. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, male are estimates of unlawful male 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male)" stands at 2.13 as of 12/31/2023, the highest value since 12/31/2018. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 27.25 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 27.25.The 3 year change in percent is 288.90.The 5 year change in percent is 25.04.The 10 year change in percent is 40.63.The Serie's long term average value is 2.64. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is 19.34 percent lower, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2020, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is +288.90%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2003, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is -58.99%.

United Kingdom UK: Intentional Homicides: per 100,000 People data was reported at 1.202 Ratio in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.992 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Intentional Homicides: per 100,000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 1.399 Ratio from Dec 1995 (Median) to 2016, with 22 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.865 Ratio in 2002 and a record low of 0.907 Ratio in 2014. United Kingdom UK: 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 United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: 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;

Time series data for the statistic Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male) and country Iceland. Indicator Definition:Intentional homicides, male are estimates of unlawful male 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.The indicator "Intentional homicides, male (per 100,000 male)" stands at 2.02 as of 12/31/2023, the highest value at least since 12/31/1999, the period currently displayed. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 30.93 percent compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percent is 30.93.The 3 year change in percent is 279.06.The 5 year change in percent is 81.69.The 10 year change in percent is 227.40.The Serie's long term average value is 1.07. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is 88.55 percent higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percent from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2021, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is +284.97%.The Serie's change in percent from it's maximum value, on 12/31/2023, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2023, is 0.0%.

Time series data for the statistic Intentional_Homicides_Per_100000_People and country Bhutan. Indicator Definition: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.The statistic "Intentional Homicides Per 100000 People" stands at 2.47 per cent mille as of 12/31/2020, the highest value since 12/31/2014. Regarding the One-Year-Change of the series, the current value constitutes an increase of 1.42 percentage points compared to the value the year prior.The 1 year change in percentage points is 1.42.The 3 year change in percentage points is 0.7441.The 5 year change in percentage points is 0.8472.The 10 year change in percentage points is 0.1871.The Serie's long term average value is 2.46 per cent mille. It's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is 0.0068 percentage points higher, compared to it's long term average value.The Serie's change in percentage points from it's minimum value, on 12/31/2003, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is +1.68.The Serie's change in percentage points from it's maximum value, on 12/31/1992, to it's latest available value, on 12/31/2020, is -2.21.