Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Crime
Which big U.S. cities' murder rates fell most since 2019?
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From 2019, the year before murders jumped across the country, to 2025, the murder rate fell most in Baltimore, MD (-58.5%), Corpus Christi, TX (-56.4%) and Tulsa, OK (-54.3%) of the 70 big U.S. cities (250,000 people or more) whose police reported every month of both years to the FBI, and rose most in Portland, OR (74.8%) and Mesa, AZ (63.1%). Across the U.S. it fell 17%. Cities with fewer than 10 murders in 2019 are left out, as are departments that missed a month of either year (for 2019 and 2025 these include Philadelphia, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami and New Orleans). Each rate is per person the department serves.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
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