States With the Highest Homicide Rates

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The U.S. experienced a 30% increase in homicides from 2019 to 2020, the largest jump ever recorded, according to a CDC report.

Washington D.C. (state equivalent) ranked as the state with the highest homicide rate in 2020, with 24.4 killings reported for every 100,000 residents, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

States following Washington, D.C. with the highest homicide rates per 100,000 were:

  • Mississippi—20.5
  • Louisiana—19.9
  • Alabama—14.2
  • Missouri—14
  • Arkansas—13
  • South Carolina—12.2
  • Tennessee—11.5
  • Maryland—11.4
  • Illinois—11.2
  • New Mexico—10.7

The state with the lowest reported homicide rate was Maine, with 1.6 killings per 100,000 people, preceded by Idaho and Massachusetts, the CDC says.

The total homicide rate in the U.S. rose 30% between 2019 and 2020, according to CDC data. In 2020, there were 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people, an increase from six homicides per 100,000 the previous year. This is the highest rate since 1995, but lower than the rates in the early 1980s, which topped 10 homicides per 100,000, according to the data.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, both homicide and violent crimes have increased. The number of homicides also rose by 16% during the first half of 2021 compared to the same period the year before, according to a report by the Council of Criminal Justice. However, the increase in homicides slowed between the first and second quarters of this year, the CCJ says. 

For more information from the CDC’s report click here.

Andre Claudio is the assistant editor for Route Fifty. 

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