Murder Rate by Race in America 2026
Understanding the murder rate by race in the United States is one of the most critical areas of criminal justice research, one that demands careful, data-driven analysis rooted firmly in verified government sources. As of 2026, the most recent comprehensive data available comes from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WISQARS system — all of which point to a complex but measurable picture of homicide patterns across racial and ethnic groups. What the numbers reveal is not simply a story of violence, but one of long-standing structural inequalities, geographic concentrations of poverty, and community-level risk factors that cut across every demographic category in America.
The headline figure that defines the conversation in 2026 is this: homicide victimization rates in the United States vary dramatically by race, with Black Americans bearing a disproportionate burden of fatal violence relative to their share of the total population. At the same time, the overall national murder rate has been on a significant downward trajectory since its pandemic-era peak, with a 14.9% decline in murder and non-negligent manslaughter recorded in 2024 — the single largest one-year drop ever documented in the FBI’s modern reporting history. This article brings together the latest verified statistics from U.S. government sources to give readers the clearest, most factual view of murder rates by race in America in 2026.
Key Facts: Murder Rate by Race in the US 2026
The following table captures the most important verified facts drawn from official U.S. government data sources, offering a quick-reference foundation before diving into section-by-section analysis.
QUICK FACTS: Murder Rate by Race in the US (2024 Data, Latest Available)
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Fact Value
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
National murder rate (2024) 5.0 per 100,000
National murder rate decline (2023–2024) -14.9%
Black homicide victimization rate (2023) 21.3 per 100,000
White homicide victimization rate (2023) 3.2 per 100,000
Disparity ratio (Black vs. White rate) ~6.7x higher
Black murder victims in 2024 (FBI) 8,158
White murder victims in 2024 (FBI) 6,753
Black share of murder victims (2024) ~52%
Black share of U.S. population ~13%
Avg. murder occurs every (2024) 31.1 minutes
Gun homicides down (2023–2024) -16.7%
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
| Fact | Data / Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| National murder rate, 2024 | 5.0 per 100,000 inhabitants | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Year-over-year murder decline (2024) | -14.9% vs. 2023 | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Back-to-back record declines | -10% (2022–2023), then -14.9% (2023–2024) | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Black homicide victimization rate (2023) | 21.3 per 100,000 persons | BJS NIBRS 2023 |
| White homicide victimization rate (2023) | 3.2 per 100,000 persons | BJS NIBRS 2023 |
| Black-to-White victimization ratio | ~6.7 times higher | BJS 2023 |
| Black murder victims (FBI, 2024) | 8,158 | FBI UCR 2024 |
| White murder victims (FBI, 2024) | 6,753 | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Share of murder victims who are Black (2024) | ~52% | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Black share of total U.S. population | ~13% | U.S. Census Bureau |
| Murder occurs every X minutes (2024 avg.) | Every 31.1 minutes | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Gun homicide decline (2023–2024) | -16.7% | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Lowest national murder rate since | 2015 | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Black murder victims (CDC, 2023) | 12,276 | CDC WISQARS/VPC 2025 |
| Black CDC homicide rate (2023) | 26.6 per 100,000 | CDC / Violence Policy Center 2025 |
| White CDC homicide rate (2023) | 4.2 per 100,000 | CDC / Violence Policy Center 2024 |
| Adults arrested for murder who are Black (2024) | 51.3% | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Adults arrested for murder who are White (2024) | 45.7% | FBI UCR 2024 |
| Black male homicide rate (2023) | 46.1 per 100,000 | CDC / VPC 2025 |
| White male homicide rate (2023) | 5.7 per 100,000 | CDC / VPC 2025 |
Data Sources: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program 2024; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Victimization in the United States 2023 (May 2025); CDC WISQARS / Violence Policy Center, Black Homicide Victimization in the United States (July 2025)
The numbers in the table above paint a picture that is both stark and nuanced. Black Americans, who represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population, accounted for roughly 52% of all murder victims reported by the FBI in 2024. At the same time, the overall national murder rate has hit its lowest point since 2015, standing at 5.0 per 100,000 inhabitants — a result of two back-to-back historic declines following the pandemic surge of 2020–2021. The 6.7x disparity between Black and White homicide victimization rates is not a new development; it reflects decades of concentrated disadvantage, under-resourced communities, and limited access to economic mobility. These are patterns that federal agencies including the BJS and CDC have consistently documented, and they remain the central data story in any honest review of murder rates by race in America in 2026.
Murder Victims by Race in the US 2026 | FBI Data
MURDER VICTIMS BY RACE — FBI UCR 2024
(Victims with known race)
Black ████████████████████████████████████ 8,158 (~52%)
White ██████████████████████████████ 6,753 (~43%)
Other Race ████ 464 ( ~3%)
Unknown Race ████ 420 ( ~3%)
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000
| Race | Murder Victims (FBI 2024) | % of Known-Race Victims | Approx. US Population Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black / African American | 8,158 | ~52% | ~13% |
| White | 6,753 | ~43% | ~59% |
| Other Race | 464 | ~3% | ~6% |
| Unknown Race | 420 | — | — |
| Total | 15,795 | 100% | — |
Data Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime in the United States 2024 (Released August 2025)
The FBI’s 2024 expanded homicide data, released in August 2025, confirms what has been a persistent pattern across multiple years: Black Americans account for more than half of all murder victims in the United States despite representing only about 13% of the total population. With 8,158 Black murder victims and 6,753 White murder victims recorded in 2024, the raw numerical gap between the two groups is significant — but it is the per-capita rate, not the raw count, that truly captures the scale of the disparity. White Americans, who make up nearly 59% of the U.S. population, produced fewer total victims than Black Americans at just 43% of the victim pool. This inversion — where a majority-population group represents a minority share of victims — is a defining statistical feature of U.S. murder data by race and has remained remarkably consistent across years of FBI reporting.
What the raw numbers alone don’t reveal is the human geography behind them. The majority of homicide incidents are intraracial — meaning victims and offenders typically share the same racial background and often know each other. According to BJS data for 2023, 78.2% of Black homicide victims were killed by someone they knew, reinforcing that these are not random stranger-danger crimes but events rooted in community conditions, interpersonal conflict, and localized factors. This context is essential for anyone reading murder rate statistics by race in America and seeking to understand cause rather than simply record effect.
Murder Rate Per 100,000 by Race in the US 2026 | BJS Data
HOMICIDE VICTIMIZATION RATE PER 100,000 PERSONS — BJS 2023
Black ████████████████████████████████████████████ 21.3
Hispanic ████████ ~6.1 (est.)
National Avg █████ 5.9
White ██ 3.2
Asian █ ~1.6 (est.)
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 5 10 15 20 25
Rate per 100,000 persons
| Race / Group | Homicide Rate per 100,000 (2023) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Black / African American | 21.3 | BJS NIBRS Estimation Program, 2023 |
| National Average | 5.9 | BJS Homicide Victimization Report, May 2025 |
| Hispanic / Latino | ~6.1 (est.) | BJS / CDC NVSS cross-reference |
| White (non-Hispanic) | 3.2 | BJS NIBRS Estimation Program, 2023 |
| Asian / Pacific Islander | ~1.6 (est.) | CDC WISQARS provisional data |
| American Indian / Alaska Native | Elevated; significant county-level variation | JAMA Network Open, GBD Study 2025 |
Data Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023 (NCJ 309889, May 2025); CDC WISQARS Fatal Injury Data; JAMA Network Open, GBD US Health Disparities Study (February 2025)
The per-capita murder rate is the most meaningful number for comparing homicide risk by race in the US. At 21.3 per 100,000, the Black homicide victimization rate in 2023 was more than 6.6 times the rate for White Americans at 3.2 per 100,000, and more than 3.6 times the national average of 5.9 per 100,000, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ definitive May 2025 report. This is not a new gap — the BJS has tracked this disparity for decades — but its persistence even as overall murder rates decline is significant. Hispanic Americans face a rate estimated around 6.1 per 100,000, placing them above the White rate but well below the Black rate. Asian Americans remain the group with the lowest murder victimization rate in the country, estimated at roughly 1.6 per 100,000, while American Indian and Alaska Native populations face significant county-level variation that, in certain states and regions, reaches rates comparable to or exceeding those seen in Black communities, according to a major 2025 peer-reviewed study published in JAMA Network Open.
These per-capita figures are critical because they strip away the distortion created by raw numbers. White Americans produce a large number of total victims simply because they represent the largest population group. But when corrected for population size, the risk of being murdered is dramatically and persistently higher for Black Americans, and to a lesser but still notable degree for Hispanic and American Indian communities. The BJS Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023 report — published May 2025 — is the most recent, most authoritative federal publication on this topic, and its findings reinforce a consistent pattern that demands both honest acknowledgment and serious policy attention.
Murder Rate Trend by Year in the US 2026 | Historical Comparison
NATIONAL MURDER RATE TREND — Per 100,000 Inhabitants (2014–2024)
2014 ████████████████████████ 4.5 (historic low)
2015 █████████████████████████ 4.9
2016 ██████████████████████████████ 5.4
2017 █████████████████████████████ 5.3
2018 █████████████████████████████ 5.0
2019 █████████████████████████████ 5.0
2020 ███████████████████████████████████ 6.5 (+30%, pandemic spike)
2021 ████████████████████████████████████ 6.8 (peak)
2022 ██████████████████████████████████ 6.3 (-9%)
2023 ████████████████████████████ 5.7 (-10%)
2024 ██████████████████████████ 5.0 (-14.9%, record decline)
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 2 4 6 7
Rate per 100,000 inhabitants — Source: FBI UCR Program
| Year | National Murder Rate (per 100,000) | Year-over-Year Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 4.5 | — (Historic low) |
| 2019 | 5.0 | Baseline pre-pandemic |
| 2020 | 6.5 | +30% (largest spike since 1960) |
| 2021 | 6.8 | +4.6% (pandemic peak) |
| 2022 | 6.3 | -9% |
| 2023 | 5.7 | -10% |
| 2024 | 5.0 | -14.9% (record single-year decline) |
Data Source: FBI UCR Program, Reported Crimes in the Nation 2024 (August 2025); Council on Criminal Justice, Trends in Homicide Report (2025)
The decade-long trend in U.S. murder rates tells a turbulent story. After reaching a modern historic low of 4.5 per 100,000 in 2014, the national rate climbed steadily and then exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, surging 30% from 2019 to 2020 — the largest single-year increase since 1960, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. By 2021, the rate peaked at an estimated 6.8 per 100,000, driven almost entirely by a surge in gun homicides. The subsequent recovery has been dramatic: three consecutive years of decline from 2022 through 2024 have brought the rate back down to 5.0 per 100,000 — equal to the 2014 historic low. The 14.9% decline in 2024, confirmed by the FBI in August 2025, is the single largest one-year drop ever recorded in the agency’s modern reporting history, eclipsing even the 10% decline of 2023.
What makes this trend especially important in the context of murder rates by race is that the pandemic spike was not evenly distributed. Black Americans experienced particularly severe increases between 2019 and 2021, with CDC data showing Black victimization rates climbing by more than 30% from pre-pandemic levels before beginning to recede in 2022. While homicide rates remained relatively stable for White males between 2018 and 2023, Black males saw dramatic increases in that same window — increases that, even after the recent declines, have left the 2023 Black homicide rate roughly 25% above its 2018 level. The recovery is real, but the racial starting point matters: the baseline from which Black Americans are recovering was already far higher than that of any other demographic group.
Murder Offenders by Race in the US 2026 | Arrest Data
MURDER ARREST SHARES BY RACE — FBI UCR 2024
Black / African American █████████████████████████████ 51.3%
White ████████████████████████████ 45.7%
Other Races ██ 3.0%
└──────────────────────────────────────
0% 20% 40% 60%
Share of adult murder arrests — FBI 2024
| Race | % of Adult Murder Arrests (2024) | % of US Population |
|---|---|---|
| Black / African American | 51.3% | ~13% |
| White | 45.7% | ~59% |
| Other Races | 3.0% | ~6% |
Data Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program 2024; U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates
Arrest data on murder offenders provides a different but complementary angle to victimization statistics in the study of murder rates by race in the US 2026. According to the FBI’s 2024 UCR data, 51.3% of adults arrested for murder were Black or African American, while 45.7% were White, and the remaining 3.0% were of other racial categories. Contextualizing these figures against population shares is essential: Black Americans, at roughly 13% of the U.S. population, account for a disproportionately large share of both murder victims and murder arrests, reflecting the intraracial nature of most homicides in America — where victims and offenders share the same demographic community. For context, when examining murder offender data from 2023 reported by Statista using FBI figures, there were 8,842 White murder offenders and 6,405 Black murder offenders in the raw count — but population-adjusted, the per-capita offending rate for Black Americans remains significantly elevated, consistent with victimization patterns.
It is critically important to interpret arrest data carefully. Arrest figures reflect law enforcement activity and reporting, not convictions, and are subject to gaps in agency participation and systemic biases in policing that researchers have documented extensively. The FBI’s own reports note that not all agencies submitted complete data, and the transition to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has created some year-to-year comparability challenges. Still, the broad pattern in arrest data has remained consistent across many years of reporting: both the victims and the arrested offenders in U.S. homicide cases are disproportionately Black, which is consistent with what criminologists refer to as the intraracial nature of homicide — one of the most robustly documented findings in American criminal justice research.
Firearm Homicide Rate by Race in the US 2026 | Gun Violence Data
FIREARM HOMICIDE RATE BY RACE — CDC NVSS (Most Recent Available Data)
Black male ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 46.1/100k (2023)
Hispanic male ██████████████ ~14/100k (est.)
National male ████████████ 11.3/100k (2023)
White male ██████ 5.7/100k (2023)
Asian male █ ~1.5/100k (est.)
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 10 20 30 40 50
Rate per 100,000 — CDC / Violence Policy Center 2025
| Group | Homicide Rate per 100,000 (2023) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Black male | 46.1 | More than 4x the overall male rate |
| Overall male average | 11.3 | National male homicide rate |
| White male | 5.7 | Reference group |
| Black female | ~7.5 (CDC 2021 gun homicide) | Highest among females |
| Asian male | ~1.5 | Lowest recorded rate |
| Asian female | ~0.5 | Lowest recorded rate |
Data Source: Violence Policy Center, Black Homicide Victimization in the United States (July 2025); CDC National Vital Statistics System Mortality Data 2023; CDC MMWR, Firearm Homicide by Race/Ethnicity (2023)
When it comes to firearm homicides by race in the US, the data is even more striking at the gender-specific level. The Black male homicide rate of 46.1 per 100,000 in 2023 is more than four times the overall male homicide rate of 11.3 per 100,000 and more than eight times the White male rate of 5.7 per 100,000, according to CDC mortality data analyzed by the Violence Policy Center in their July 2025 report. Guns are the overwhelming weapon of choice in U.S. homicides, with over 73% of all murders in the FBI’s dataset involving a firearm. The 16.7% decline in gun homicides from 2023 to 2024, confirmed by the FBI in August 2025, is the steepest single-year drop in firearm-related murder on record — a sign that whatever forces are reducing overall homicides are especially impacting the most common method of killing.
Asian Americans, by contrast, consistently record the lowest firearm homicide rates in the country. CDC data shows Asian males at approximately 1.5 per 100,000 and Asian females at approximately 0.5 per 100,000, making the demographic gap between Black and Asian Americans among the widest of any two racial groups on any public health metric in the United States. Researchers point to a combination of socioeconomic factors, residential segregation patterns, gun density in communities, and the availability of conflict-resolution resources as key variables that explain the divergence — underscoring that murder rates by race in America are not the product of racial characteristics but of racialized conditions into which different communities have been placed over generations.
Murder Rate by State and Race in the US 2026 | Regional Data
STATES WITH HIGHEST MURDER RATES — Per 100,000 Inhabitants (2024 Data)
Louisiana ████████████████████████████████████████ 15.8
Mississippi ████████████████████████████████████ 14.6
Alabama ████████████████████████████████ 13.2
Arkansas ██████████████████████████████ 12.7
Missouri █████████████████████████████ 12.2
Tennessee █████████████████████████████ 12.0
Maryland ████████████████████████ 10.9
National Avg ████████████ 5.0
New Hampshire ██ 1.2 (lowest)
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0 4 8 12 16
Rate per 100,000 — FBI UCR / State Reports 2024
| State | Murder Rate per 100,000 (2024) | Notable Demographic Context |
|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | 15.8 | Highest in the nation; Black Americans ~33% of population |
| Mississippi | ~14.6 | Predominantly rural high-risk regions |
| Alabama | ~13.2 | High concentration of underserved urban areas |
| Arkansas | ~12.7 | Significant poverty-driven risk factors |
| Missouri | ~12.2 | St. Louis among top-5 most dangerous cities |
| Tennessee | ~12.0 | Memphis homicide rate among highest nationally |
| National Average | 5.0 | FBI UCR 2024 |
| New Hampshire | ~1.2 | Consistently among the nation’s safest states |
Data Source: FBI UCR Program State-Level Data 2024; Southern states reporting consistent with prior-year patterns confirmed through cross-reference with state DOJ publications
The geography of murder rates in the US by race is inseparable from the geography of poverty, segregation, and historical disinvestment. Southern states — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee — consistently record the highest murder rates in the nation, ranging from roughly 12 to nearly 16 per 100,000. Louisiana leads every state with a rate of 15.8 per 100,000, and in states like Louisiana where Black Americans represent approximately 33% of the population, the compounding effect of elevated homicide rates and demographic concentration means that the actual risk per Black resident is dramatically higher than even these statewide averages suggest. Detroit, Michigan offers another stark urban example: with roughly 49 murders per 100,000 residents, the city’s homicide rate is nearly ten times the national average, in a city where Black Americans make up approximately 78% of the population and 78% of arrests — a near-perfect demographic mirror.
New England and parts of the Upper Midwest tell a very different story, with states like New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont recording murder rates below 2.0 per 100,000 — among the lowest in the country and well below even the pre-pandemic national historic low of 4.5 per 100,000 in 2014. These states have smaller Black and Hispanic populations and different economic histories, which researchers at institutions including the Council on Criminal Justice have pointed to as evidence that race itself is not the causal driver of elevated murder rates — rather, the conditions that have been historically imposed on and concentrated within communities of color are the operative factors. The state-level data reinforces a consistent finding: where poverty, segregation, and under-investment are highest, murder rates are highest — and in America, those conditions fall disproportionately along racial lines.
Murder Clearance Rates by Race in the US 2026
HOMICIDE CLEARANCE RATE BY VICTIM RACE — United States 2023
Asian American ████████████████████████████████████████████ 75%
White ████████████████████████████████████ 68%
Hispanic ████████████████████████████████ 64%
National Avg ████████████████████████████████ 63%
Black ██████████████████████████████ 58%
└───────────────────────────────────────────────
0% 20% 40% 60% 70% 80%
Share of homicide cases cleared — FBI / CSG Justice Center
| Victim Race / Group | Approximate Clearance Rate (2023) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Asian American | ~75% | Highest clearance rate nationally |
| White | ~68% | Above national average |
| Hispanic | ~64% | Near national average |
| National Average | ~63% | FBI UCR data |
| Black / African American | ~58% | Below national average |
Data Source: CSG Justice Center, Justice Data Snapshots — U.S. National Data (2025); FBI UCR Clearance Data 2023
One of the most underreported dimensions of murder statistics by race in the US is the significant disparity in clearance rates — the percentage of homicide cases that result in an arrest or closure. According to the CSG Justice Center’s 2025 Justice Data Snapshots, homicides of Black victims were almost twice as likely to go unsolved in 2023 as homicides of White victims. The approximate clearance rate for Asian American homicide cases is the highest nationally at around 75%, followed by White victims at approximately 68%. Black homicide cases clear at roughly 58% — a gap that means thousands of murders of Black Americans go without justice every year. This disparity in clearance rates has profound implications for community trust in law enforcement, the deterrent effect of policing, and the cycle of violence in high-homicide neighborhoods.
The reasons behind this clearance gap are complex and much-debated. Research points to several contributing factors: in high-crime, predominantly Black neighborhoods, witness cooperation with police is often limited due to historical mistrust of law enforcement; investigative resources are not always proportionally deployed relative to the volume of cases in those areas; and the sheer volume of homicides in some urban precincts overwhelms investigative capacity. The CSG Justice Center data, drawn from FBI agency-reported figures covering agencies with five or more reported homicides in 2023, underscores that the problem of unsolved Black homicides is not just a tragedy for individual families — it is a systemic failure that affects public safety in entire communities. Higher solve rates correlate with lower future homicide rates, making clearance equity one of the most important and under-funded areas of violence reduction policy in the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions: Murder Rate by Race in the US 2026
Q: What is the most recent murder rate by race data available in 2026? The most recent confirmed data comes from the FBI’s Reported Crimes in the Nation, 2024 (released August 2025) for raw victim counts and arrest data, and the BJS’s Homicide Victimization in the United States, 2023 (released May 2025) for per-capita victimization rates by race.
Q: What is the Black murder victimization rate in the US? According to BJS data for 2023, the Black homicide victimization rate was 21.3 per 100,000 persons — more than 6.6 times the White rate of 3.2 per 100,000. CDC mortality data for the same year places the broader Black homicide rate (including all homicide types) at 26.6 per 100,000, reflecting a slightly different methodology.
Q: Has the murder rate by race improved recently? Yes. The national murder rate fell 14.9% in 2024 — the largest single-year decline ever recorded — following a 10% drop in 2023. Both Black and White murder victim counts have declined. In 2023, the FBI reported 9,284 Black murder victims; by 2024, that had dropped to 8,158 — a meaningful reduction, though racial disparities in per-capita rates remain persistently wide.
Q: Are murder rates higher for Black males specifically? Dramatically so. CDC data for 2023 shows the Black male homicide rate at 46.1 per 100,000 — more than eight times the White male rate of 5.7 per 100,000 and more than four times the overall national male average of 11.3 per 100,000.
Q: What percentage of US murders involve Black victims? In 2024, Black Americans represented approximately 52% of murder victims despite being roughly 13% of the U.S. population, according to FBI UCR data released in August 2025.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
