List of countries by intentional homicide rate

Among 15 high-income countries, the U.S. has both the highest homicide rate, and the largest number of homicides (2021 data for most countries).[1]

The list of countries by homicide rate is derived from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) data, and is expressed in number of deaths per 100,000 population per year. For example, a homicide rate of 30 out of 100,000 is presented in the table as "30", and corresponds to 0.03% of the population dying by homicide.[2][3][4] The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary.[5][6] Only UNODC-vetted data is used in the main table to maintain consistency.[2] In some cases, it may not be as up to date as other sources.

Homicide rates may be under-reported for political reasons.[7][8][page needed]

A study undertaken by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development estimated that there were approximately 490,000 intentional homicides globally in 2004, for a rate of 7.6 per 100,000.[9] UNODC calculated a global estimated rate of 6.9 per 100,000 in 2010;[10] 6.2 per 100,000 in 2012;[11][12] 6.1 per 100,000 in 2017; and a rate of 5.61 per 100,000 for 2022. [5][13]

  1. ^ ● Homicide data from "Homicide rate UNODC / Homicide rate, 2021". OurWorldInData.org. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2023. Archived from the original on 4 November 2024. UNODC data for most countries is for 2021.
    ● 2021 Population data from "The World Factbook (2021 Archive) Country Comparisons – Population". U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 4 July 2024.
    ● List of high-income countries from "High-Income Countries 2024". World Population Review. 2024. Archived from the original on 20 June 2024. World Bank's income categories are updated annually, at the start of each financial year, and are based upon the most recently released data, which tends to be 1.5 years previous.
  2. ^ a b "Intentional Homicide". dataunodc.un.org. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Table by country. Latest available year varies by country. Some have 2023 data. Can select for few or many countries, regions, years. You can shrink the width of the table to see all the options, and all the years you selected. To do so drag the zoom bar button at the bottom of the page. There is a dataset link to download all the data. Table last fully updated from dataset retrieved 24 June 2024. Individual countries updated since then.
  3. ^ "Victims of Intentional Homicide: 2018". UNODC. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Map and table of rates and counts. Pick a country (or countries) in the sidebar "Country" dropdown menu. Then pick a year (1990-2018). Click that country on the map to see a timeline graph of homicide rates. Below the map see a timeline table of the rates and counts for that country or countries. There is a "Bulk data download" link at top right (hover to see name). May need to click twice to download.
  4. ^ "Homicide rate | dataUNODC". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Timeline graph of "Victims of intentional homicide 1990-2018". Can select a country and a region. Table below graph shows data 1990-2018. Download link icon below table offers multiple formats just for selected country and region. Click "bulk data download" link icon twice at top of page to get Excel file that covers years 1990-2018 for all countries.
  5. ^ a b Global Study on Homicide 2019. Booklet 2. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). See page 11 for global rate. See page 9 about homicide rates as proxy for overall violence. See Box 1 on page 14 for criminal justice data sources versus public health sources. See figure 2 on page 14 for regional homicide rates in 2017. See figure 3 on page 16 for regional number of homicides. See page 85 about the six-booklet format of this study. Look for page numbers on the bottom of pages, and ignore the incorrect page numbers provided by your PDF reader.
  6. ^ Richards, Patsy (27 May 1999). "Homicide statistics, research paper 99/56" (PDF). London, UK: House of Commons of the United Kingdom library, Social and general statistics section. See page 7 for section called "Definition of the offence of homicide". See page 29 for table of nations and homicide rates for the years 1994–97. It also has further info on how homicide is defined across countries.
  7. ^ Fry, Don. (1985). Believing the news. Poynter Institute for Media Studies. ISBN 978-0-935742-11-4.
  8. ^ Vizzard, William J. (2000). Shots in the dark. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8476-9560-7.
  9. ^ Global Burden of Armed Violence Report (PDF) (report). Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Declaration Secretariat. September 2008. pp. 67ff. ISBN 978-2-8288-0101-4. data from 2004-2007. The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development.
  10. ^ 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends, Contexts, Data. "data from 2010 or latest available year". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Vienna, Austria.
  11. ^ UNODC 2014, p. 12.
  12. ^ Intentional homicide count and rate per 100,000 population, by country/territory (2000–2012). Data (in spreadsheet format) for UNODC report titled "Global Study on Homicide 2013". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Linked from Global Study on Homicide – Data: UNODC Homicide Statistics 2013
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference regional was invoked but never defined (see the help page).