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

It is near its lowest since at least 1985: about 4.3 murders per 100,000 people in 2025, 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 in this record, 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.

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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.

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 October 15, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

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

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