Which states have the highest murder rates?

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.

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end. The dashed line is “U.S. overall”, for comparison. On a phone it opens on the top and bottom 10; tap “Show all” for the rest.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

A tall picture for Pinterest or an Instagram story, with the question, answer, source, date and this page's address.

Save to Pinterest Download tall image
Chartly Pro: downloads and embeds without the credit. Join the waitlist

It doesn't exist yet. Tell us what you'd use it for, and we'll email you once when it's ready. Downloads and embeds with the credit stay free.

Nothing to pay. We'll email you once, when Pro is ready. See our privacy policy.

Key facts

Measure: Murders per 100,000 people. Written from the data below.

  • District of Columbia has the highest figure, 16.7, followed by New Mexico (9) and Alabama (8.6).
  • New Hampshire has the lowest figure, 1.2, followed by Massachusetts (1.3) and North Dakota (1.5).
  • The highest is 14 times the lowest.
  • U.S. overall: 4.3. Of the 51 compared, 23 are above it, 27 below, and 1 the same.

The bigger picture, in plain words: Is crime falling in the U.S.?, Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates, and is it falling?

Teachers: add this chart to a class assignment, one link to post in Google Classroom, Canvas or Moodle.

Source and date

Source
FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program
License
Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Which states have the highest murder rates?” Chart. Data: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend (data as of December 31, 2025). https://chart.ly/charts/murder-rate-by-state (accessed November 4, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes. Need it without the credit? Join the Chartly Pro waitlist.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

State Murders per 100,000 people
District of Columbia 16.7
New Mexico 9
Alabama 8.6
Louisiana 8.1
Mississippi 7.6
Missouri 7.3
Tennessee 6.6
North Carolina 6.5
South Carolina 6.5
Alaska 6.4
Arkansas 6.4
Georgia 5.6
Maryland 5.4
Indiana 5
Nevada 5
Oklahoma 5
Ohio 4.9
Arizona 4.8
Kansas 4.7
Texas 4.7
Illinois 4.6
Michigan 4.5
West Virginia 4.4
U.S. overall 4.3
Virginia 4.3
Delaware 4.2
Pennsylvania 4.2
Wisconsin 4.1
Colorado 3.9
California 3.5
South Dakota 3.3
Wyoming 3.3
Florida 3
Oregon 3
Washington 3
Kentucky 2.8
Montana 2.8
Utah 2.5
New York 2.4
Minnesota 2.3
Nebraska 2.3
Hawaii 2
New Jersey 2
Connecticut 1.9
Idaho 1.9
Iowa 1.7
Rhode Island 1.7
Vermont 1.7
Maine 1.5
North Dakota 1.5
Massachusetts 1.3
New Hampshire 1.2

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.