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 2023, 458,000 people were victims of homicide in 2021—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, as the report states, "Between 2015 and 2021, organized-crime related homicides killed almost as many people as armed conflicts, with about 100,000 victims annually for both categories."

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	36.7
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 Ecuador (27), Honduras (36.7), and Jamaica (53.3) posting murder rates up to 9 times higher than the global average. The South American countries Mexico (26.1), Colombia (25.38), and Haiti (18) followed closely 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:

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.

Country	Total per 100k 2022
Singapore	0.12
Oman	0.26
Macau	0.29
Hong Kong	0.4
Switzerland	0.49
South Korea	0.53
Italy	0.55
Norway	0.55
Slovenia	0.61
Cyprus	0.64

72 countries

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	3.1	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	8.7	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	11.5	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	20.2	0.34%
Spain	325	0.68	121	204	0.5	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	1.7	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	0.7	1.51	0.11%
Greece	117	1.13	45	72	0.85	1.42	0.1%
Sweden	116	1.1	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	0.9	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	36.7	9	57	9.9	64.08	0.06%
Denmark	58	0.99	23	35	0.78	1.2	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	9.8	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	0.4	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	20.1	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		0.54		0%
South Africa						0.53	-
Total							100%

135 Rows

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