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
How has the U.S. murder rate changed since 1985?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Police reported about 4.3 murders per 100,000 people in 2025, the lowest since at least 1985, and down from a peak of about 10.3 in 1991. The rate jumped from 5.2 in 2019 to 6.8 in 2020, the biggest one-year rise from 1985 to 2025, then fell back by 2024. In 2021 the FBI stopped taking its old summary reports and accepted only its newer, more detailed system (NIBRS); many police departments hadn't switched yet, so agencies covering only about 77% of Americans reported, against 88 to 98% in other years, and 2021's number is less certain. Murder here means murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as police report it.
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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