How Homicide Rates by U.S. State Have Changed Since 2012

Visual Capitalist

Published

7 seconds ago

on

June 7, 2024 Article/Editing:

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

How Homicide Rates by State Have Changed Since 2012

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Are the United States getting more dangerous or more safe? The answer partially depends on your metric of choice.

For example, by examining homicide rates by state from 2012 to 2022, it can be seen that rates have increased almost across the board. That said, they are still lower than rates seen in the 1980s and 1990s.

This graphic from USAFacts examines the age-adjusted homicide rates by state from 2012 to 2022, and how they’ve changed. It uses CDC data available for 46 states, with no data available for New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.

Comparing States by Homicide Rates

From 2012 to 2022, homicide rates increased in every state with available data except for Connecticut, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Here are the rates for all 46 available states as well as their 10-year change in percentage:

StateHomicide rate
(2022, age-adjusted per 100,000)10-Year Change
(2012–2022) Mississippi20.7+103% Louisiana19.8+64% Alabama14.9+71% New Mexico14.5+120% Missouri12.8+75% Arkansas11.8+39% South Carolina11.8+44% Maryland11.4+61% Georgia11.3+74% Tennessee11.0+49% Illinois10.9+68% Alaska10.2+104% North Carolina9.2+56% Arizona9.0+45% Pennsylvania8.9+53% Michigan8.6+10% Ohio8.5+49% Indiana8.4+53% Kentucky8.3+48% Oklahoma8.3+14% Nevada7.8+73% Virginia7.8+90% Texas7.6+49% Colorado7.2+85% Florida7.2+11% Delaware7.0+1% South Dakota6.9+188% West Virginia6.2+5% Wisconsin6.0+71% California5.9+13% Kansas5.8+53% Montana5.4+125% Washington5.4+64% Oregon5.1+82% New York4.5+22% Connecticut4.3-2.3% Minnesota3.8+90% New Jersey3.8-20.8% Nebraska3.7+6% Hawaii3.0+100% Iowa2.9+38% Idaho2.7+23% Maine2.6+8% Massachusetts2.5+25% Utah2.2+29% Rhode Island2.0-33.3%
Note: Age-adjusted data helps to compare health data over time or between groups more fairly by accounting for the age differences in populations.

Mississippi had the largest increase in homicide rate,

The full article is available here. This article was published at Visual Capitalist.