How has the U.S. murder rate changed since 1985?

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.

Lee este gráfico en español

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

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

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.

  • The latest figure, for 2025, is 4.3.
  • That is down 47% from 8.1 in 1985.
  • The highest was 10.3 in 1991.
  • It is the lowest in the data, which go back to 1985.

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?

This chart is one of the 50 in The U.S. in 50 charts, 2026, a yearly report of the key numbers on how the country is doing.

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. “How has the U.S. murder rate changed since 1985?” 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/us-murder-rate (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).

Year Murders per 100,000 people
1985 8.1
1986 8.7
1987 8.4
1988 8.5
1989 8.9
1990 9.7
1991 10.3
1992 9.7
1993 9.8
1994 9.2
1995 8.7
1996 7.8
1997 7.2
1998 6.6
1999 5.9
2000 5.8
2001 5.9
2002 5.9
2003 5.9
2004 5.7
2005 5.9
2006 5.9
2007 5.8
2008 5.5
2009 5.1
2010 4.8
2011 4.8
2012 4.8
2013 4.6
2014 4.5
2015 5
2016 5.4
2017 5.4
2018 5.2
2019 5.2
2020 6.8
2021 6.9
2022 6.9
2023 6.1
2024 5.2
2025 4.3

Get new charts weekly

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