Murder Rate by Country 2024

Snapshot

Globally, socioeconomic factors like social inequality, unemployment, and gang activity significantly influence murder rates.
Central America and the Caribbean have the highest murder rates, with El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica notably higher than the global average.
Countries with low murder rates, such as Japan and Singapore, benefit from effective law enforcement, strict weapon regulations, and severe punishment for crimes.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Study on Homicide 2019, 464,000 people were murdered in 2017—more than five times as many as were killed in armed conflicts during the same period. The report explains that many socioeconomic factors can drive homicide rates. These factors include gender stereotypes, social inequality, unemployment, political instability, firearms possession (just over half of all homicides are committed via firearms)... and especially gangs, organized crime, and the drug trade. In fact, the report estimates that "an average of roughly 65,000 killings every year were related to organized crime and gangs over the period 2000–2017, and that up to 19% of all homicides recorded globally in 2017 were related to organized crime and gangs."

Top 10 Countries with the Highest Murder Rates (per 100k people) in 2022:*

Country	Total per 100k 2022
Jamaica	53.34
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	40.41
Trinidad and Tobago	39.52
Saint Lucia	36.70
Honduras	35.09
Bahamas	31.22
Belize	27.88
Ecuador	26.99
Mexico	26.11
Colombia	25.38

While 2022's global murder rate was 6.1 (per 100k people), murder rates varied widely across the globe. Central America and the Caribbean were global hotspots, with countries such as El Salvador (61.7), Honduras (41), and Jamaica (56.4) posting murder rates up to 10 times higher than the global average. The South American countries Brazil (30.8), Venezuela (49.9), and Colombia (25) followed close behind. Even with the rest of South America and North America posting lower rates, the overall average for the Americas as a whole rose to 17.2. Africa's rate came in at 13.0, but with the major caveat that "the raw statistics for many countries are not available." Similarly, Oceania posted an impressive rate of 2.8, but official homicide reports "tend to deviate substantially from information on violence contained in hospital records," suggesting that many homicides may be going unreported to the police. Finally, Europe (3.0) and Asia (2.3) displayed rates of less than half the global average.

Factors known to contribute to lower murder rates and decreased crime overall include the wealth of a nation, the effectiveness of its law enforcement, the availability of weapons (especially firearms), and the severity of punishment for committing murder. For instance, Japan is a fairly wealthy nation with very strict regulations regarding gun possession and murder is punishable by hanging.

Top 10 Countries with the Lowest Murder Rates (per 100k people) in 2022:

Country	Total per 100k 2022
Singapore	0.12
Oman	0.26
Macau	0.29
Hong Kong	0.40
Switzerland	0.49
South Korea	0.53
Italy	0.55
Norway	0.55
Slovenia	0.61
Cyprus	0.64

Below is a list of each country's homicide rate (number of murders per 100,000 people). Note that accidental deaths and cases of "self-inflicted murder", more commonly called suicide, are not included in these statistics.

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Country	Total 2022	Total per 100k 2022	Females 2022	Males 2022	Females per 100k 2022	Males per 100k 2022	Share of Global Homicides 2022
Mexico	33,287	26.11	3,928	28,745	6.01	46.22	29.39%
United States	21,593	6.38	4,707	16,886	2.76	10.08	19.07%
Colombia	13,166	25.38	1,002	12,164	3.81	47.56	11.63%
Pakistan	9,937	4.21					8.77%
Ecuador	4,859	26.99	419	4,423	4.65	49.23	4.29%
Honduras	3,661	35.09					3.23%
Kenya	2,643	4.89	725	1,918	2.66	7.16	2.33%
Turkey	2,279	2.67	466	1,813	1.09	4.24	2.01%
Myanmar	2,098	3.87	311	1,787	1.14	6.63	1.85%
Haiti	2,088	18.02	181	1,907	3.10	33.23	1.84%
Argentina	1,961	4.31	347	1,614	1.51	7.16	1.73%
Jamaica	1,508	53.34	124	1,384	8.70	98.69	1.33%
Dominican Republic	1,389	12.37	153	1,236	2.73	21.94	1.23%
Chile	1,322	6.74	146	1,176	1.48	12.09	1.17%
Zimbabwe	1,086	6.65	200	886	2.32	11.50	0.96%
Canada	874	2.27	203	661	1.05	3.46	0.77%
Algeria	795	1.77	112	683	0.51	2.99	0.7%
Costa Rica	664	12.82					0.59%
Morocco	618	1.65	78	540	0.42	2.86	0.55%
Trinidad and Tobago	605	39.52					0.53%
Puerto Rico	572	17.59	53	519	3.08	33.83	0.51%
Panama	499	11.32	41	458	1.86	20.78	0.44%
El Salvador	496	7.83	71	425	2.14	14.09	0.44%
Bolivia	485	3.97	166	285	2.72	4.65	0.43%
Paraguay	472	6.96					0.42%
Uruguay	383	11.19	48	335	2.72	20.20	0.34%
Spain	325	0.68	121	204	0.50	0.88	0.29%
Italy	322	0.55	126	196	0.42	0.68	0.28%
South Korea	275	0.53	137	137	0.53		0.24%
Poland	270	0.68	91	178	0.44	0.92	0.24%
Romania	247	1.26	85	162	0.84	1.70	0.22%
Australia	218	0.83	67	154	0.51	1.18	0.19%
Israel	147	1.63	24	123	0.53	2.73	0.13%
Netherlands	142	0.81	48	94	0.54	1.08	0.13%
Bahamas	128	31.22	10	118	4.67	60.26	0.11%
Jordan	126	1.12	38	88	0.70	1.51	0.11%
Greece	117	1.13	45	72	0.85	1.42	0.1%
Sweden	116	1.10	23	93	0.44	1.75	0.1%
Belize	113	27.88	9	104	4.47	51.04	0.1%
Hungary	94	0.94	44	50	0.85	1.04	0.08%
Czech Republic	87	0.83	39	48	0.73	0.93	0.08%
Austria	79	0.88	41	38	0.90	0.86	0.07%
Bulgaria	76	1.12	29	47	0.83	1.43	0.07%
Serbia	74	1.02	20	54	0.53	1.56	0.07%
Palestine	74	1.41	7	67	0.27	2.56	0.07%
Finland	67	1.21					0.06%
Lithuania	67	2.44	29	38	1.99	2.94	0.06%
Latvia	67	3.62	40	26	4.03	3.03	0.06%
Saint Lucia	66	36.70	9	57	9.90	64.08	0.06%
Denmark	58	0.99	23	35	0.78	1.20	0.05%
Albania	47	1.65	1	46	0.07	3.24	0.04%
Suriname	45	7.28	10	35	3.22	11.38	0.04%
Ireland	44	0.88	10	34	0.39	1.37	0.04%
Switzerland	43	0.49	20	23	0.45	0.53	0.04%
Barbados	43	15.27	2	41	1.36	30.35	0.04%
Slovakia	42	0.74	17	21	0.59	0.76	0.04%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	42	40.41	5	37	9.80	69.91	0.04%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	35	1.08	12	22	0.73	1.38	0.03%
Croatia	31	0.77	14	17	0.68	0.87	0.03%
Hong Kong	30	0.40	13	17	0.32	0.49	0.03%
Norway	30	0.55	14	16	0.52	0.58	0.03%
Mauritius	29	2.23	10	19	1.52	2.97	0.03%
North Macedonia	18	0.86	3	15	0.29	1.44	0.02%
Montenegro	16	2.55	6	10	1.86	3.27	0.01%
Slovenia	13	0.61	5	8	0.47	0.75	0.01%
Oman	12	0.26	5	7	0.28	0.25	0.01%
Luxembourg	10	1.54					0.01%
Antigua and Barbuda	10	10.67	1	9	2.04	20.10	0.01%
Cyprus	8	0.64	4	4	0.64	0.64	0.01%
Singapore	7	0.12	2	5	0.07	0.16	0.01%
Macau	2	0.29	2	0	0.54	0.00	0%
South Africa						0.53	0%
Total							100%

showing: 72 rows

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Country	Total 2021	Total per 100k 2021	Males 2021	Males per 100k 2021	Females 2021	Females per 100k 2021
Afghanistan	1,613	4.02
Albania	66	2.31	54	3.79	12	0.84
Algeria	695	1.57	535	2.38	160	0.74
Andorra
Antigua and Barbuda	16	17.16	11	24.71	5	10.27
Argentina	2,094	4.62	1,786	7.97	308	1.35
Armenia	61	2.19	47	3.74	14	0.91
Australia	193	0.74	141	1.10	49	0.38
Austria	65	0.73	25	0.57	40	0.88
Azerbaijan	197	1.91	128	2.52	69	1.32
Bahamas	119	29.17	113	57.94	6	2.82
Bahrain	1	0.07	0	0	1	0.18
Barbados	32	11.38	26	19.28	6	4.10
Belgium
Belize	125	31.25	114	56.65	11	5.53
Bermuda	7	10.91
Bhutan
Bolivia	418	3.46	226	3.73	173	2.87
Bosnia and Herzegovina	32	0.98	25	1.55	7	0.42
Botswana	273	10.55			100	7.63
Brazil	45,562	21.26	41,644	39.55	3,844	3.53
Bulgaria	89	1.29	61	1.83	28	0.79
Cameroon
Canada	796	2.09	588	3.10	199	1.04
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Chile	906	4.65	816	8.43	90	0.92
China
Colombia	13,223	25.67	12,264	48.25	957	3.67
Costa Rica	588	11.41	532	20.63	56	2.17
Croatia	33	0.81	19	0.96	14	0.67
Cyprus	16	1.29	9	1.44	7	1.13
Czech Republic	47	0.45	20	0.39	27	0.51
Denmark	37	0.63	23	0.79	14	0.48
Dominica	10	13.81	8	22.20	2	5.50
Dominican Republic	1,172	10.54	1,030	18.45	142	2.57
Ecuador	2,496	14.02	2,268	25.52	227	2.55
Egypt						0.55
El Salvador	1,085	17.18	944	31.40	133	4.02
Estonia	26	1.96	22	3.49	4	0.57
Eswatini
Fiji
Finland	82	1.48
France	734	1.14	506	1.62	228	0.68
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany	695	0.83	358	0.87	337	0.80
Ghana	603	1.84	508	3.10	95	0.58
Greece	89	0.85	56	1.09	33	0.62
Grenada	5	4.01	4	6.41	1	1.61
Guatemala	3,520	19.99	2,975	34.13	545	6.13
Guyana	131	16.28	122	30.99	9	2.19
Haiti	1,489	13.01	1,381	24.34	108	1.87
Honduras	3,931	38.25	3,597	69.30	329	6.47
Hong Kong	23	0.31	11	0.32	11	0.27
Hungary	75	0.77	49	1.05	26	0.51
Iceland	2	0.54	1	0.53	1	0.55
India	41,330	2.94	24,318	3.35	17,012	2.50
Iraq	5,459	15.40	5,223	29.13	236	1.35
Ireland	23	0.46	16	0.65	7	0.28
Israel	173	1.94	146	3.29	27	0.60
Italy	303	0.51	184	0.64	119	0.39
Jamaica	1,474	52.13	1,341	95.58	133	9.34
Japan	285	0.23	151	0.25	134	0.21
Jordan	114	1.02	83	1.44	31	0.58
Kazakhstan
Kenya	2,796	5.27	2,090	7.95	706	2.64
Kosovo	33	1.99	30	3.62	3	0.36
Kuwait
Latvia	57	3.04	21	2.42	36	3.58
Lebanon
Liechtenstein	2	5.12	1	5.17	1	5.08
Lithuania	72	2.58	50	3.82	22	1.49
Luxembourg	4	0.63	5	1.53	5	1.55
Macau	3	0.44	0	0	3	0.82
Malaysia	243	0.72
Malta	2	0.38	2	0.73	0	0
Mauritania
Mauritius	34	2.62	22	3.43	12	1.82
Mexico	35,700	28.18	31,263	50.54	4,002	6.17
Moldova
Mongolia	206	6.15	163	9.81	43	2.55
Montenegro	15	2.39	13	4.25	2	0.62
Morocco	716	1.93	617	3.31	99	0.54
Myanmar	15,299	28.44	13,330	49.77	1,969	7.29
Namibia	315	12.45	226	18.51	89	6.80
Netherlands	126	0.72	88	1.01	38	0.43
Nicaragua
North Macedonia	14	0.67	11	1.05	3	0.28
Northern Ireland	21	1.10		1.28		0.93
Norway	29	0.54	13	0.48	16	0.60
Oman	11	0.24	8	0.29	3	0.17
Pakistan	9,068	3.92
Palestine	45	0.88	36	1.41	9	0.35
Panama	550	12.64	506	23.25	43	1.98
Paraguay	525	7.83	461	13.70	64	1.92
Peru
Poland	273	0.71	194	1.05	79	0.40
Portugal	82	0.80	57	1.17	25	0.46
Puerto Rico	632	19.41	595	38.69	37	2.15
Qatar	9	0.33	5	0.26	4	0.54
Romania	244	1.26	168	1.80	76	0.76
Russia	9,866	6.80	7,279	10.80	2,568	3.30
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis	14	29.41	13	56.48	1	4.07
Saint Lucia	70	38.96	62	69.71	8	8.82
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	32	30.67	32	60.14	0	0
Scotland	53	0.97		1.38		0.57
Serbia	77	1.06	50	1.43	27	0.71
Seychelles	5	4.70
Sierra Leone
Singapore	6	0.10	4	0.13	2	0.07
Slovakia	55	1.01	31	1.17	18	0.65
Slovenia	9	0.42	3	0.28	6	0.57
South Africa				0.55
South Korea	270	0.52	142		128	0.49
Spain	290	0.61	193	0.83	97	0.40
Suriname	35	5.71	28	9.17	7	2.28
Sweden	113	1.08	89	1.69	24	0.46
Switzerland	42	0.48	17	0.39	25	0.57
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Trinidad and Tobago	448	29.36
Tunisia
Turkey	2,166	2.55	1,728	4.07	438	1.04
Uganda	3,912	8.53
Ukraine	1,673	3.84
United Arab Emirates	44	0.47	34	0.52	10	0.35
United Kingdom	696	1.17	498	1.71	198	0.65
United States	22,941	6.81	17,968	10.76	4,974	2.92
Uruguay	306	8.93	266	16.03	40	2.26
Uzbekistan	479	1.41	300	1.76	179	1.05
Vanuatu
Venezuela	5,444	19.31
Zimbabwe	982	6.14	824	10.92	158	1.87

showing: 135 rows