List of countries by intentional homicide rate
The list of countries by UNODC homicide rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 100,000 individuals per year. A homicide rate of 30 (out of 100,000) corresponds to 0.03% of the population dying by homicide.[1][2][3] The reliability of underlying national murder rate data may vary.[4][5] Only UNODC-vetted data is used in the main table below.[1] In some cases it may not be as up to date as other sources. See further down as to why its data is used over other sources.
Research suggests that intentional homicide demographics are affected by changes in trauma care, leading to changed lethality of violent assaults, so the intentional homicide rate may not necessarily indicate the overall level of societal violence.[6] They may also be under-reported for political reasons.[7][8]
A study undertaken by the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development estimated that there were approximately 490,000 intentional homicides in 2004. The study estimated that the global rate was 7.6 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants for 2004.[9] UNODC calculated a rate of 6.9 in 2010.[10] UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) reported a global average intentional homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population for 2012 (in their report titled "Global Study on Homicide 2013").[11][12] In the 2019 edition, the global rate was estimated at 6.1 per 100,000 for 2017. [4]
Definition
Intentional homicide is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its Global Study on Homicide report[13] thus:
Within the broad range of violent deaths, the core element of intentional homicide is the complete liability of the direct perpetrator, which thus excludes killings directly related to war or conflicts, self-inflicted death (suicide), killings due to legal interventions or justifiable killings (such as self-defence), and those deaths caused when the perpetrator was reckless or negligent but did not intend to take a human life (non-intentional homicide).
Though some discrepancies exist in how specific categories of intentional killings are classified, the definitions used by countries to record data are generally close to the UNODC definition, making the homicide rates highly comparable at the international level.[14] UNODC uses the homicide rate as a proxy for overall violence, as this type of crime is one of the most accurately reported and internationally comparable indicators.[4]
Figures from the Global Study on Homicide are based on the UNODC Homicide Statistics dataset, which is derived from the criminal justice or public health systems of a variety of countries and territories.[4] The homicide rates derived from criminal justice data (typically recorded by police authorities) and the public health system data (recorded when the cause of death is established) may diverge substantially for some countries.[15] The two sources usually match in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, but there are large discrepancies for the three African countries reporting both sources.[16] For the 70 countries in which neither source was made available, figures were derived from WHO statistical models.[15]
Deaths resulting from an armed conflict between states are never included in the count.[17] Killings caused by a non-international armed conflict may or may not be included, depending on the intensity of hostilities and whether it is classified as 'civil unrest' or a clash between organized armed groups.[17]
UNODC's global study
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- > 20
- 15 to 20
- 10 to 14.9
- 5 to 9.9
- 1.5 to 4.9
- 1 to 1.4
- < 1
- Data unavailable
All data in this section comes from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) website.[1][2][3][4]
By region
| Region | Rate | Homicides |
|---|---|---|
| Americas | 17.2 | 173,000 |
| Africa | 13.0 | 163,000 |
| World | 6.1 | 464,000 |
| Europe | 3.0 | 22,000 |
| Oceania | 2.8 | 1,000 |
| Asia | 2.3 | 104,000 |
Rates vary widely within regions. See info on secondary sorting within regions and subregions below.
By country, region, or dependent territory
The regions and subregions in the table are based on the United Nations geoscheme since the table sources are United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports. The U.N. recognizes that variabilities in the quality and integrity of data provided by certain countries may minimize country murder rates.[18][2]
There is a total yearly count of homicides for each country. Rates are calculated per 100,000 inhabitants. When the regions or subregions are sorted the countries are also alphabetically sorted within those regions or subregions. Then shift-click rates or counts to secondarily sort countries by rates or counts within the regions or subregions previously sorted.
* (Asterisk) in Location column indicates a dedicated article about crime in the specific country or area.
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Source abbreviations explained
| Abbreviation | Source |
|---|---|
| ABSP | Anuario Brasileiro de Seguranca Publica |
| AG | Attorney General |
| CTS | United Nations Surveys on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS) |
| DATASUS | Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System |
| DMDB | European Detailed Mortality Database (DMDB) |
| DPKO | Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UN) |
| EUR | Eurostat |
| FBI | Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| GEN | User Generated |
| GEO | Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean |
| GHD | Estimate Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx, IHME) |
| GOV | Government |
| IHME | Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation |
| INTP | International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; Interpol) |
| JP | Judicial police |
| MD | World Health Organization Mortality Database |
| MNS | Ministry of National Security |
| MNTH | United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) |
| MOH | Ministry of Health |
| MOI | Ministry of Interior |
| MOJ | Ministry of Justice |
| MoS | |
| MSCO | United Nations Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo (MONUSCO) |
| NBHW | National Board of Health and Welfare |
| NCCP | National Council for Crime Prevention |
| NGO | Non-governmental Organization |
| NIFM | National Institute of Forensic Medicine |
| NP | National Police |
| NSO | National Statistical Organization |
| OAS | Organization of American States (OAS) |
| OCAVI | Observatorio Centroamericano sobre Violencia (OCAVI) |
| PAHO | Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) |
| PPR | Public Prosecution |
| RIC | Regional System of Standardized Indicators in Peaceful Coexistence and Citizen Security (IDB) |
| RSC | Research Center |
| SDG | Sustainable Development Goals |
| SES | Sistema Regional de Indicadores Estandarizados en Convivencia y Seguridad Ciudadana (SES) |
| SO | Statistical Organization |
| TSMNEE | Transformative Monitoring for Enhanced Equity (TransMonEE) |
| UNECE | United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) |
| UNMIT | United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) |
| UNMIL | United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) |
| UNODC | United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |
| UNSDC | UNODC Special Data Collection |
| VAL | Validated |
| WHO | World Health Organization (WHO) |
| WPP | World Population Prospects 2017 |
| Adjusted | Obtained based on an adjusted value from an external source |
| Attempt | Indicates that the data may include attempted homicides |
| _N | Indicates data obtained in the 2017 search for external sources |
| CTS_N | Indicates that the disaggregation was partially or completely updated with data from the CTS 2017 |
Other multi-country studies
A 2020 study by InSight Crime found that Jamaica had the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, while Venezuela had the second highest rate.[19]
See also
- Category:Homicide statistics - Homicide rate charts for countries will show up there first.
- List of cities by murder rate
- List of countries by firearm-related death rate
- List of countries by incarceration rate
- List of countries by intentional death rate – homicide plus suicide.
- List of countries by intentional homicide rate by decade
- List of countries by life expectancy
- List of countries by suicide rate
- List of Brazilian states by murder rate
- List of Brazilian federative units by homicide rate
- List of Canadian provinces and territories by homicide rate
- List of Mexican states by homicides
- List of federal subjects of Russia by murder rate
- List of U.S. states and territories by violent crime rate
- List of U.S. states and territories by intentional homicide rate
References
- "Intentional Homicide". dataunodc.un.org. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Table by country. Latest available data for some countries is for 2021. Can select for few or many countries, regions, years. You can shrink the width of the table to see all the options, and all the years you selected. To do so drag the zoom bar button at the bottom of the page. There is a dataset link to download all the data.
- "Victims of Intentional Homicide: 2018". UNODC. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Map and table of rates and counts. Pick a country (or countries) in the sidebar "Country" dropdown menu. Then pick a year (1990-2018). Click that country on the map to see a timeline graph of homicide rates. Below the map see a timeline table of the rates and counts for that country or countries. There is a "Bulk data download" link at top right (hover to see name). May need to click twice to download.
- "Homicide rate | dataUNODC". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Timeline graph of "Victims of intentional homicide 1990-2018". Can select a country and a region. Table below graph shows data 1990-2018. Download link icon below table offers multiple formats just for selected country and region. Click "bulk data download" link icon twice at top of page to get Excel file that covers years 1990-2018 for all countries.
- Global Study on Homicide 2019. Booklet 2. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). See page 11 for global rate. See page 9 about homicide rates as proxy for overall violence. See Box 1 on page 14 for criminal justice data sources versus public health sources. See figure 2 on page 14 for regional homicide rates in 2017. See figure 3 on page 16 for regional number of homicides. See page 85 about the six-booklet format of this study. Look for page numbers on the bottom of pages, and ignore the incorrect page numbers provided by your PDF reader.
- Richards, Patsy (27 May 1999). "Homicide statistics, research paper 99/56" (PDF). London, UK: House of Commons of the United Kingdom library, Social and general statistics section. See page 7 for section called "Definition of the offence of homicide". See page 29 for table of nations and homicide rates for the years 1994–97. It also has further info on how homicide is defined across countries.
- Harris, Anthony R.; Stephen H. Thomas; Gene A. Fisher; David J. Hirsch (May 2002). "Murder and medicine: the lethality of criminal assault 1960–1999". Homicide Studies. 6 (2): 128–166. doi:10.1177/1088767902006002003. From the abstract: "we assembled evidence from national data sources to show that the principal explanation of the downward trend in lethality involves parallel developments in medical technology and related medical support services that have suppressed the homicide rate compared to what it would be had such progress not been made."
- Fry, Don. (1985). Believing the news. ISBN 978-0-935742-11-4.
- Vizzard, William J. (2000). Shots in the dark. ISBN 978-0-8476-9560-7.
- Global Burden of Armed Violence Report (PDF) (report). Geneva, Switzerland: Geneva Declaration Secretariat. September 2008. pp. 67ff. ISBN 978-2-8288-0101-4.
data from 2004-2007
. The Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development. - 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends, Contexts, Data. "data from 2010 or latest available year". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Vienna, Austria.
- UNODC 2014, p. 12.
- Intentional homicide count and rate per 100,000 population, by country/territory (2000–2012). Data (in spreadsheet format) for UNODC report titled "Global Study on Homicide 2013". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Linked from Global Study on Homicide – Data: UNODC Homicide Statistics 2013
- UNODC 2014, p. 10.
- UNODC 2014, pp. 102–103.
- UNODC 2014, p. 99.
- UNODC 2014, p. 101.
- UNODC 2014, p. 104.
- UNODC 2014, pp. 7–8.
- "InSight Crime's 2020 Homicide Round-Up". January 29, 2021.
Sources
- Global Study on Homicide 2013: Trends, Contexts, Data (PDF). Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. March 2014. ISBN 9789210542050. Look for page numbers on the bottom of pages, and ignore the incorrect page numbers provided by your PDF reader.
External links
- The Homicide Monitor map. Made by Brazil-based think tank, The Igarapé Institute.