{"chart":{"slug":"murder-rate-by-state","title":"Which states have the highest murder rates?","takeaway":"In 2025 District of Columbia had the highest murder rate, about 16.7 per 100,000 people, followed by New Mexico (9.0), Alabama (8.6) and Louisiana (8.1). New Hampshire (1.2) and Massachusetts (1.3) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 4.3. Small states have few murders, so their rates can swing from year to year. Rates count only the police agencies that reported to the FBI; in a few states, such as Florida and Mississippi, those cover only about 80 to 85% of residents.","topic":"Crime","chart_type":"bar","ranking":true,"x_label":"State","y_label":"Murders per 100,000 people","unit":null,"points_count":52,"source":{"name":"FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program","url":"https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2025-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.358Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/murder-rate-by-state","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state/embed","credit":"FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state)","credit_html":"FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":"U.S. overall","zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"District of Columbia","value":16.7},{"label":"New Mexico","value":9.0},{"label":"Alabama","value":8.6},{"label":"Louisiana","value":8.1},{"label":"Mississippi","value":7.6},{"label":"Missouri","value":7.3},{"label":"Tennessee","value":6.6},{"label":"North Carolina","value":6.5},{"label":"South Carolina","value":6.5},{"label":"Alaska","value":6.4},{"label":"Arkansas","value":6.4},{"label":"Georgia","value":5.6},{"label":"Maryland","value":5.4},{"label":"Indiana","value":5.0},{"label":"Nevada","value":5.0},{"label":"Oklahoma","value":5.0},{"label":"Ohio","value":4.9},{"label":"Arizona","value":4.8},{"label":"Kansas","value":4.7},{"label":"Texas","value":4.7},{"label":"Illinois","value":4.6},{"label":"Michigan","value":4.5},{"label":"West Virginia","value":4.4},{"label":"U.S. overall","value":4.3},{"label":"Virginia","value":4.3},{"label":"Delaware","value":4.2},{"label":"Pennsylvania","value":4.2},{"label":"Wisconsin","value":4.1},{"label":"Colorado","value":3.9},{"label":"California","value":3.5},{"label":"South Dakota","value":3.3},{"label":"Wyoming","value":3.3},{"label":"Florida","value":3.0},{"label":"Oregon","value":3.0},{"label":"Washington","value":3.0},{"label":"Kentucky","value":2.8},{"label":"Montana","value":2.8},{"label":"Utah","value":2.5},{"label":"New York","value":2.4},{"label":"Minnesota","value":2.3},{"label":"Nebraska","value":2.3},{"label":"Hawaii","value":2.0},{"label":"New Jersey","value":2.0},{"label":"Connecticut","value":1.9},{"label":"Idaho","value":1.9},{"label":"Iowa","value":1.7},{"label":"Rhode Island","value":1.7},{"label":"Vermont","value":1.7},{"label":"Maine","value":1.5},{"label":"North Dakota","value":1.5},{"label":"Massachusetts","value":1.3},{"label":"New Hampshire","value":1.2}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state)"}