Guide
Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates, and is it falling?
In 2025, St. Louis, MO had the highest murder rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 51.3 murders per 100,000 people, followed by Memphis, TN (31.0) and Cleveland, OH (28.0). The rate for the whole country was 4.3 in 2025, down 17.3% from the year before and 58% below the 1991 peak.
Figures update themselves from 4 charts; newest data as of December 31, 2025.
Highest big-city murder rate, 2025
51.3
St. Louis, MO, about 12 times the U.S. rate
U.S. murders per 100,000 people, 2025
4.3
Down 17.3% from 2024; 10.3 at the 1991 peak
Lowest big-city murder rate, 2025
0.0
Irvine, CA, of 89 cities
The big cities' murder rates
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
The chart ranks the police departments of the 89 biggest U.S. cities, those serving 250,000 people or more, that reported crimes to the FBI for every month of 2025. St. Louis, MO had the highest rate, about 51.3 murders per 100,000 people, then Memphis, TN (31.0), Cleveland, OH (28.0), Kansas City, MO (25.9) and Detroit, MI (25.7).
At the other end, Irvine, CA (0.0), Plano, TX (0.7) and Irving, TX (1.5) had the lowest rates.
Is the murder rate falling?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Across the country, the murder rate peaked at about 10.3 per 100,000 people in 1991 and was 4.3 in 2025, the lowest rate since at least 1985. It jumped from 5.2 in 2019 to 6.8 in 2020, the biggest one-year rise from 1985 to 2025, stayed near that level in 2021 and 2022, then fell in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The national rate shows the overall direction, but each city's rate can move differently. Each city's page below charts its murder and violent crime rates every year since 1985, next to the U.S. rates, so you can see whether its rate is falling.
Each city's crime rates since 1985
Every city on the ranking, highest murder rate first, with its murders per 100,000 people in 2025. Open a city for its rates each year, its peak and its rank.
- St. Louis, MO 51.3
- Memphis, TN 31.0
- Cleveland, OH 28.0
- Kansas City, MO 25.9
- Detroit, MI 25.7
- Milwaukee, WI 25.4
- Baltimore, MD 24.2
- Cincinnati, OH 20.9
- Atlanta, GA 18.6
- Washington, DC 16.6
- Indianapolis, IN 15.4
- Philadelphia, PA 14.7
- Minneapolis, MN 14.5
- Albuquerque, NM 13.4
- Chicago, IL 12.7
- Oakland, CA 12.4
- Toledo, OH 12.1
- Fort Wayne, IN 12.0
- Louisville, KY 12.0
- Greensboro, NC 11.9
- Houston, TX 11.4
- Stockton, CA 11.4
- Durham, NC 10.7
- Buffalo, NY 10.5
- Dallas, TX 10.5
- Winston-Salem, NC 10.5
- Newark, NJ 10.4
- Pittsburgh, PA 10.1
- Oklahoma City, OK 9.7
- Charlotte, NC 9.0
- Columbus, OH 9.0
- Wichita, KS 9.0
- Aurora, CO 8.8
- Anchorage, AK 8.4
- Nashville, TN 7.9
- Portland, OR 7.9
- Bakersfield, CA 7.8
- Jacksonville, FL 7.8
- Sacramento, CA 7.8
- Fort Worth, TX 7.6
- Phoenix, AZ 7.5
- Tucson, AZ 7.4
- North Las Vegas, NV 7.3
- San Antonio, TX 6.8
- Long Beach, CA 6.5
- Tulsa, OK 6.3
- Denver, CO 6.0
- Los Angeles, CA 5.9
- Las Vegas, NV 5.5
- Omaha, NE 5.3
- Austin, TX 5.2
- Miami, FL 5.2
- Colorado Springs, CO 5.0
- Raleigh, NC 4.9
- Reno, NV 4.9
- St. Paul, MN 4.9
- Lexington, KY 4.5
- Lubbock, TX 4.4
- Chesapeake, VA 4.3
- Fresno, CA 4.3
- Jersey City, NJ 4.3
- Seattle, WA 4.3
- Corpus Christi, TX 4.1
- Riverside, CA 4.0
- Tampa, FL 4.0
- El Paso, TX 3.8
- Glendale, AZ 3.8
- Santa Ana, CA 3.8
- Boston, MA 3.6
- Mesa, AZ 3.5
- Arlington, TX 3.4
- Gilbert, AZ 3.4
- New York, NY 3.4
- San Francisco, CA 3.4
- Virginia Beach, VA 3.3
- Laredo, TX 3.0
- Anaheim, CA 2.6
- Chula Vista, CA 2.5
- Garland, TX 2.4
- San Jose, CA 2.4
- Henderson, NV 2.0
- Lincoln, NE 2.0
- Chandler, AZ 1.8
- San Diego, CA 1.8
- Madison, WI 1.7
- Honolulu, HI 1.5
- Irving, TX 1.5
- Plano, TX 0.7
- Irvine, CA 0.0
The states
By state, the murder rate in 2025 ranged from 16.7 per 100,000 people in District of Columbia to 1.2 in New Hampshire. A state's rate takes in its suburbs and rural areas as well as its cities.
The numbers
Each year, newest first. A dash means no figure.
| Year | Murders per 100,000 people |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 4.3 |
| 2024 | 5.2 |
| 2023 | 6.1 |
| 2022 | 6.9 |
| 2021 | 6.9 |
| 2020 | 6.8 |
| 2019 | 5.2 |
| 2018 | 5.2 |
| 2017 | 5.4 |
| 2016 | 5.4 |
| 2015 | 5.0 |
| 2014 | 4.5 |
| 2013 | 4.6 |
| 2012 | 4.8 |
| 2011 | 4.8 |
| 2010 | 4.8 |
| 2009 | 5.1 |
| 2008 | 5.5 |
| 2007 | 5.8 |
| 2006 | 5.9 |
| 2005 | 5.9 |
| 2004 | 5.7 |
| 2003 | 5.9 |
| 2002 | 5.9 |
| 2001 | 5.9 |
| 2000 | 5.8 |
| 1999 | 5.9 |
| 1998 | 6.6 |
| 1997 | 7.2 |
| 1996 | 7.8 |
| 1995 | 8.7 |
| 1994 | 9.2 |
| 1993 | 9.8 |
| 1992 | 9.7 |
| 1991 | 10.3 |
| 1990 | 9.7 |
| 1989 | 8.9 |
| 1988 | 8.5 |
| 1987 | 8.4 |
| 1986 | 8.7 |
| 1985 | 8.1 |
What these numbers can and can't tell you
These are murders police recorded and reported to the FBI, counted per person the police department serves. A few departments, such as Las Vegas, Honolulu, Jacksonville and Louisville, serve their whole county, so their rates cover more than the city.
A city's rate depends on where its borders fall. A city whose limits take in only its dense center can have a higher rate than one that takes in large suburbs, so compare cities with care.
Departments that didn't report every month of the year are left out of the ranking. In 2021 the FBI took only reports from its newer system (NIBRS), and many departments hadn't switched yet, so 2021's numbers are less certain and some cities have no 2021 figure. The FBI revises earlier years as more reports come in; this guide always shows the latest figures and updates itself when the charts do.
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Sources
FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program), data as of December 31, 2025, in these charts: