Which states in the US have the highest homicide rate?

Like this map and want to support Landgeist? The best way to support Landgeist, is by sharing this map. When you share this map, make sure that you credit Landgeist and link to the source article. If you share it on Instagram, just tag @Land_geist. On X / Twitter tag @Landgeist.

Of all crime statistics, the homicide rate is considered to be one of the most reliable ones. Unlike other crimes, homicides (almost) always get reported to the police, whereas robbery and theft might be under-reported due to people not bothering to report it.

The numbers on this map represent the age-standardised homicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants. We can see that for most of the states, the rate is between 5.0 and 10.0. The lowest rates can be found in New England, especially Maine (1.6), New Hampshire (<0.1) and Vermont (<0.1). The northern/north-western states also have a relatively low rate.

Louisiana (19.9) and Alabama (20.5) have by far the highest homicide rates. The only states where the rate is over 15.0. The other states in the Deep South also have a fairly high homicide rate. most of them have a rate over 10.0.

Recently, we looked at the homicide rate in Europe. Latvia has the highest homicide rate in Europe, with 3.32 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. That’s similar to the homicide rate in Hawaii. Only 7 US states have a lower homicide rate than the highest rate in Europe: New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Idaho, Massachusetts, Utah and Rhode Island.